ISB5- March 20-23, 20051 The comprehension of sentences in Spanish-English bilinguals Paola E....

ISB5- March 20-23, 2005 1

The comprehension of sentences in Spanish-English bilinguals

Paola E. DussiasPenn State University

[email protected]

4th International Symposium on Bilingualism

Arizona State University

April 30th –May 03rd

ISB5- March 20-23, 2005 2

Who was ill?

The police arrested the brother of the baby-sitter who was ill.




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In English

In Spanish




baby sitter who was ill

brother who was ill

LOW

ATTACHMENT

HIGH

ATTACHMENT

The police arrested the brother of the baby-sitter who was ill.

ISB5- March 20-23, 2005 4

What about Spanish-English bilinguals?

How do bilinguals resolve the competition that is created between parsing preferences in the L1 and in the L2?




Use the correct strategy in each context

Use high attachment for both

languages

Use low attachment for both languages

ISB5- March 20-23, 2005 5

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?




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Participants1. 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.



April 30th –May 03rdStudy 1– Relative clause ambiguity resolution

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Materials




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 brotherill (masc)

the man ill (masc)

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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.

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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.




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Results (total reading times)




200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

600

650

Monolinguals Bilinguals

Total reading time (ms)

High attachment

Low Attachment

*

*

ISB5- March 20-23, 2005 11

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.




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A preliminary test of this hypothesis…

Test participants with fewer years of immersion in an English environment.




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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.




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Bilinguals—Limited exposure (total reading times)

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

600

650



High attachment

Low Attachment

*

*

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Bilinguals—Limited exposure (total reading times)

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

600

650



High attachment

Low Attachment

*

*

ISB5- March 20-23, 2005 16

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).

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The construction under The construction under investigationinvestigation

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

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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

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Method

• Participants

• 54 Monolingual Spanish speakers• 15 proficient English-Spanish bilinguals

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Materials

Experimental stimulus

Contestó el chico [que quería estudiar derecho] ambiguous region

[que sabía la respuesta] disambiguating region

Control

El chico que quería estudiar derecho contestó que sabía la respuesta

ISB5- March 20-23, 2005 23

Procedure

Reading moving window

Contestó _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

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AnalysisAnalysis

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

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Results

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

600

650


Reading time (ms)Ambiguous

Control

*

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Overall summary of findings 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 27

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, 20051 The comprehension of sentences in Spanish-English bilinguals Paola E....

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