Jun 14, 2017 - The teacher jogged the kids around the playground during recess. *Los maestros trotaron a los niños alrededor del patio durante el recreo. 14.
EARLY AND LATE BILINGUALS BOTH SHOW INFLUENCE OF L2 ON L1
Eve Higby Eva M. Fernández Valerie L. Shafer Loraine K. Obler
International Symposium on Bilingualism Limerick, Ireland June 14, 2017
BILINGUAL CROSS-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE L1
L2 influence
Foreign accent Word choice Phrasing/word order …
Gass & Selinker (1992)
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BILINGUAL CROSS-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE L2
L1 influence
Pronunciation Word choice Phrasing/word order Speech perception Sentence interpretation … Pavlenko (2000)
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BILINGUAL CROSS-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE
Effects of age of acquisition?
4
AGE OF L2 ACQUISITION
AGE OF ACQUISITION EFFECTS IN L2 ACQUISITION
L2 performance
L2 performance
L2 performance
Critical Period Hypothesis
Age of L2 acquisition
Birdsong (2006)
Age of L2 acquisition
Age of L2 acquisition
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AGE OF ACQUISITION EFFECTS IN L2 ACQUISITION
Birdsong & Molis (2001); Johnson & Newport (1989)
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AGE OF ACQUISITION EFFECTS IN L2 ACQUISITION
Flege, Yeni-Komshain, & Liu (1999)
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AGE OF ACQUISITION EFFECTS IN L2-L1 INFLUENCE Heritage speakers vs immigrants
Montrul & Sánchez-Walker (2013)
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AGE OF ACQUISITION EFFECTS IN L2-L1 INFLUENCE L1 lexical-semantic category boundaries (e.g., Malt et al., 2015; Pavlenko & Malt, 2011)
Relative clause attachment (e.g., Dussias & Sagarra, 2007; Fernández, 2003)
Word order (e.g., Dogruoz & Backus, 2007; Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock, & Filiaci, 2004)
Extension of allowable contexts (Ribbert & Kuiken, 2010)
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AGE OF ACQUISITION EFFECTS IN L2-L1 INFLUENCE Loss of neural plasticity Consolidation & interference Learning preferences
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CURRENT STUDY 1. Does L2-L1 influence extend to the application of unique L2 structures during L1 sentence comprehension?
Accessibility of L2 grammatical features during L1 sentence comprehension
2. Does cross-linguistic influence apply during online processing or during post-comprehension processes?
Electrophysiological measures and acceptability judgments
3. Does age of acquisition of the second language influence the degree of L2-to-L1 influence?
Early vs. late second language learners with high proficiency in both languages
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STUDY DESIGN
VERB ARGUMENT STRUCTURE The teacher jogged the kids around the playground during recess. CAUSER
AGENT
*Los maestros trotaron a los niños alrededor del patio durante el recreo. AGENT
Animate Direct Object
Causative structure: The Subject causes the Direct object to perform the action
If Spanish speakers learn the Causative structure in English, can they apply this structure to the same type of verb in Spanish? 14
CONDITIONS & MEASURES Naturalness judgments
Event-related potentials
Spanish grammar
Ungrammatical control
Causative
English grammar
Grammatical control 15
STIMULI Causative (Experimental) *Los maestros trotaron a los niños alrededor del patio durante el recreo. [The teachers jogged the kids around the playground during recess.]
Ungrammatical control (Pseudo-causative) *Los maestros sudaron a los niños alrededor del patio por quince minutos. [*The teachers sweated the kids around the playground for fifteen minutes.]
Grammatical control (Transitive) Los maestros persiguieron a los niños alrededor del patio por la mañana. [The teachers chased the kids around the playground in the morning.] 16
STIMULI Grammaticality in Spanish
Grammaticality in English
Causative
✗
✔
Ungrammatical control (Pseudo-causative)
✗
✗
Grammatical control (Transitive)
✔
✔
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STIMULI Grammaticality in Spanish
Grammaticality in English
Causative
✗
✔
Ungrammatical control (Pseudo-causative)
✗
✗
Grammatical control (Transitive)
✔
✔
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STIMULI Spanish sentences played auditorily 48 sentences in each condition, 380 sentences total 75% grammatical, 25% ungrammatical
Recorded by a native speaker of Spanish Grew up in Colombia Instructed to speak in clearly articulated, Pan-American Spanish
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PARTICIPANTS Early Bilinguals
Late Bilinguals
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15
25.1 (6.7), 18-38
28.7 (5.9), 18-37
8 female
7 female
13 right-handed
13 right-handed
5.6 (1.9), 3-8
15.2 (3.6), 10-21
Years of residence in the U.S.
