Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Early Exposure and Language Dominance on Bilingualism

本论文将调查传统语言使用者的双语能力，以确定时间和经验在双语语言发展中的相对重要性。传承（韩国语）和主导（英语）两种语言特征将被考察，包括实时处理词汇的能力、发现语法错误的能力、区分相似但不同的语音的能力。主要目标是消除早期接触（韩语）和输入优势（英语）对早期双语能力的贡献。第二个目标是确定哪些语言领域最容易受到语言丧失/不完全习得的影响，以及哪些因素有助于平衡语言能力的发展。词汇实验旨在确定在成人第二语言学习者中观察到的不对称隐性启动效应（仅限L1-L2）是否在传统语言使用者中被复制。采用语法性判断任务来检验传统说话者是否解决了位置交替和量词浮动习得中的可学习性问题（Pinker, 1989）。语言感知实验将测试韩国人很难分辨的/sta~suta/对比音和母语为英语的人很难分辨的韩语对比音（/s~ss/）的能力。除了实验数据外，还将收集个人资料和能力测试结果。这些集体发现应该对该领域做出一些重要的智力和社会贡献。在智力上，它将有助于消除早期经验和语言优势的影响，这两者在以前的研究中经常被混淆。从社会角度来看，这些数据对于那些努力理解传统语言发展的教师和家长以及那些想帮助移民发展英语和维护传统语言的人来说是无价的。其他社会科学家、教育工作者、家长和政策制定者也将受益于本论文的研究成果，因为研究结果可以为美国的普通双语教育提供信息

This dissertation research will investigate the bilingual abilities of heritage language speakers, in order to determine the relative importance of timing and experience in bilingual language development. Both heritage (Korean) and dominant (English) language features will be examined, including the ability to process vocabulary in real-time, detect grammatical errors, and distinguish similar but different speech sounds. The primary goal is to disambiguate the contributions of early exposure (to Korean) and input dominance (of English) to early bilingual competence. A secondary goal is to identify which linguistic domains are most vulnerable to language loss/incomplete acquisition, as well as which factors contribute to the development of balanced language proficiency. The vocabulary experiment is designed to determine whether the asymmetric masked priming effect (L1-L2 only) observed in adult second language learners is replicated by heritage speakers. A grammaticality judgment task is employed to examine whether heritage speakers resolve the learnability problem (Pinker, 1989) in the acquisition of locative alternation and quantifier float. The speech perception experiment will test the ability to distinguish the /sta~suta/ contrast, something difficult for Koreans, as well as Korean contrasts that are difficult for English native-speakers (/s~ss/). In addition to experimental data, biographical information and proficiency test results will be collected. The collective findings should make several important intellectual and social contributions to the field. Intellectually, it will help disambiguate the effects of early experience and language dominance, both of which have often been confounded in previous studies. Socially, such data are invaluable for teachers and parents who might be struggling to understand heritage language development and who want to help immigrants with English language development and heritage language maintenance. Other social scientists, educators, parents, and policymakers will also benefit from the research findings of this dissertation as the results can inform general bilingual education in the U.S.