Neurocognitive determinants of adolescent second language literacy development

描述（由申请人提供）：在全球化的背景下，双语教育的问题变得尤为突出，越来越多的国家面临着多语言社会。在美国，将非母语人口融入社会所带来的教育挑战，对于大量语言少数群体来说尤其具有挑战性，他们在掌握第一语言的能力成熟后才开始学习一门新语言。拟议的项目包括对影响青少年如何获得和学习阅读一门新语言的神经认知参数的全面调查。该项目将采用纵向设计，我们将招募第二语言（L2）基本到中等读写水平的青少年，并在24个月内通过行为和功能磁共振成像测量来跟踪技能发展。将在以色列和美国招募队伍；因此，每种语言都将作为第二语言和第一语言。具体目标是：1)研究二语阅读学习是如何由母语的语言结构和读者神经认知能力的个体差异共同决定的；2)研究获得第二语言阅读流畅性是否一定依赖于获得“类似母语”的神经认知标记；3)研究在第二语言中学习一套新的统计规律对语言和一般神经认知的影响。此外，横断面的第四个目标将希伯来语和西班牙语作为母语进行对比，以评估希伯来语研究结果的普遍性，并研究母语潜在语言结构的质的差异对阅读英语的神经认知指数的影响。这项研究将直接为第二语言学习理论提供信息，并有望为第二语言课程开发的最佳方法研究提供信息。此外，考虑到个体的母语和语言环境的特点，在大脑和行为层面关注二语学习中的个体差异，将对二语读写能力习得的挑战产生新的见解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The problem of bilingual education has become especially acute in light of globalization, where an increasing number of countries are faced with multilingual societies. In the United States, the educational challenges associated with integrating non-native populations into society are particularly challenging for the significant cohort of language-minority individuals who come to the task of acquiring a new language after the acquisition of literacy in L1 has matured. The proposed project comprises a comprehensive investigation of the neurocognitive parameters that affect how adolescents acquire and learn to read a new language. The project will employ a longitudinal design in which we will recruit cohorts of adolescents ranging from a basic to medium literacy level in a second language (L2) and track skill development with both behavioral and fMRI measures over 24 months. Cohorts will be recruited in both Israel and the U.S.; thus, each language will serve as both L2 and L1. Specific aims are: 1) To investigate how learning to read in L2 is jointly determined by the linguistic structure of L1 and by individual differences in neurocognitive capacities of the reader; 2) To investigate whether acquiring reading fluency in a second language necessarily depends on acquiring "native- like" neurocognitive markers; and 3) To investigate the linguistic and general neurocognitive consequences of learning a new set of statistical regularities in L2. In addition, a cross-sectional fourth aim contrasts Hebrew vs. Spanish as L1 in order to assess both the generality of findings from Hebrew and investigate the impact of qualitative differences in the underlying linguistic structures of an L1 on neurocognitive indices of reading English. This proposed research will directly inform theories of second language learning, and holds promise to inform research on optimal approaches to second language curriculum development. Moreover, the focus on individual differences in L2 learning, at the level of brain and behavior, will yield new insights into challenges to second language literacy acquisition, given the characteristics of an individual's native language and linguistic environment.