11.4 (8.6), 0.3-23
8.0 (8.4), 0.1-28
Years of formal education Percent of time Spanish was spoken at home before age 7
17 (4), 10-25
17 (5), 11-30
85.2%
99.0%
N Age Gender Handedness Age of English acquisition
Mean (SD), Range 20
PARTICIPANTS Early Bilinguals 8
6
4
2
0
2
Late Bilinguals 4
6
8
8
Reading
Reading
Writing
Writing
Listening comprehension
Listening comprehension
Speaking
Speaking
Vocabulary mastery
Vocabulary mastery
Grammar mastery
Grammar mastery
Total Mean
Total Mean
Can-Do Questionnaire (1-5)
Can-Do Questionnaire (1-5)
Spanish
English
6
4
Spanish
2
0
2
4
English
Self-rating scale: 1-7 (7 highest ability); Can-Do scale: 1-5 (5 highest ability) 21
6
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RESULTS
NATURALNESS RATINGS Naturalness ratings 5
*
4.5 4
*
3.5 Rating
Both groups rated Causative sentences higher than Ungrammatical control sentences and lower than Grammatical control sentences (p < .05)
3
Early Bilinguals
2.5
Late Bilinguals
2 1.5 1
No group differences
Causative
Ungrammatical Condition
Grammatical
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NATURALNESS RATINGS Age of acquisition did not correlate with naturalness ratings English proficiency did not correlate with ratings, but Spanish proficiency correlated with ratings for Causative and Pseudo-causative sentences
CAUSATIVE
PSEUDO-CAUSATIVE
R = -.52, t(29) = -3.27, p = .003
R = -.42, t(29) = -2.48, p = .02
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SEGMENTS FOR EEG DATA The teachers jogged the
kids
Los maestros trotaron a los niños Direct
Direct
Object
Object
Article
Noun
Causative: jog Ungrammatical: sweat Grammatical: chase
around the playground during recess. alrededor del patio durante el recreo. Preposition
LAN: Early detection of grammatical incongruity (structure building) P600: Later detection of grammatical/semantic incongruity (reanalysis) N400: Detection of semantic incongruity 25
DIRECT OBJECT NOUN The teachers jogged the Los maestros trotaron a los
Early bilinguals
kids niños
around the playground during recess. alrededor del patio durante el recreo.
P600
Late bilinguals
LAN
Late bilinguals show an early, automatic sensitivity to the violation in the ungrammatical sentences. Early bilinguals show a later stage of processing of the same violation. Neither group exhibits sensitivity to the Causative violation. 26
PREPOSITION The teachers jogged the Los maestros trotaron a los
kids niños
around the playground during recess. alrededor del patio durante el recreo.
Early bilinguals
Late bilinguals
N400
N400
Both early and late bilinguals show a negativity for Causative sentences after hearing the preposition. Early bilinguals also show a negativity for the ungrammatical control sentences. 27
Late bilinguals
LEFT ANTERIOR NEGATIVITY LAN
Left Anterior sites 0-100 ms after Direct Object Noun
R = -.38, t(29) = -2.205, p = .04
Left Anterior sites 100-300 ms after Direct Object Noun
R = -.41, t(29) = -2.415, p = .02
Later age of English acquisition correlated with a larger Left Anterior Negativity for ungrammatical control sentences compared to grammatical control sentences. 28
Early bilinguals
P600
P600 Mid Posterior sites 400-600 ms after Direct Object Noun
Lower Spanish proficiency was associated a larger P600 effect for Pseudo-causative compared to Transitive sentences.
R = -.46, t(29) = -2.796, p = .009 29
SENTENCE INTERPRETATIONS Bilinguals interpreted most Causative sentences as causative events Verbs used to describe causative scenarios: Hacer (make) Llevar (bring) Forzar (force) Causar (cause)
Ungrammatical control sentences were not interpreted as causative events
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DISCUSSION
DISCUSSION: CROSS-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE Causative sentences did not elicit ERP indices of ungrammaticality (LAN/P600) for bilinguals Language-specific structures in the L2 influence online L1 sentence comprehension. In particular, the knowledge of this structure in English allows bilinguals to interpret the meaning of these sentences in Spanish. Evidence of L2-to-L1 influence for structures that exist in the L2 but not the L1 L2-to-L1 influence for early bilinguals as well as those who learned the L2 as teenagers or adults 32
DISCUSSION: AGE OF ACQUISITION Age of acquisition influenced ERP responses only in response to ungrammatical control sentences Later age of English acquisition was associated with greater amplitude of the Left Anterior Negativity, an early, automatic response to violations of grammatical constraints Evidence of greater L1 consolidation and automaticity with longer periods of sole L1 use
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DISCUSSION: LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY Spanish proficiency was related to naturalness ratings for Causative and ungrammatical control sentences, as well as the size of the P600 effect All participants had high proficiency in Spanish. Lower Spanish proficiency was related to greater acceptability (higher ratings) of Causative and ungrammatical sentences and larger P600 effects for ungrammatical sentences. Higher naturalness ratings may indicate more insecurity in judging Spanish sentences Larger P600 effect may signal a need to re-evaluate the sentence for interpretability
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DISCUSSION: NATIVE SPEAKERS Heritage grammars Differences from control groups usually interpreted as a deficiency and a negative outcome of cross-linguistic influence
L1 attrition Immigrants exhibiting L2-to-L1 influence considered to be undergoing attrition of L1
“Native speaker” Bilinguals are often compared to a control group of “native speakers.” This implies that they are not themselves native speakers and that their differences are deficiencies.
Language experience shapes language use patterns 35
QUESTIONS REMAINING Which aspects of the L1 are more vulnerable to L2 influence? Should constructions be considered “ungrammatical” for bilinguals if they are grammatical in the bilinguals’ other language? How do we revise the concept of “native speaker” to account for the variation seen among bilinguals (and monolinguals)?
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Acknowledgments Funding National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant Mario Capelloni Dissertation Fellowship from the CUNY Graduate Center Doctoral Student Research Grant from the CUNY Graduate Center Undergraduate Research and Mentoring Education award from Queens College
Feedback Neurolinguistics Lab and Developmental Neurolinguistics Lab at the CUNY Graduate Center Bilingualism, Mind, and Brain Lab at UC Riverside
Research Assistants Ibana Vargas Stephanie Perez Wendy Ramirez Erika Varela Gabriel Campoverde Andrea Monge Jennifer Meza Iris Strangmann Stanley Chen Michelle Hernandez Melissa Castillo 37
