Word recognition processes in monolingual and bilingual readers

良好的读写能力对全面参与知识型经济十分重要。我研究计划的长期目标是了解单语者和双语者理解书面文字所涉及的心理表征和过程，这些如何随着阅读技能的提高而变化，以及为什么有些孩子学习阅读有困难。这项工作将有助于语言处理的认知理论的发展和阅读障碍的理解。 我的研究重点之一是心理表征和过程中涉及的派生的声音（音韵学）和意义的印刷字。语音处理对于理解至关重要，因为越来越清楚的是，语音处理在学习阅读和熟练的无声阅读中起着重要的作用。本研究将探讨读者如何获得多音节词的语音表征。虽然这些词占了我们阅读的大部分，但迄今为止的大多数研究都只使用单音节词。我研究的另一个重点是双语者如何表征和处理他们的两种语言。在加拿大和世界其他地方，许多人会说一种以上的语言，但大多数心理语言学研究都是在单语者身上进行的。因此，双语单词识别的理论不如那些专注于一种语言的阅读的理论那么发达。在这个建议中解决的一个关键问题是，双语者是否可以选择性地激活他们的语言之一的话，或者激活是非选择性的语言。 总而言之，本研究计划将促进我们对书面文字理解中的心理表征和过程的理解。这项工作将有助于推进理论模型的研究，以多音节词和双语读者。此外，对语音处理和双语者语言之间的相互作用的研究解决了学习阅读有困难的儿童关注的两个领域。

Good literacy skills are essential for full participation in our knowledge-based economy. The long-term goal of my research program is to understand the mental representations and processes involved in the comprehension of written words by both monolinguals and bilinguals, how these change with increasing reading skill, and why some children have difficulty learning to read. The work will contribute both to the development of cognitive theories of language processing and to an understanding of reading disorders.   One focus of my research is on the mental representations and processes involved in deriving the sounds (phonology) and meanings of printed words. Phonological processing is critical to understand because it is becoming increasingly clear that it plays an important role both in learning to read and in skilled silent reading for meaning. The proposed studies will investigate how readers derive the phonological representations of multisyllabic words. Although these words make up the majority of the words that we read, most research to date has used only monosyllabic words. Another focus of my research concerns how bilinguals represent and process their two languages. Many individuals in Canada and in the rest of the world speak more than one language, yet most psycholinguistic research has been conducted on monolinguals. Consequently, theories of bilingual word recognition are less well developed than those that focus on reading in one language. A key question addressed in this proposal is whether bilinguals can selectively activate words in just one of their languages or whether activation is nonselective for language.   In summary, the proposed research program will advance our understanding of the mental representations and processes involved in the comprehension of written words. The work will contribute to the advancement of theoretical models by extending research to multisyllabic words and to bilingual readers. Furthermore, research on phonological processing and on interactions between a bilingual's languages addresses two areas of concern for children who are having difficulties in learning to read.