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The comprehension of sentences in Spanish-English bilinguals

4 th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30 th –May 03 rd. The comprehension of sentences in Spanish-English bilinguals. Paola E. Dussias Penn State University pdussias@psu.edu. 4 th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University

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The comprehension of sentences in Spanish-English bilinguals

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  1. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd The comprehension of sentences in Spanish-English bilinguals Paola E. Dussias Penn State University pdussias@psu.edu ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  2. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Who was ill? The police arrested the brother of the baby-sitter who was ill. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  3. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd The police arrested the brother of the baby-sitter who was ill. LOW ATTACHMENT baby sitter who was ill In English In Spanish who was ill HIGH ATTACHMENT brother ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  4. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd What about Spanish-English bilinguals? Use the correct strategy in each context How do bilinguals resolve the competition that is created between parsing preferences in the L1 and in the L2? Use high attachment for both languages Use low attachment forboth languages ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  5. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Research Question Prior research suggest that, provided sufficient proficiency, second language syntactic processing obeys the same principles as native language processing (Frenck-Mestre; 1997, 2002; Frenck-Mestre & Pynte, 1997; Hoover & Dwivedi, 1998; Juffs & Harrington, 1996) How is syntactic processing affected by exposure to the second language? ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  6. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Study 1– Relative clauseambiguity resolution Participants Twenty L1 Spanish-L2 English participants. Learned English during adulthood. Lived in an L2 environment for an average of 7 years. 88% of the subjects reading and listening in both languages equally high. 75% of the subjects speaking abilities in both languages equally high. Used Spanish and English in their daily lives and in a variety of contexts; both formal and informal. 2. Thirty-six monolingual Spanish speakers. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  7. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Materials the brother ill (masc) 1 (high attachment) La policía arrestó al hermano de la mujer que estaba enfermo desde hacía tiempo. [The police arrested the brother of the woman who had been ill (masc.) for a while]. 2 (low attachment) La policía arrestó a la hermana del hombre que estaba enfermo desde hacía tiempo. [The police arrested the sister of the man who had been ill for a while]. the man ill (masc) ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  8. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Procedure Eyelink II eyetracker interfaced with an IBM compatible computer. Materials were displayed on a color monitor. All sentences were displayed in a single line of text. Sentences were followed by a comprehension questions to ensure that participants were executing the task appropriately. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  9. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Analysis Gaze duration: the sum of all fixations on the disambiguating region (e.g., the adjective) Total time: The sum of gaze duration + regressions on the critical region. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  10. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Results (total reading times) * * ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  11. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Why the low-attachment preference? Language Exposure account: Exposure to a preponderance of English constructions resolved in favor of low attachment may have rendered this interpretation more available, ultimately resulting in the preference for low attachment observed in these results. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  12. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd A preliminary test of this hypothesis… Test participants with fewer years of immersion in an English environment. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  13. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Participant profile: Twenty-eight L1 Spanish-L2 English participants. Learned English during adulthood. Lived in an L2 environment for an average of 8.5 months. Used Spanish and English in their daily lives and in a variety of context, both formal and informal. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  14. Bilinguals—Limited exposure (total reading times) * * ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  15. Bilinguals—Limited exposure (total reading times) * * ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  16. 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism Arizona State University April 30th –May 03rd Summary of findings from Study 1 • Spanish monolingual speakers and Spanish-English bilinguals with limited exposure in the L2 environment adopt a high attachment strategy • Spanish-English bilinguals with extensive exposure to the L2 adopt a low-attachment strategy • These findings highlight the role of L2 exposure in parsing. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  17. Study 2– The role of word order • One grammatical property that has been found to affect sentence comprehension is word order. • The parser seems to find it easier to comprehend sentences in which the subject (S) precedes the object (O) than with the reverse O-S order (Bates, MacWhinney, McNew, Devescovi, & Smith, 1982; MacWhinney, Bates, & Kliegl, 1984; MacWhinney & Bates, 1989; Weyerts, Penke, Münte, Heinze, & Clahsen, 2002). ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  18. The construction under investigation Contestó el chico que quería estudiar derecho [Verb Subject That-clause] A. that-clause complement of verb The boy answered that he wanted to study law B. that-clause relative clause The boy that wanted to study law answered ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  19. Preferred interpretation of the ambiguity Monolingual Spanish speakers prefer the relative clause reading Contestó el chico que quería estudiar derecho The boy that wanted to study law answered ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  20. Method • Participants • 54 Monolingual Spanish speakers • 15 proficient English-Spanish bilinguals ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  21. Materials Experimental stimulus Contestó el chico [que quería estudiar derecho] ambiguous region [que sabía la respuesta] disambiguating region Control El chico que quería estudiar derechocontestó que sabía la respuesta ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  22. Procedure Reading moving window Contestó _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  23. Analysis Reading times of que + the verb following it. Contestó el chico [que quería estudiar derecho] ambiguous region [que sabía la respuesta] disambiguating region El chico que quería estudiar derecho contestó que sabía la respuesta ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  24. Results * ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  25. Overall summary of findings • Both experiments show that bilinguals sometimes do not parse L2 input in a manner similar to that of speakers of the target language. • Variables such as L2 proficiency, exposure to the L2 environment and syntactic characteristics specific to the second language affect syntactic processing in the two languages of the bilingual. ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

  26. Acknowledgements Tracy Cramer Chip Gerfen Judy Kroll Maya Misra Teresa Bajo Manuel Carreiras & Charles Clifton Jr. Language Science Research Group at Penn State ISB5- March 20-23, 2005

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