Examining Development and Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Processing: An ERP Investigation

成人第二语言习得中的主要问题是探索学习者为语言学习的初始任务带来了什么能力，第二语言如何随着时间的推移而发展，以及是否有可能达到母语水平。最近，这些问题已经从神经语言学的角度来解决，允许细粒度的表征过程中的第二语言学习者的在线理解。一些高水平的后期学习者的研究报告的母语一样的句法处理效果，但我们仍然有一点了解的限制母语一样的成绩，因为许多这些研究调查的属性是相似的第一和第二语言。此外，对极早期学习者的研究表明，母语和目标语之间的相似性调节了类母语效应的出现，但我们仍然不太清楚是形态句法特征库存的相似性还是促进习得的给定形态句法特征在表层形态中实现的方式的相似性。本项目针对这些悬而未决的问题，利用事件相关电位（ERP），以检查处理的性别和数量协议的英语为母语的西班牙语成人学习者。第一项研究考察了三个熟练程度的学习者，调查母语的作用和在不同发展阶段的一致性元素之间的结构距离的作用，并研究当第一和第二语言的属性不同时，是否有可能获得类似母语的成绩。第二，纵向研究，跟踪学生注册在他们的第一年的西班牙语，以检查在三个不同点的大脑反应的发展变化。本研究探讨了学习者在早期阶段是否对协议异常敏感，并考察了这种敏感性在多大程度上受到母语属性和协议元素之间的结构距离的调制。在采用横截面和纵向的方法，该项目研究了两个本地一样的成绩和神经生理学的影响出现在发展过程中的限制，关键是调查什么因素影响整个收购的发展。因此，这项研究将揭示成人第二语言习得的发展过程，并将引入一个新的框架，用于调查第二语言的组成部分，这些组成部分在不同的学习阶段中面临最大的挑战，为成人学习者提供教学方法。此外，调查成人第二语言习得的性质和范围提供了一个高度约束的，假设驱动的测试案例，探索在成年认知系统的重组。因此，这种研究第二语言习得的方法将为更广泛地了解大脑可塑性的本质提供新的见解。该项目还将在第二语言习得和神经语言学领域培养下一代语言学本科生和研究生。

The leading questions in adult second language acquisition explore what capacities the learner brings to the initial task of language learning, how the second language develops over time, and whether native-like attainment is possible. Recently these questions have been addressed from the perspective of neurolinguistics, allowing a fine-grained characterization of the processes underlying online comprehension in second language learners. Several studies of high-proficiency late learners have reported native-like effects for syntactic processing but we still have little understanding of the constraints on native-like attainment, as many of these studies have investigated properties that are similar in the first and second languages. In addition, studies of very early learners have shown that similarity between the native and target language modulates the emergence of native-like effects, but we still have little understanding of whether it is similarity in the inventory of morphosyntactic features or similarity in the way in which a given morphosyntactic feature is realized in the surface morphology that facilitates acquisition. The present project addresses these outstanding issues, utilizing event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the processing of gender and number agreement by English-speaking adult learners of Spanish. The first study examines learners at three proficiency levels, investigating both the role of the native language and the role of structural distance between the agreeing elements at different stages of development and examining whether or not native-like attainment is possible when properties differ in the first and second language. The second, longitudinal study, tracks students enrolled in their first year of Spanish in order to examine developmental changes in brain responses at three different points. This study investigates whether learners are sensitive to agreement anomalies at early stages and examines to what extent this sensitivity is modulated by the properties of the native language and the structural distance between the agreeing elements. In adopting both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal approach, the project examines both the constraints on native-like attainment and the way neurophysiological effects emerge during development, crucially investigating what factors affect development throughout acquisition. The study will thus shed light on the developmental process of adult second language acquisition and will introduce a new framework for investigating the components of the second language that present the biggest challenge throughout different stages of learning, informing pedagogical approaches for adult learners. Furthermore, investigating the nature and scope of adult second language acquisition provides a highly-constrained, hypothesis-driven test case for probing the reorganization of a cognitive system in adulthood. Thus, this approach to examining second language acquisition will provide new insights regarding the nature of brain plasticity more broadly. The project will also serve to train the next generation of linguistics undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of second language acquisition and neurolinguistics.