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The Influence Of Proficiency And Age Of Acquisition On Second Language Processing: An Fmri Study Of Mandarin-English Bilinguals, Emily S. Nichols
The Influence Of Proficiency And Age Of Acquisition On Second Language Processing: An Fmri Study Of Mandarin-English Bilinguals, Emily S. Nichols
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Research investigating the neural correlates of second language (L2) processing has usually studied age of acquisition (AoA) and proficiency separately. Presently, we examined both in parallel, treated as continuous variables. We used fMRI to study neural activity for L2 processing in adult native Mandarin speakers who are L2 English speakers. Behavioral measures of language proficiency and AoA were obtained from subjects prior to performing a picture-word matching task during an fMRI scan. Brain activity during L2 English processing was shown to be independently affected by AoA and proficiency; activity in left superior temporal gyrus and right parahippocampal gyrus was modulated …
Processes Underlying Syntactic Control: Evaluating Linguistically Diverse Children, Vanessa R. Raschke
Processes Underlying Syntactic Control: Evaluating Linguistically Diverse Children, Vanessa R. Raschke
Dissertations
The current study focused on the mechanisms involved in syntactic awareness development in monolingual and bilingual (English/Spanish-speaking) nine-year-olds. Inclusion of child language brokers (those who translate and interpret for non-English speaking family members) diversified the definition of "bilingual." Previous research has shown bilingual advantages in areas of metalinguistic awareness and executive function (e.g., Bialystok, 2010; Davidson, Raschke, & Pervez, 2010), however, child language brokers have not been distinguished in these studies. These children, due to early language-switching and translation duties, may have differential development of areas of inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, areas suspected to aid in metalinguistic awareness …
Strengthening Cognitive Development In Minority Populations: A Study Of The Beneficial Effects Of Bilingualism, Marisela Gutierrez
Strengthening Cognitive Development In Minority Populations: A Study Of The Beneficial Effects Of Bilingualism, Marisela Gutierrez
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
The long-term goal of this research is to better understand and characterize the "bilingual advantage" so that educational and child care institutions begin to recognize and encourage the active use of two languages to strengthen cognitive development in minority populations. The present study is one of the first one to include a very large sample of well-defined "active bilinguals" who, by objective measures, were determined to be bilingual and determined to engage in language switching on a daily basis. Another goal was to manipulate and activate in the laboratory what might be referred to as the "switching benefit." One hundred …
Between-Language Repetition Priming In Antonym Generation: Examining Conceptual Encoding And Representation Of Adjectives, Randy Steven Taylor
Between-Language Repetition Priming In Antonym Generation: Examining Conceptual Encoding And Representation Of Adjectives, Randy Steven Taylor
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
Previous research has shown repetition priming effects between languages, suggesting that a bilingual's two languages share conceptual representation. However these studies have been conducted mainly utilizing concrete nouns as stimuli. In the present study, it was hypothesized that adjectives would produce significant between-language repetition priming. The experiment utilized a 4 (encoding task) X 2 (test language) within-subjects design in which participants (N = 64) encoded words in read only, translation English to Spanish and translation Spanish to English conditions and at test performed an antonym generation task in either Spanish or English. The results revealed that participants were significantly faster …