Lecture 14: Bilingualism Flashcards
What percentage of the world is bilingual?
- 8 billion people in the world
- 50-70% are bilingual. More than half.
- 18% overall french/english bilingual
- Bilingualism is on the rise
The traditional story in psycholinguistics
- Until very recently, most research on language
and cognition examined only speakers of a
single (typically English) language. - Monolinguals were the model subjects of study.
- Only the native language could provide an ideal
basis for understanding the nature of language
system and its implications for the mind and the brain.
Binlingualism in the traditional story in psycholinguistics
- Bilingualism has beemn considered a boutique topic (something fun and quirky).
- On this view, bilinguals have been considered a
special group of language users, much like
brain damaged patients, children with language
disorders, or deaf individuals. - Each of these groups holds genuine interest for
the field, but their performance is not necessarily
taken to provide the primary source of evidence
for the study of language and mind. - It is considered special because learning a second language past aduthood is very difficult task.
Study about late L2 learning
- Even highly successful late L2 learners speak with an accent and appear to fail to acquire subtle aspects of the L2 grammar.
- The older individuals were when first exposed to the L2, the more accented their speech is perceived to be.
- Individuals accentedness is rated as a function of the age they were exposed to the L2 language at. The older you were the more accented your speech is perceived to be.
- Even highly successful late L2 learners speak with an accent and appear to fail to acquire subtle aspects of the L2 grammar.
Conclusion about late L2 learning
For these reasons, the evidence on bilingualism has been taken to suggest that the L2 is fundamentally different and separate from the L1.
* Late bilinguals are special with a mixed language system that includes a full native L1 and a “funky” L2
* Bilinguals should be “functionally monolingual” in the L1.
* The L1 should transfer to the L2 but not the other way around. We do not expect the 2nd language to impact the first
A new attitude about bilingualism
- Over the past 2 decades, there has beenn a virtual explosion of research in bilingualism.
- There is greater plasticity than previously understood. Its never too late to learn a second language.
- Language learning occurs at all ages and language processes are dynamic
- Bilingualism provides a lens for examining aspects of cognition that are obscured by studying
monolinguals alone. - It provides a tool for language scientiists to understad how expecience idluences the mind and the brain.
Three discoveries about bilingualism
- Bilinguals are not two monolinguals in one. Both languages are active and competing. This is rreffered to as Parallel activation or language co-activation.
- The bilingual’s language system is permeable in both directions. Critically, the L1 changes in the response to learning and using an L2.
- Not all bilinguals are the same. Bilinguals differ by virtue of where they live and the demands that are placed on them to use each language. So whenever, we approach the topic of bilinguals, we need to ask ourselves, how are these individuals distributing their languages throughout their daily lives?
Parallel activation
- Most extensively studied and is the least controversial out of the three.
- Both languages are active when bilinguals listen to or read or plan speech in each of the two languages.
- Both languages are active regardless of the requirement to use one language alone.
- Even when performing such a simple task such as naming an object, bilinguals are making a decision about what language they need to use.
- Parallel activation creates a unique circumstance for cross language interaction.
- “the bilingual is a mental juggler”
What is the evidence of parallel activation?
- One way to examine parallel activation is to take advantage of the fact that many languages have words that share properties between languages. For example, when you take two languages (french and english), there are some words that are language unique. There are some words that share an overlap both in form and in meaning.
- Homographs across 2 languages. Share the same form but refer to different meanings across the 2 languages.
- Many studies have demonstrated that bilinguals recognize cognates more quickly but homographs more slowly that control words. Monolinguals do not show these effects. If you are bilingual, it is a lexically ambiguous context so you would need more information to disambuguate.
Picture naming task
- Name pictures out loud (in english)
- Two groups of bilingual participantss performed this picture naming task in english. One group was spanish-english bilinguals and the other group were japanese-english bilinguals.
- Different types of words: triple cognates: Share form and meaning across all three languages. In the context of picture naming, means you can more easily retrieve the label that you are going to use to refer to the object.
- Faster at naming the cognates than the non cognate words.
- If just english-spanich cognate or english-japanese cognate, then there wil be faster naming for the one that is a cognate but same speed for the one that is a non-cognate.
Study by Libben and Titone (2009)
Do bilinguals show effects of parallel activation during reading?
* We know that cross language interactions exist when bilinguals process words in isolation. But what if we embedded cognates and homographs into sentences. Would the other words provide strong enough language cue to potentially get rid of these parallel activation effects?
* They tracked bilinguals eye movements during reading. They were reading sentences that included both cognates and homographs.
* So if the effects that we’ve observed at the word level so when words were presented in isolation extend to sentences where there are other words that are providing a cue to language. Maybe we could expect to find facilitation for cognates or interference for homographs. But if the sentence provides a strong enough cue for language membership, maybe these effects are reduced or they go away.
* If the sentence provides a cue to language membership, then no cognate/homograph effects should be observed.
What is an advantage of eye tracking studies?
Libben and Titone
What is the time-course of cross-language effects?
* They allow you to investigate the time course of comprehension by using different eye movement measures.
* As we are reading, our eyes are doing fixations. The larger the circle, the longer the duration of the fixation.
* The fixations are seperated by quick jobs which are called saccades (yellow lines).
* Some words are skipped entirely and some are skipped entirely. Sometimes, we go back revise what we are reading and then go forward. Called regression
* These eye movements are associated with comprehension processes where more difficult words tend to elicit longer fixation durations.
How do we examine different time course of comprehension?
