The cognitive nature of adult bilingual reading: Cross-language activation of se

描述：尽管大学入学人数增加，但拉美裔学生的学位完成率远远落后于白人学生。完成大学学业的一个重要障碍是需要进行阅读辅导。这项研究的目的是通过使用眼动监测技术来研究成人双语阅读的认知过程。本研究的具体目的是考察双语阅读如何受到两种语言共同激活的影响。本研究将具体考察非目标语中竞争性表征的激活如何影响句子语境中词语恰当意义的选择。当大学年龄的双语者在电脑屏幕上阅读英语句子时，他们的眼动将被记录下来。这些句子将包含具有一个以上含义的单词，因此是模棱两可的(例如，新奇、快速)。这些模棱两可的单词中，有一半将与西班牙语同源(它们将具有类似的拼写和含义，如小说/小说)，另一半将不是同源单词(例如，FAST)。我们将比较这些不同类型的歧义词的眼动。任何观察到的差异都表明，双语读者在理解模棱两可的单词时，会共同激活两种语言的意义。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究将为设计有效的阅读干预措施提供必要的基础知识，以应对成人双语阅读独特的跨语言动态。这项研究也将有助于阅读的基础研究，该研究历来强调单语阅读。这将使外地能够更好地满足第二语言读者的需求。

DESCRIPTION: Despite increasing college enrollment, degree completion rates for Latino students lags significantly behind those of Caucasian students. An important barrier to college completion is the need for reading remediation. The goal of this study is to examine the cognitive processes that underlie adult bilingual reading through the use of eye- movement monitoring technology. The specific aim of this research is to examine how bilingual reading is influenced by the coactivation of two languages. This study will look specifically at how the selection of the appropriate meanings of words in sentence context is influenced by the activation of competing representations from the non-target language. The eye-movements of college-aged bilinguals will be recorded as they read English sentences on a computer screen. These sentences will contain words that have more than one meaning, and are therefore ambiguous (e.g., novel, fast). Half of these ambiguous words will be cognates with Spanish (they will have similar spelling and meaning such as novel/novela), and half will not be cognates (e.g., fast). Eye- movements for these different types of ambiguous words will be compared. Any observed differences would suggest that bilingual readers coactivate meanings from both of their languages when understanding ambiguous words. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research will provide the foundational knowledge necessary for the design of effective reading interventions that are responsive to the unique cross-language dynamics of adult bilingual reading. This research will also contribute to basic research on reading, which has historically emphasized monolingual reading. This will allow the field to better address the needs of second language readers.