2014 — 2017 |
Lipski, John |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Determining the Suppressibility of Functional Categories in Second-Language Acquisition: From Spanish to Palenquero @ Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
Are some languages easier to learn than others? This question, one that most linguists would find naive, is frequently heard among would-be language learners. A phenomenon often associated with more "difficult" languages is grammatical agreement, e.g. verb conjugation and noun-adjective gender and number, whose forms and rules seem to represent a net increase in complexity over languages that lack agreement. And yet, as one scholar remarks, "Non-native speakers [...] will readily appreciate this demand. But most native speakers will hardly be aware that it exists at all; to them [...] agreement usually comes for free." But does it? And if so, how can systems that stymie learners be so easy for native speakers? In principle, the most effective way to determine the real-time complexity of grammatical agreement would be to "turn it off" and see whether speakers experience any sort of "relief." An integral component of language such as agreement cannot be voluntarily deactivated, but given the proper combination of languages and an appropriate population of native speakers and learners it may be possible to indirectly explore the seemingly paradoxical fact that agreement appears effortless for native speakers but burdensome for all but the most proficient learners.
This research project focuses on bilingual speakers of two languages with highly similar vocabularies and sentence structures, one of which exhibits several forms of agreement and the other of which does not. The languages are Spanish and the creole language Palenquero, spoken in the Afro-Colombian village of San Basilio de Palenque. Although they are not mutually intelligible, Palenquero grammar is in many respects a proper subset of Spanish, lacking grammatical inflection on nouns, adjectives, and verbs and the accompanying agreement. In order to speak Palenquero without interference from Spanish, the bilingual speaker has to suppress grammatical agreement while producing essentially the same noun and verb phrases with the same basic words. Recent language-revitalization efforts have resulted in a cohort of native Spanish speakers who have acquired Palenquero as a second language. This study will include psycholinguistic experiments with first- and second-language speakers of Palenquero to test the suppressibility of agreement. In addition, by demonstrating that historically stigmatized languages can play a crucial role in addressing significant issues in linguistics, this study will aid in efforts to legitimize other languages and peoples struggling for acceptance.
|
0.915 |
2016 — 2021 |
Kroll, Judith (co-PI) [⬀] Dussias, Paola Van Hell, Janet (co-PI) [⬀] Lipski, John |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Pire: Translating Cognitive and Brain Science in the Laboratory and Field to Language Learning Environments @ Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
OISE-1545900: PIRE: Translating cognitive and brain science in the laboratory and field to language learning environments
PI: Judith F. Kroll, The Pennsylvania State University Co-PIs: Paola E. Dussias, The Pennsylvania State University John Lipski, The Pennsylvania State University Janet van Hell, The Pennsylvania State University
In this PIRE project, The Pennsylvania State University partners with domestic and international collaborators in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, to conduct research that exploits the excitement of recent scientific discoveries that demonstrate that the use of two or more languages changes minds and brains to be more open to learning, more cognitively flexible, and more resistant to cognitive decline. The goal of the project is to translate the science of language learning for education and to examine the contexts and consequences of language learning in the classroom and in the field for a population who are increasingly diverse and range from learners to highly proficient bilinguals. The planned research will impact learners immersed in their native or second language, examine bilinguals who are young and old, and develop new models of learning and literacy. This PIRE will bring language science from the laboratory to practice and will integrate field research with laboratory-based experimentation to provide unique new data on minority and endangered languages, populations with limited literacy, and the consequences of living and learning in a multilingual environment. It will train a diverse workforce of language scientists to be prepared to conduct both basic and applied research and will develop new international collaborations that translate basic science in culturally diverse contexts.
Research on language learning and bilingualism has been fueled by a set of scientific discoveries made possible by emerging neuroscience technologies and the analysis of large scale corpora. These new discoveries show that there is far greater experience-induced plasticity than traditionally understood. Not only are infants and young children open to new learning, but older children, young adults, and even older adults are open to new experience that changes their brains and behavior. The broad PIRE network of partnerships will enable investigations in contexts where the form of language learning and language contact differ from the environments that have typically informed research to date. The PIRE will train undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows to conduct translational research across three broad themes: (1) Language learning across the life span; (2) The role of instructional approaches for successful learning outcomes; and (3) The impact of diverse social environments for language learning. The planned research will exploit a range of behavioral, neuroscience, and field methods to identify readiness and need for intervention, to track learning in real time, and to assess new learning outcomes.
|
0.915 |