ADVANCE Fellows: Bilingual Processing and Acquisition in Multidisciplinary Environment

Cuny College Of Staten Island, Staten Island NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project concentrates on broad aspects of bilingual research and has two goals: 1) to investigate bilingual processing in a series of language experiments and 2) to pilot the eye-tracking technology with bilinguals as a special population. Bilinguals represent a special population group due to a characteristic of their communicative abilities referred to as "performance deficit." Four experiments will examine how general and language-specific sources of information influence processing performance of bilingual Russian-English adults and how on-line processing mechanisms are developed by bilingual Russian-English children using free head-mounted eye-tracking technology. By monitoring the eye movements during listening, much can be inferred about language interpretation in processing and development. The benefits that this technology can provide for research on very diverse classes of subjects, such as special needs populations, foreign speakers, and minority groups with cultural and language considerations will be explored. This research program will also help train graduate students in the multi-disciplinary areas of linguistics, neuroscience, and cognitive science. This award is supported through the NSF ADVANCE Program. The overall mission of the ADVANCE Program is to increase the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce through the increased representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers.