PostDoctoral Research Fellowship

Valdes-Kroff Jorge R, State College PA

Investigators

Abstract

Bilinguals in the presence of other known bilinguals typically engage in codeswitching, generally described as the fluid alternation between languages in speech. Despite popular misperceptions, codeswitching is a highly intricate linguistic skill that is a hallmark of high levels of proficiency across a bilingual's two languages. Yet little is known in how bilinguals successfully integrate lexical, grammatical, and prosodic information in codeswitched contexts. In parallel, a recent hypothesis has implicated cognitive control (i.e. the general ability to negotiate between parallel representations) in the mediation of conflicting representations in both linguistic and non-linguistic domains. The current proposal works within this framework by viewing bilingualism as a case of parallel representations across a bilingual's languages. Codeswitching, therefore, presents a specialized linguistic situation in which parallel representations are brought into direct competition, particularly in comprehension. As such, the investigation of the comprehension of codeswitched speech presents an ideal case study for further testing whether conflicting representations incur heightened use of cognitive control. To investigate this issue, the current project examines the comprehension of codeswitched speech in two studies. The first study examines general costs to comprehension in codeswitching. The second study takes a more fine-grained approach to investigating what kinds of linguistic cues might influence the comprehension of codeswitched speech. By simultaneously using both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eye-tracking methodologies, the proposed studies will provide converging evidence on the timecourse of comprehension (eye-tracking) and the role of cognitive control in specialized brain regions implicated for the successful integration of codeswitched speech (fMRI). Intellectual Merits. These studies make significant contributions to research in how humans comprehend multiple languages both in unilingual, i.e. one language, and dual language, i.e. codeswitched, contexts. These studies constitute the first systematic investigation of the comprehension of codeswitched speech simultaneously using fMRI and eye-tracking. By investigating the role of cognitive control in language comprehension, the proposed studies contribute to our understanding of the claimed cognitive advantage in bilinguals. Moreover, the anticipated results help uncover the types of linguistic cues that facilitate or delay language comprehension, further informing current psycholinguistic models of sentence processing. Because codeswitching is hypothesized to involve the successful integration of competing representations across languages, these studies directly address how humans negotiate multiple representations. Pursuing this line of research has great implications for understanding the cognitive mechanisms implicated in language contact and language change. Broader Impacts. As the U.S. increasingly becomes multilingual, studies of the linguistic skills available to bilinguals offer a more representative account of U.S. society and expand current understanding of language comprehension processes. The project provides training opportunities to the Fellow and to undergraduate bilingual researchers who are members of underrepresented groups, thus increasing diversity in STEM fields. In light of the fact that codeswitching continues to face negative stigmas, the proposed studies directly counter such negative stereotyping by providing empirical support for the view that codeswitching is a highly intricate linguistic skill requiring considerable cognitive flexibility. Broadening Participation. By including bilinguals who codeswitch, these studies contribute crucial empirical evidence while broadening representation of underrepresented groups in scientific inquiry. The Fellow is committed to disseminating the results through public lectures to target audiences in order to better communicate research that directly impacts multilingual families. These lectures are intended to increase awareness of the importance of maintaining a multilingual society, mainly through the preservation of minority languages spoken at home. Finally, through a series of interactive activities that allow high school students to explore the types of experiments that language researchers utilize, the Fellow plans to heighten and spark the interest of high school students from underrepresented groups to pursue higher education in STEM-related fields.