The Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech

Abstract

During speech comprehension, bilinguals co-activate both of their languages, resulting in cross-linguistic interaction at various levels of processing. This interaction has important consequences for both the structure of the language system and the mechanisms by which the system processes spoken language. Using computational modeling, we can examine how cross-linguistic interaction affects language processing in a controlled, simulated environment. Here we present a connectionist model of bilingual language processing, the Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech (BLINCS), wherein interconnected levels of processing are created using dynamic, self-organizing maps. BLINCS can account for a variety of psycholinguistic phenomena, including cross-linguistic interaction at and across multiple levels of processing, cognate facilitation effects, and audio-visual integration during speech comprehension. The model also provides a way to separate two languages without requiring a global language-identification system. We conclude that BLINCS serves as a promising new model of bilingual spoken language comprehension.

Semantic facilitation in bilingual first language acquisition

“…Finally, our results contribute to a growing understanding of the role of language interaction in bilingual language acquisition (Deacon et al, 2007;Hernandez et al, 2005;MacWhinney, 2004;Pasquarella et al, 2011;Ramírez et al, 2013;Shook & Marian, 2013;Yip & Matthews, 2000). Specifically, learning two languages in one person is not simply a delayed version of learning two languages in two separate people.…”

“…According to emergentist accounts, languages influence one another during development, for example, via processes involving competition for referents and parasitic relationships where one word utilizes the conceptual packaging invoked by a word in the other language (Hernandez, Li, & MacWhinney, 2005;MacWhinney, 2004;Shook & Marian, 2013;Yip & Matthews, 2000). Further evidence also suggests that-among, for example, children of reading age engaged in acquiring L2-languages may interact via transfer of derivational morphology (Deacon, Wade-Woolley, & Kirby, 2007;Pasquarella, Chen, Lam, Luo, & Ramirez, 2011;Ramírez, Chen, & Pasquarella, 2013).…”

The influence of native-language tones on lexical access in the second language

“…This effect is predicted by highly interactive models of bilingual speech comprehension, such as the BLINCS model (Shook and Marian, 2013). In BLINCS, the presentation of tonal information could increase activation of corresponding lexical and semantic representations, independent of the segmental phonology.…”

The relevance of first language attrition to theories of bilingual development

“…Current approaches to bilingual development widely recognise that all languages which co-exist in the same brain are in constant interaction (e.g., Van Hell & Dijkstra, 2002;Shook & Marian, 2013) and that this interaction is at the root of many of the differences which we can observe between bilingual and monolingual speakers. Language processing is more cognitively demanding for bilinguals than for monolinguals since the bilingual has to contend with a number of additional tasks and challenges, among them resisting intrusions or automatisms from any language that has not been selected for use (e.g., Green, 1986Green, , 2011Abutalebi, Della Rosa, Green, Hernandez, Scifo, Keim, Cappa & Costa, 2011).…”