Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Early Exposure and Language Dominance on Bilingualism

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation research will investigate the bilingual abilities of heritage language speakers, in order to determine the relative importance of timing and experience in bilingual language development. Both heritage (Korean) and dominant (English) language features will be examined, including the ability to process vocabulary in real-time, detect grammatical errors, and distinguish similar but different speech sounds. The primary goal is to disambiguate the contributions of early exposure (to Korean) and input dominance (of English) to early bilingual competence. A secondary goal is to identify which linguistic domains are most vulnerable to language loss/incomplete acquisition, as well as which factors contribute to the development of balanced language proficiency. The vocabulary experiment is designed to determine whether the asymmetric masked priming effect (L1-L2 only) observed in adult second language learners is replicated by heritage speakers. A grammaticality judgment task is employed to examine whether heritage speakers resolve the learnability problem (Pinker, 1989) in the acquisition of locative alternation and quantifier float. The speech perception experiment will test the ability to distinguish the /sta~suta/ contrast, something difficult for Koreans, as well as Korean contrasts that are difficult for English native-speakers (/s~ss/). In addition to experimental data, biographical information and proficiency test results will be collected. The collective findings should make several important intellectual and social contributions to the field. Intellectually, it will help disambiguate the effects of early experience and language dominance, both of which have often been confounded in previous studies. Socially, such data are invaluable for teachers and parents who might be struggling to understand heritage language development and who want to help immigrants with English language development and heritage language maintenance. Other social scientists, educators, parents, and policymakers will also benefit from the research findings of this dissertation as the results can inform general bilingual education in the U.S.