Outline • Howsuccessfulcanyoubeifyoustart learningasecondlanguageasanadult? • Whatarethedifferencesbetween“early”

Outline • Howsuccessfulcanyoubeifyoustart learningasecondlanguageasanadult? • Whatarethedifferencesbetween“early” bilingualisminchildhoodand“late” bilingualisminadulthood? • Whathappenstoyourfirstlanguageafteryou havebeenspeakingasecondlanguagefor manyyears?

Aninterdisciplinaryenterprise RESEARCHON THEBILINGUAL MINDLINGUISTICS EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY COGNITIVE NEUROSCIEN

A“criticalperiod”forlanguage? • Inmanyanimalspecies, failuretolearnvarious skillsbeforeacertainagemakesitdifficultor evenimpossibletolearnthoseskillslater. E. g. : • Inducklings: abilitytoidentifyandfollowthe mother • Inkittens: abilitytoperceivevisualimages. • Insparrows: abilitytolearnthefather’ssong.

Earlyexposuretolanguageis necessary • Childrenraisedinconditionsofextreme isolationanddeprivationdonotdevelop normalgrammaticalabilities. • Deafchildrenofhearingparentswhoare diagnosedasdeafwhentheyare 2 or 3 are impairedintheirdevelopmentofsign language.

Whyacriticalperiodfor language? • Abiologicalmechanisminnatelygearedto theacquisitionoflanguageinourspecies. • Evolutionaryadvantagesofhavingthe mechanismearlyinlife.

Butwhatabout. SECOND language? • Doesthismeanthat secondlanguage learningis compromisedevenif firstlanguage developmentwas normal? • Doesthefactof alreadyknowinga languagehelp? FIRSTLANGUAGE SECONDLANGUAGE TRANSFERABLE SKILLS?

Nearnativespeakers • Speakerswhostarted learningasecond languageasadultsand reachedanexceptional levelofabilityinit. • Theywouldbeoffthe scaleinthe. IELTS bandof. English proficiency. 1 Nonuser 2 Intermittentuser 3 Extremely limiteduser 4 Limiteduser 5 Modestuser 6 Competentuser 7 Gooduser 8 Verygooduser 9 Expertuser 10 NEARNATIV

Subjectpronounsin. Italian • Subjectpronounscanbeomittedwhentheyrefertoan entitythatisclearincontext: Marianonc’è, èandataacasa “ Mariaisn’there, shewenthome” • Theycannotbeomittedinothercases, forexample whentwoentitiesarecontrastedtooneanother: Mariae. Yurinonsicapiscono: leiparlal’italiano, lui no. “ Mariaand. Yuridon’tunderstandeachother: she speaks. Italian, hedoesn’t”.

Twokindsofknowledge. INTERFACE CONDITIONS OMISSIONAMITALKING OFSUBJECTSABOUT PRONOUNSAKNOWNOMITSUBJECT POSSIBLEENTITY? AMIMAKING ACONTRASTDONOTOMITSUBJECT BETWEENTWO ENTITIES? ……. . MEANING INCONTEXT GRAMMAR OFITALIAN

Nearnativespeakers’errors • Nearnativespeakersof. Italianand. Spanishmay say: Marianonc’è, LEIèandataacasa. Mariaisn’there, shewenthome. • Isthisduetointerferencefrom. English?

Can’tbe(only)interferencefrom English • English and Spanish nonnativespeakersof Italianmakethesamemistake. • Theyknowthatin. Italiansubjectpronouns canbeomitted; theyknowwhatthe contextualconditionsare. • Inmostcases, theyusesubjectpronouns correctly.

Itcouldbeacoordinationproblem. COORDINATION FAILURE INTERFACE CONDITIONS MEANING INCONTEXT GRAMMAR OFITALIAN

Anotherinterfaceproblemin nearnativespeakers • Thedifferencebetweenthesounds/i/and/I/: SHEEPSHIP CHEAPCHIP SEEKSICK BEATBIT DEEPDIP Etc.

Thenearnativespeaker’s dilemma. NATIVELIKE PHONETICABILITYTO DISTINGUISHAND PRONOUNCEPAIRSOF SOUNDSTHATDONOT CONTRASTINTHE NATIVELANGUAGE DIFFICULTYIN CONSTRUCTING PHONOLOGICAL REPRESENTATIONSOF THESECONTRASTS

The‘snickersvs. sneakers’ problem THIS…. . OR THIS? Quick. Time ™ and a TIFF (LZ W) de co mpre ss o r are ne e de d to s e e this picture. Qu i ck. Ti m e™ an d a TI FF ( L Z W) decom pressor are n eeded t o see t h i s pi ct u re.

Moreoninterfaces: auxiliary verbsin. Italian • ESSERE‘be’and. AVERE‘have’. Mariahalavorato. ‘Mariahasworked’ Mariaèpartita. ‘Mariahasleft’ • Samedistinctionas. ETREvs. AVOIRin. French: Marieatravaill é. Marieestpartie. • Inearlymodern. English: Christisrisen. The. Lordiscome.

In. Italianasasecondlanguage… • Auxiliary. ESSEREwithverbssuchas arrivare ‘arrive’, venire ‘come’, partire ‘leave’> ACQUIREDEARLY. • Auxiliary. ESSEREwithverbssuchas rimanere ‘stay’, bastare ‘suffice’, piacere ‘like’> ACQUIREDMUCHLATER ORNOTACQUIREDATALL, NOT EVENATTHENEARNATIVELEVEL.

