M2 Lecture 14 Flashcards
define bilingual
Any individual who uses 2 languages is a bilingual to some degree
what is Bilingualism
The ability to communicate in any two languages
are lots of people bilingual
yes– the majority are
what are Several myths (1970s) about bilingualism
- Too difficult
- Can’t separate / mixing is bad
- “Semi-lingualism”
- Bilingual == two monolinguals
“A bilingual is not the sum of two complete or incomplete monolinguals; rather, he or she has a unique and specific linguistic configuration. (true or false)
true
Bilinguals vary a lot– in what sense
- Researchers talk about
- The abilities you need to be considered bilingual
- Balanced vs. asymmetric bilingual
- Acquisition profile
- Simultaneous vs
- Sequential
While proficiency may vary for bilinguals
• All bilinguals have increased cognitive demands relative to monolinguals explain
• Competition and coactivation from the unintended language • Use of executive control abilities to resolve competition
can you compare monolinguals and bilinguals
Hard to actually compare monolinguals and bilinguals • Solving different problems
what are the Three central questions about bilinguals
- How do the two languages of the bilingual interact?
- How do bilinguals control their two languages (keep their two languages apart)?
- What are the consequences of bilingualism?
what are the Two hypotheses of how the two languages of bilinguals
interact?
Language selective activation
Language non-selective activation
what is Language selective activation
Ableto”turn-off”thelanguageyou aren’t using
• alsocalleda“mentalfirewall”
what is Language non-selective activation
You don’t “turn-off” the language you aren’t using
• Wordsfrombothlanguagescompete for selection
• Even when you are only using one language
How to differentiate the two hypotheses?
- Psycholinguists come up with clever ways to “trick” participants
- E.g, manipulate cross-linguistic differences and similarities of stimuli
- Test the consequence of knowing 2 languages
- Record how these words are “processed”
- Reaction times, accuracy
what is The bilingual lexicon
Bilinguals often have more than one word to express the same meaning – translation equivalents (english ‘dog’ french ‘chien’)
what are the 2 types of bilingual lexicon
COGNATES
INTERLINGUAL HOMOGRAPHS
what are COGNATES
same orthographic form, same meaning
what are INTERLINGUAL HOMOGRAPHS
= same form, different meaning
what are the Eye Movements during Reading
- One of many ways to measure mental processes during reading
- Participants read sentences naturally while eye movements are monitored
- Eye movements during reading not smooth
- Eye makes short FIXATIONS separated by jumps (SACCADES) and backtracking (REGRESSIONS)
- Eye movements track variables associated with comprehension ease or difficulty
- Fixations increase with word length and decrease with word frequency (Carpenter & Just,1981)
- Not all words are read
- We normally fixate about 80% of content words
- Much lower proportion function words
- Speed-reading decreases these proportions even more!
order the time course of comprehension from
Earliest Stages
of cognitive processing e.g., initial lexical activation
to
Later Stages of cognitive Processing
e.g., revision of an initial Interpretation that was wrong
First Fixation Duration
First Pass Gaze Duration
Go-Past time
Total Fixation Duration
what is First Fixation Duration
Very first time eye lands on word
what is First Pass Gaze Duration
First few times eye lands on word
what is Go-Past time
Time necessary to get past word
what is Total Fixation Duration
All time spent fixating on word including regressions
explain the results of Low constraint semantic context:
- Interlingual homograph interference - all measures
- Cognate facilitation - all measures
- Thus, non-selective access occurs throughout time-course
explain the results of High constraint semantic context:
- Interlingual homograph interference - early measures only
- Cognate facilitation - early measures only
- Thus, initial non-selective access stage followed by selective access stage
thus, How do the two languages of the bilingual interact?
Two hypotheses
• Language selective activation (this is wrong)
• Language non-selective activation
• Both languages activated early and late
• Semantics can allow for selective access at late stages of processing
How do bilinguals control their two languages (keep their two languages apart)?
Executive control
Meaning of the sentence can help reduce conflict from the unintended language
what is Executive control
In order to speak the intended languages, bilinguals use executive control
A set of cognitive processes involved in mental control and self-regulation including: • Attention
• Working memory
what is the point of Executive control
- To attend to the target language
* To suppress the irrelevant language
what is A task to assess executive control
Stroop Task
explain the Stroop Effect
• Not surprising, the incongruent context is the slowest to be named correctly and results in more inaccuracies.
- Conflict effect – measure of executive function
- Better executive control => smaller conflict effect
• Executive function abilities (like the stroop effect) impact the degree of language co-activation
what can be delayed by being bilingual
Delayed symptoms of Alzheimer’s
Disease onset by ~ 4 years
what is the Bilingual Advantage
- Bilinguals have been shown to better be able to ignore irrelevant information.
- Suggests a bilingual cognitive advantage to general-domain executive functions (language abilities conferring benefits in non-language cognition).
- The bilingual advantage may even help protect cognition in aging, cognitive reserve.
but lots of controversy
what are there Lexical disadvantages of being bilingual
- Possibility that application of inhibitory control to the native language impedes word production
- This disadvantage may be driving advantages in executive control
give summary of the lecture
- How do the two languages of the bilingual interact?
• Bilinguals experience interactions (facilitation and competition) between the two languages (language non-selective hypothesis)
2.How do bilinguals control their two languages (keep their two languages apart)?
• Bilinguals can use linguistic information and executive control abilities to help separate the two languages (but not completely!)
3. What are the consequences of bilingualism?
• Repeated competition and employment of executive control strengthens a mental muscle
