[ABLAR] Activation of bilingualism in anaphora resolution by adult second language learners of Spanish
Ente: EC
Scadenza: 2029-08-31
Importo max: 194.075 EUR
Paese: EU
Descrizione
This project investigates how two languages interact in the bilingual mind by examining anaphora resolution in L2 Spanish among adult native speakers of Italian and English. Participants are tested in both mono-language and dual-language mode. Specifically, the study assesses how bilingual speakers link Spanish pronouns (null/overt) to their referents during online processing (via visual world eye-tracking) and offline comprehension (via untimed picture-selecton task).
The innovation of this research lies in the use of bilingual stimuli (English–Spanish and Italian–Spanish) within the same experiment, allowing for simultaneous co-activation of both languages of participants' linguistic repertoire while they process linguistic stimlu in real time. Results from the dual-language mode are compared with those from a mono-language mode, in which participants are required to suppress one language (Spanish-only). This comparison aims to determine whether language co-activation influences pronoun resolution in bilinguals.
By incorporating bilingual input, this project advances beyond most second language acquisition and processing studies, which typically make use of experimental stimuli in one language only, and compare L2 learners to monolingual controls as a normative baseline. However, this approach does not capture the dynamic nature of bilingual cognition, failing to account for the real-life situation of two languages constantly interacting in a bilingual’s mind, and reinforcing the outdated view of bilinguals as two monolinguals in one person.
Therefore, this study offers a more ecologically valid framework for psycholinguistic research, avoiding the bilingual/monolingual comparative fallacy. The role of word order and pragmatic factors (topic and focus) in modulating L2 anaphora resolution is also investigated. Societal implications concern the promotion of multilingual practices in education and assessment through outreach and public engagement activities.
Settori: Horizon Europe Topics
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