Bilingual experience shapes language processing: Evidence from codeswitching

Beatty-Martínez, Anne L.; Dussias, Paola E.

doi:10.1016/j.jml.2017.04.002

Cited by 122 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Along with corpus data (Fricke and Kootstra 2016), such tasks allow identification of the cues to an upcoming code-switch and the opportunity to examine neural adaptation in the listener. So, for example, in the context of prior stretches of dense code-switching in the discourse, a cue to a code-switch Beatty-Martínez and Dussias 2017) should increase tonic pupil diameter and increase metastability in the networks mediating language control.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Control and Code-switching

Green

2018

Languages

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Analyses of corpus-based indices of conversational code-switching in bilingual speakers predict the occurrence of intra-sentential code-switches consistent with the joint activation of both languages. Yet most utterances contain no code-switches despite good evidence for the joint activation of both languages even in single language utterances. Varying language activation levels is an insufficient mechanism to explain the variety of language use. We need a model of code-switching, consistent with the joint activation of both languages, which permits the range of language use in bilingual speakers. I treat overt speech as the outcome of a number of competitive processes governed by a set of control processes external to the language networks. In a conversation, the speech of the other person may "trigger" code-switches consistent with bottom-up control. By contrast, the intentions of the speaker may act top-down to set the constraints on language use. Given this dual control perspective, the paper extends the control process model (Green and Wei 2014) to cover a plausible neurocomputational basis for the construction and execution of utterance plans in code-switching. Distinct control states mediate different types of language use with switching frequency as a key parameter in determining the control state for code-switches. The paper considers the nature of these states and their transitions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Control and Code-switching

Green

2018

Languages

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“…Moreover, we report a broadly distributed and extended LPC for the code-switched conditions. The LPC has now been documented in several studies on code-switching (e.g., Beatty-Martínez and Dussias 2017;Fernández et al 2019;Moreno et al 2002;2008;Litcofsky and Van Hell 2017;Ng et al 2014). While Moreno et al initially interpreted this component as reflective of processing an improbable or unexpected event, Van Hell and colleagues have suggested that it instead points toward sentence-level reanalysis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Are all code-switches processed the same? Examining semantic v. language unexpectancy

Kroff¹,

Roman²,

Dussias³

2020

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Prior studies using the event-related potential (ERP) technique show that integrating sentential code-switches in online processing lead to a broadly distributed late positivity component while processing semantically unexpected continuations instead lead to the emergence of an N400 effect. While the N400 is generally assumed to index lexico-semantic processing, the LPC has two different interpretations. One account suggests that it reflects the processing of an improbable or unexpected event while an alternative account proposes sentence-level reanalysis. To investigate the relative costs of semantic to language-based unexpectancies (i.e., code-switches), the current study tests 24 Spanish-English bilinguals in an ERP reading study. Semantically constrained Spanish frames either varied in their semantic expectancy (high vs low expectancy) and/or their language continuation (same language vs code-switch) while participants’ electrophysiological responses were recorded. The Spanish-to-English switch direction provides a more naturalistic test for integration costs to code-switching as it better approximates the code-switching practices of the target population. Analyses across three time windows show a main effect for semantic expectancy in the N400 time window and a main effect for code-switching in the LPC time window. Additional analyses based on the self-reported code-switching experience of the participants suggested an early positivity linked to less experience with code-switching. The results suggest that not all code-switches lead to similar integration costs and that prior experience with code-switching is an important additional factor that modulates online processing.

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“…Although most people shift their speech patterns somewhat based on the context of a conversation, code-switching between 2 languages has also been characterized as a specific neurolinguistic capability of bilingual speakers. 18,19 Once considered to be a sign of language incompetence (lack of true fluency in a second language, requiring the continued intermittent use of the first), code-switching between languages is now well established in the psycholinguistic literature as neurocognitive flexibility, which allows for a seamless fusion of 2 languages that are constantly and simultaneously activated in the speaker's neural circuitry. 18,20,21 Reframing clinical communication in these terms may allow medical educators and residents to understand their idealized role as fundamentally bilingual-experts not only in content but also in communication.…”

Section: Pedagogical Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%