Initial stages of comprehension
First fixation duration: length of the 1st time eye fixates on the target
Later stages of comprehension
Total fixation duration: length of al eye fixations on target
Longer fixation durations (being the first or total fixation) linked to greater comprehension difficulty.
Variables from Libben and Titone study
- They had cognates and non cognates (matched controls)
- They also varied sentence constraint: how semantically predictable the target word is given its preceding context. High contraint = predictable, low constraint = many possibility of words that could fit (not easily predictable).
- If you use a strong enough semantic context can we bias the reader to forget about an alternative meaning in the other language.
Results from Libben and Titone study
- At the early stages of comprehension for the low constraint trials, we see cognate facilitation and homograph interference. Same thing for late stages. Lower bars = shorter fixation = better.
- For high constrait trials, for early stages of comprehesion, we cannot get rid of parallel actvation, we still get facilitation for cognates and interference for homographs.
- For later stages of comprehension, there is no evidence of cognate facilitation or homograph interference.
- We see parallel activation at ealry stages of comprehension regardless of sentence constraint.
- At later stages, the parallel activation effect seem to be resolved for context that provide high sentence constraints so when its semantically much more biased, you are narrowing your window of posibilities.
Morford et al. (2011) Study
Are ASL-English bilinguals affected by their knowledge of sign language even though ASL was not present in the experiment?
* They were pushing a button if the two words are semantically related (all words in english, no ASL)
* They were looking at how quickly they would respond to a word pair that was semantically related versus one that was not semantically related. Would these individuals be affected by singn language?
* Bilinguals are faster to judge English when the ASL converges and slower
when it conflicts. Monolinguals do not show these effects. These are just the bilinguals being implicitly aware of the second language (ASL in this case).
Bice & Kroll (2015) Task
- Examined cognate effects in monolinguals and L2 learners of Spanish (very begginer learners).
- Some of the words presented in the lexical decision task were cognates in english and spanish.
Would the newly acquired L2 affect the L1?
* For the behavioral response: Behaviorally, no cognate effect for either group. No difference between monolingual and duolingual.
ERP101
Event-related potentials: voltage fluctuations that are time-locked to an event.
* Looking at the N400 component which is characterised by an increased negativity. A negativity around 400ms.
* Larger amplitude of the N400 suggests greater difficulty.
* If cognates are facilitated by the overlap in form and meaning across the two languages then we should expect a reduction of the N400.
Bice and Kroll study (pt 2)
Will brain activity show an effect on L2 on L1?
* So monolinguals looking at their brain activity when they’re performing the lexical decision task, no difference between the cognates and
non cognates. They’re just words to them
* The early L2 learners, we find a reduced N400 for cognates. The learner spanish is beggining to influence their native language (english). Even if they are learning it late in life. It’s becoming more sensitive to the newly acquired second language.
Linck et al. (2009) Experiment
- 2 groups of learners: immersed learners and classroom learners of spanish. Both groups of english native speakers learning spanish.
- Classroom in pensilvania and studying abroad in spain.
- Immersed learners are able to name more spanish words.
- Compared to classroom learners, immersed learners produced less L1 exemplars. The L1 is suppressed while living in an L2 context. L1 takes a hit! They are less fluent in their native language by being immersed in their second language. Results are not permanent.
Dussias & Sagarra (2007)
- The influence of L2 on L1 is not limited to words. It’s also about the grammar.
- Relative claus attachement ambiguity.
- Parsing strategies: attach low if you say actress and attach high if you say maid.
- Spanish speakers with high L2 exposure, you see a change in their parsing strategie. They are sparsing their spanish how an english speaker does.
** * The language processes seam to be dynamic as a function of the environment. ** - A monolingual speaker might not be the ultimate goal of L2 learning
Characterizing bilingual language experience
- Different interactional experiences may differently shape how bilinguals are making used of their language.
- Look into habits of language use.
- Code switching: where you switch between languages, alternate fluently between languages, and conversation when speaking with other individuals. Not all bilinguals engage in code switching, are bilinguals differentially sensitive to code switching between languages.
- Consider the contextual linguistic diversity of an environment. Some individuals are surrouded by other bilinguals who are similarly bilingual.
Contextual linguistic diversity
- Ottawa: compartementalized depending on which side of the river you are on
- Toronto: linguistic enclaves of different laguages.
- Individuals in more lingsuitically diverse environments (ie: Montreal) might experience a greater variety in their communicative demands. With whom can I use each language?
- French-English bilinguals reporting greater
linguistic diversity: - Show a higher reliance on contextual cues (they are monitoring their environment for oppurtunity to use languages)
- Exhibit higher connectivity between regions
implicated in monitoring such as the anterior
cingulate cortex and the putamen.
Language use shapes language processing
- Both groups are native Spanish speakers who speak English at a high level of proficiency, and I’m going to call one group non code switchers (keep them seperate) and the 2nd group are code switchers.
Beatty-Martínez & Dussias (2017)
non code switching members
- How do these two groups process unilingual sentences and coeswitched sentences.
- Uninligual sentences: processed similarly
- Codswitches sentences: They are sensitive to a change in language. For non code switching bilinguals who keep their language second and whos linguistic repertoir does not include switching or mixing them, will have a harder time with pocessiing the switching sentence languages. It is costly to process a switch in language.
Beatty-Martínez & Dussias (2017)
code switching members
- same for unilingual sentences
- when they process the switch , it is easy for them. It confiorms to their natural habits of language use. No switch cost, processed as itf it was all in one language.
- This switching is not random, it follows distributional regularities.
- Larger nN400 component for rare types of code switching. This suggests that these rare code swiitches are less expected and more difficult.