Nativespeakershavegradient intuitions • Nativespeakersof. Italian, French, German and. Dutch. STRONGLYAGREEonthefact that(theequivalentsof)verbssuchas arrive, leave, come select(theequivalents of)BE. • They. DISAGREE, orare. UNCERTAIN, on like, stay, exist: sometimestheylikethem with. BE, sometimeswith. HAVE.

The. Auxiliary. Selection. Hierarchy • Thechoiceofauxiliariesisconditionednotonlyby thegrammar, butalsobythesemantictypeofverb. CHANGEOFLOCATION ‘ BE’ (arrive, comeleave, etc. ) EXISTENCEOFSTATE (like, stay, besufficient, etc. ) HUMANACTIVITY ‘HAVE’ (work, talk, play, etc. )

Anotherproblematicinterface. AUXILIARYSELECTION HIERARCHY INTERFACE CONDITIONS MEANING OFVERBS AUXILIARIES ESSERE/ AVER

Amethodologicalspinoff: how todetectgradience • Ifdevelopmentaldataaregradient, weneeda methodthatcandetectgradience. • Magnitudeestimation , amethodborrowed frompsychophysics, allowsresearchersto capturefine‘shadesofgray’injudgmentsof linguisticacceptability. • See http: //www. webexp. info forawebbased applicationof. Magnitude. Estimation developedby. Frank. Kelletand. Martin. Corley.

Thestorysofar • Manypropertiesofgrammarcanbe successfullyacquiredinasecondlanguage, butpropertiesthatinvolveinterfaces betweendifferentaspectsoflanguagemay remainnonnativeevenatthehighestlevel ofattainment.

Whathappenstoyourfirst languageafteryouhavebeen speakingasecondlanguagefora longtime?

Effectsofthesecondlanguageon thefirstlanguage. FIRSTLANGUAGESECONDLANGUAGE “ATTRITION”

STAGE 0 INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERGOESTO LIVEINA FOREIGN COUNTRY STAGE 1 INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERLIVES ABROADFORMANY YEARSANDSPEAKS THEHOST LANGUAGEMORE OFTENTHANHIS NATIVELANGUAGE. STAGE 2 NEXTGENERATION ARENATIVE SPEAKERSOFTHE HOSTLANGUAGE; THEYMAYSPEAKOR UNDERSTANDTHEIR PARENTS’ LANGUAGE. STAGE 3 NEXTGENERATION ARENATIVE SPEAKERSOFTHE HOSTLANGUAGE ANDDONOTSPEAK THEIR GRANDPARENTS’ LANGUAGE.

Exnativespeakers • Speakersexperiencingattritionintheir nativelanguageat. Stage 1 haveproblems withconstructionsthatrequirethe integrationofdifferenttypesofknowledge, justlikenearnativespeakers. Theyalsosay: Marianonc’è, LEIèandataacasa

• Exnativespeakersof. Spanishoftenleaveoutthe preposition a withanimatedirectobjects: Mariavioamiabuela “ Mariasawmygrandmother” Mariaviolapelícula. “ Mariasawthefilm”. • Thispropertyisalsoappliedinconsistentlyby advancednonnativespeakersof. Spanish.

“ Interface”aspects: lastin, firstout. NOTCOMPLETEDACQUIREDINSECONDLANGUAGEACQUISITION INTERFACE CONDITIONS FIRSTTOGOINNATIVELANGUAGEATTRITION MEANING INCONTEXT GRAMMAR

Thebroadview • Researchonbilingualprocessinghelpsus tounderstandhowhumanlanguage processingworksingeneral. • Researchonbilingualscaninform computationalmodelsofnaturallanguage processing.

Bilingualfirstlanguage acquisition(“earlybilingualsim”) • Bilingualchildrendeveloptwonative languages, soingeneralreachhigherlevels ofattainmentthanadultlearners. • Theydonotnormallymixtheirlanguages (unlesstheywantto!). • Howearlydotheydifferentiatethetwo languagestheyareacquiring?

Crossovereffectsinbilingual children • The‘dominant’ languageinfluencesthe ‘weaker’language. • Thelanguagewithless complexinterface conditionsinfluences thelanguagewithmore complexinterface conditions. MOREDEVELOPED “DOMINANT” LANGUAGE LESS DEVELOPED LANGUAGE “LESSCOMPLEX” LANGUAGE “MORECOMPLEX” LANGUAG

Effectsofinput Bilingualchildrenoftenhear: • Lessinput(inbothlanguages)than monolingualchildren. • Nonnativeinputintheminoritylanguage. • Inputresultingfromattrition(usuallyfrom theparentwhoisanativespeakerofthe minoritylanguage).

Effectsofbilingualismon nonlinguistictasks • Doesthebilingual’sexperienceof constantlymanagingtwolinguisticsystems haveaneffectoncoordinationin nonlinguistictasks?

“ Cognitivecontrol”involves…. • Paying selective attention to the relevant aspects of a problem • Inhibiting attention to irrelevant information • Switching between competing alternatives.

Futureresearch • Isthereadifferencebetween‘early’and ‘late’bilingualswithrespecttocognitive controlinnonlinguistictasks? • Theanswerwillbringuscloserto understandingtherelationshipbetween languageandothercognitivefaculties.

Thebilingualbrain • Structural vs. functional factors: whatarethe neuralsubstratesofbilinguals’behaviour? • Doesthebilingualbrainhaveadifferent neuralorganizationfromthemonolingual brain? • Doesthebilingualbrainhavedifferentneural substratesforthenativeandsecond language(s)?

Toconclude: Thecognitivestudyofthe bilingualmindisanexciting interdisciplinaryenterprise.