Word recognition in dual language learners: The mechanisms underlying listening and reading in two languages

项目总结/摘要 用两种语言说话和阅读的孩子在世界各地和许多美国社区都是常态。 然而，在理解双语和两文的语言和识字能力如何发展方面存在差距。 孩子语言和读写能力发展的一个基本组成部分是单词识别。两者的核心 口头和书面单词识别是竞争：给定单词（例如，cap），则 激活的（例如，cap，cab，cat）并为获得认可而竞争。词汇竞争的本质 儿童语言问题基本上没有得到解决。这是一个重要的局限性， 语言和认知取决于这些技能的发展。这具有临床意义，因为 单语儿童，管理竞争的能力是高度预测语言和识字的结果 并且对于语言障碍儿童来说是重大的挑战（McMurray等人，2010年）。因为 健康方面的差距使许多西班牙人的教育成就不成比例， 对于美国的英语学习者来说，至关重要的是，我们的理论模型要超越单一语言学习者， 学生听和读的单词在一个以上的语言。拟议的研究解决了这一问题 限制在两个目标。在目标1中，我们描述了内部和跨内部口语和书面语的竞争， 西班牙语-英语双语学习者在发展阶段的语言特点是 词汇水平阅读技能的变化（中学）。我们开发了一种新颖的眼球追踪系统 范例来衡量口语和书面文字识别。个人听到或看到一个词，并点击 来自四个显示器的对应画面：目标（例如，帽），一个听觉和视觉上类似的 竞争者（例如，CAB）和不相关的项目（例如，网和泥）。眼球运动是时间锁定的， 词汇竞争的动态。考虑到语音之间的差异比字母之间的差异要大， 语言（例如，语音/B/在英语和西班牙语中不同，但字母“B”是相同的），我们预测 对于口语来说，语言内部的竞争将大于语言之间的竞争，而对于书面语来说， 语言内部和语言之间的竞争将是相似的。在目标2中，我们采用个体差异方法 并研究语言和阅读熟练程度如何影响这些竞争动态。这一目标将 确定变异性的来源，促进熟练双语和两文儿童实现高效 单词识别目前的研究对语言处理理论有着广泛的吸引力， 它将有助于描述一组涉及口语和书面文字识别的核心计算原理。 此外，该项目为双语语言和识字发展理论提供信息-这是一项高度优先的研究 NICHD领域-并代表了我们的长期目标，创造一个发展模式的关键一步 单词识别，因为它发生在跨模态（口语和书面语）和语言上下文。

Project Summary/Abstract Children who speak and read in two languages are the norm around the world and in many US communities. However, there is a gap in understanding how language and literacy develops in bilingual and biliterate children. A fundamental component of language and literacy development is word recognition. Central to both spoken and written word recognition is competition: given a word (e.g., cap), multiple lexical candidates are activated (e.g., cap, cab, cat) and compete for recognition. The nature of lexical competition within and across languages in children is largely unaddressed. This is a crucial limitation as prominent theories of bilingual language and cognition rest on how these skills develop. This is of clinical significance because for monolingual children, the ability to manage competition is highly predictive of language and literacy outcomes and represents significant challenges for children with language disorders (McMurray et al., 2010). Because there are health disparities that perpetuate disproportionate educational achievement for many Spanish- English learners in the US, it is crucial that our theoretical models extend beyond single-language learners, to students who hear and read words in more than one language. The proposed research addresses this limitation in two aims. In Aim 1, we characterize competition for spoken and written words within and across languages in Spanish-English dual language learners during a developmental period characterized by variability in word-level reading skills (middle school). We developed a novel variant of an eye-tracking paradigm to measure both spoken and written word recognition. Individuals hear or see a word and click the corresponding picture from a display of four: the target (e.g., cap), an acoustically and visually similar competitor (e.g., cab) and unrelated items (e.g., net and mud). Eye-movements are time-locked to the dynamics of lexical competition. Given that there are more differences in speech sounds than in letters across languages (e.g., the speech sound /b/ differs in English and Spanish, yet the letter “b” is identical), we predict that for spoken words, competition will be greater within than across languages, whereas for written words, competition will be similar within and across languages. In Aim 2, we take an individual differences approach and examine how language and reading proficiency influence these competition dynamics. This aim will determine the sources of variability that promote proficient bilingual and biliterate children to achieve efficient word recognition. The current research has a broad-based appeal for theories of language processing because it will help characterize a core set of computational principles involved in spoken and written word recognition. Further, this project informs theories of bilingual language and literacy development – a high priority research area for NICHD – and represents a crucial step toward our long-term goal to create a developmental model of word recognition as it occurs across modalities (spoken and written) and language context.