FY 2008 Annual Report of Achievements - Gallaudet University

current lines of inquiry in psycholinguistic research on bilingualism. The subjects are a group of
college-level, hearing and deaf second language learners of Spanish.
Results from the hearing subjects show a clear phonological coding effect (indicated by longer
reaction times to words with phonological competitors). No phonological awareness enhancement in
English is found among hearing subjects after being exposed to the “treatment” block of Spanish words.
Data from the deaf subjects is still being collected. No analysis has yet been performed.
Understanding Sentences in Two Languages
Status: Completed Begin date: August 2003 End date: No set date
Principal Investigator(s):
Dussias, Paola – The Pennsylvania State University
Piñar, Pilar – Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Description:
Using a moving window technique and an eye tracker, the researchers compared how native
English speakers and second language learners of English process certain embedded interrogative
structures during real-time reading tasks. The main question was whether the previously observed
asymmetry in the processing of object extractions versus subject extractions from embedded
structures is due to a competence or a performance issue. The effect of language proficiency and
working memory capacity on how these structures are processed is also examined.
FY 2007-2008 product(s):
Dussias, P.G., & Piñar, P. (in press). Effects of language proficiency and plausibility in the reanalysis of wh-gaps by
Chinese-English bilinguals. Second Language Research.
A-38