Language and Conceptual Processing in Bilinguals

双语者的语言和概念处理

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-03961
• 负责人: Jared, Debra
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=682509
• 关键词: Language; Conceptual; Processing; Bilinguals

My program of research investigates cognitive aspects of bilingual language processing. The goal is to understand how bilinguals represent, process, and learn their two languages. Bilingualism is a highly relevant topic to Canadian society. We are an officially English-French bilingual country, but we also have many citizens (20% in the 2011 census) whose mother tongue is neither English nor French, especially in our largest cities. One of the biggest challenges facing most of our newest residents is to learn English or French so that they can function in their new communities. Because of the prevalence and importance of bilingualism in Canada, it is essential that we understand what is happening in the mind of the bilingual as they speak and read in each of their languages, and understand the factors related to the ability to successfully communicate in more than one language.*** Specifically, my research will address three topics in bilingualism. One series of studies will investigate word reading. The aim of the research is to understand how a bilingual's first language influences their reading in a second language and vice versa. A second series of studies will examine how a bilingual understands the meanings of pairs of words that are translations of each other but not entirely equivalent in meaning. These subtle differences across languages pose a challenge to learners of a second language and to translation computer programs. The third series of studies will investigate whether success at learning a new language is predicted by an individual's statistical learning ability. There are large individual differences in second language learning outcomes, but the source of these differences has been elusive. A recent proposal is that that a person's general capacity to pick up on statistical structure in the environment is related to second language learning, but it has not yet been well tested. *** The research will involve not only English-French bilinguals, but also individuals who know English and one of several other languages. The goal is to extend our understanding of bilingualism, which now is based primarily on individuals who know English and one of a small number of Western European languages, to individuals whose languages differ in the writing system that they use, and to languages that are associated with different cultural contexts. This will help ensure that our theories of bilingual language processing capture the important characteristics of all bilinguals. The work will use state of the art methods in the study of language processing, including eye tracking and event-related potentials. The research program will provide a better understanding of the challenges associated with learning and using two languages, and the factors related to success.

我的研究项目是调查双语语言处理的认知方面。我们的目标是了解双语者如何表达、处理和学习他们的两种语言。双语是一个与加拿大社会高度相关的话题。我们是一个官方的英法双语国家，但我们也有许多公民（2011年人口普查中有20%）的母语既不是英语也不是法语，特别是在我们的大城市。我们的大多数新居民面临的最大挑战之一是学习英语或法语，以便他们能够在新的社区中发挥作用。由于双语在加拿大的普及和重要性，我们有必要了解双语者在用每种语言说话和阅读时的想法，并了解与成功使用多种语言沟通能力相关的因素。具体来说，我的研究将涉及三个双语主题。一系列的研究将调查单词阅读。这项研究的目的是了解双语者的母语如何影响他们的第二语言阅读，反之亦然。第二个系列的研究将考察双语者如何理解相互翻译但意义不完全相同的成对单词的含义。这些细微的语言差异给第二语言学习者和翻译计算机程序带来了挑战。第三个系列的研究将调查是否成功学习一门新语言是由个人的统计学习能力预测的。第二语言学习结果存在很大的个体差异，但这些差异的来源一直难以捉摸。最近的一项建议是，一个人在环境中获取统计结构的一般能力与第二语言学习有关，但尚未得到充分的测试。这项研究不仅涉及英法双语者，还包括懂英语和其他几种语言中的一种的人。我们的目标是扩展我们对双语的理解，现在的双语主要是基于懂英语和少数西欧语言之一的人，以及那些使用不同语言的人，他们使用不同的书写系统，以及与不同文化背景相关的语言。这将有助于确保我们的双语语言处理理论捕捉到所有双语者的重要特征。这项工作将使用语言处理研究中最先进的方法，包括眼动追踪和事件相关电位。这个研究项目将提供一个更好的理解与学习和使用两种语言相关的挑战，以及与成功相关的因素。