Cognitive shift in the bilingual mind: Spatial concepts in Korean–English bilinguals

Abstract

Recent research shows that speakers with different first languages perceive various cognitive domains in different ways and that bilinguals’ conceptualization patterns are affected by the concepts of both languages. The present study extends Choi and Bowerman (1991) by examining the categorizations of spatial concepts in adult Korean–English bilinguals. Using similarity judgments, the study compares the conceptualization patterns of “put in” and “put on” by Korean–English bilinguals and Korean and English monolinguals. Results indicated significant differences between the monolingual and bilingual groups, demonstrating the process of convergence of the two languages in the bilingual mind. Regression analyses also revealed that bilinguals’ conceptualizations are largely influenced by English proficiency and frequency of Korean use. These findings provide evidence of conceptual restructuring, supporting the claim of previous research that bilinguals’ conceptualization patterns are susceptible to their language experience.

Diferentes maneiras de observar eventos: o aprendizado de língua estrangeira e a aquisição de padrões de perspectivação conceitual de ações na L2

“…Athanasopoulos, et al, 2011;Bylund et al, 2013;Kurinski and Sera, 2011;Miles et al, 2011) have shown that acquisition of construal modes demonstrate developmental patterns across groups of learners with different levels of bilingualism. The findings from the present study provide evidence that while the performance of low-level bilinguals approximated that of the monolinguals, the performance of high-level bilinguals diverged significantly from both groups, suggesting that acquiring English has led to cognitive restructuring (Athanasopoulos, 2011;Park and Ziegler, 2014). While monolinguals and low-level bilinguals were found to construe actions in relatively high levels, high-level bilinguals showed significantly lower level action construals.…”

“…For instance, Park and Ziegler (2014) showed that the following classification patterns emerged as bilingual participants categorized spatial motions: creating a new unitary category distinct from the monolingual group, combining characteristics of both language-specific semantic distinctions to form a hybrid, showing an inbetween performance, and patterning with either L1-based or L2-based concepts. These results indicate that bilingualism may result in the adjustment of bilinguals' sensitivity to their native language construal patterns.…”

“…The effect of second language acquisition on cognitive restructuring has been carefully examined considering various influential factors, such as frequency of language use , language proficiency (Park and Ziegler, 2014), length of cultural immersion (Athanasopoulos, 2009), and age of acquisition onset (Bylund and Jarvis, 2011). For example, Bylund et al (2013) tested whether the speakers of Afrikaans (a non-aspect language) tended to encode event endpoints more than the Afrikaans L2 learners of English (an aspect language).…”

The effect of learning English as a foreign language on the temporal and spatial perception of Persian learners

“…Considering the present study, learning English as a foreign language can be considered to be the factor which influenced the cognitive processing of the high-level learners so that they developed a marked tendency to construe different phenomena in a lower level, which in turn lead to significantly lower estimated temporal and spatial distance. The findings contribute to the growing body of research on the language-thought interaction in various perceptual domains (Elston-Guttler & Williams, 2008;Kurinski & Sera, 2011;Park & Ziegler, 2014) by suggesting that learning a new language can have a significant impact on the cognitive behaviour of bilinguals.…”

“…Findings from the research on the language-thought interface suggest that the maintenance of language-specific cognitive processing of L2 learners is influenced by a number of factors such as frequency of language use (Park & Ziegler, 2014), language proficiency (Athanasopoulos, 2007(Athanasopoulos, , 2009Park & Ziegler, 2014), age of acquisition onset , and length of cultural immersion (Boroditsky, 2001;Cook et al, 2006;Athanasopoulos, 2007;Athanasopoulos et al, 2010;, language of instruction (Athanasopoulos, 2007). For example, Bylund et al (2013) tested whether the speakers of Afrikaans (a non-aspect language) tended to encode event endpoints more than the Afrikaans L2 learners of English (an aspect language).…”