Doctoral Dissertation Research: Processing of L2-specific multi-word units and the impact on representation and generalization: an ERP study

在2017年关于美国语言的报告中，美国艺术与科学学院的语言学习委员会推荐了一项国家战略，以改善每个地区、种族和社会经济背景的人获得尽可能多的语言的机会……将语言教育视为一种持久的国家需求，类似于数学或英语教育，并确保每个学生都能达到有用的熟练程度。https://www.amacad.org/content/publications/pubContent.aspx?d=22478).本论文是朝着开始回应这一呼唤迈出的一步。成人第二语言学习者通常能够在一定程度上运用一门外语，但母语在第二语言学习和使用过程中的影响被认为会对熟练程度产生负面影响。第二语言学习者经常经历这样的挫折：试图记住最近学到的第二语言单词，但却只能检索到母语单词。因此，一个重要的目标是学会调节来自母语的干扰，以达到更高的第二语言熟练程度。这个项目建议调查这是如何可能的。学习西班牙语的英语使用者的大脑电生理活动将在学习新单词组合的过程中进行测量，例如“Despertar Dudas”。这个搭配在字面上翻译为“唤醒怀疑”，但在英语中用短语“提出怀疑”来表达。使用像“Despertar Dudas”这样的单词组合时，需要剔除英文翻译中的等同于“Raise Disk”的单词。这项研究项目将检查在需要忽略母语干扰的条件下与学习相关的大脑活动，以检查当学习者接触到新的输入时，它们是否会导致更好的学习和概括。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In their 2017 report on America's languages, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' Commission on Language Learning recommends "a national strategy to improve access to as many languages as possible for people of every region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background...to value language education as a persistent national need similar to education in math or English, and to ensure that a useful level of proficiency is within every student's reach" https://www.amacad.org/content/publications/pubContent.aspx?d=22478). This dissertation is a step towards beginning to answer this call. Adult second language learners are often able to function at some level in a foreign language, but the influence of the native language during second language learning and use is known to negatively affect proficiency levels. Second language learners often experience the frustration of trying to remember a recently learned word in a second language, but only being able to retrieve the word in the native language. An important goal, then, is to learn to regulate interference from the native language to achieve higher proficiency in a second language. This project proposes to investigate how this might be possible. The electrophysiological brain activity of English speakers who are learning Spanish will be measured during the learning of new word combinations, for example, "despertar dudas." This collocation literally translates as "awaken doubts" but is expressed in English with the phrase "raise doubts". Using a word combination like "despertar dudas" requires the suppression of the English translation equivalent "raise doubts". This research project will examine the brain activity associated with learning in conditions that require ignoring interference from the native language to examine whether they lead to better learning and generalization when learners are exposed to new input.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.