The Internal Context Of Bilingual Processing

This book offers a broad-based account of bilingual processing, drawing on research findings and current thinking from various domains across cognitive science. The theoretical approach adopted is the Modular Cognition Framework in which language processing is characterized as an interaction between dedicated linguistic systems and the other modules of the human mind. The latter provide the 'internal context' of bilingual processing. This internal context involves goals, value, emotion, self, and representations of the external context. The book combines all these elements into a coherent picture of the bilingual's internal context and the way it shapes processing. It then shows how some central concepts in cognitive science and bilingualism fit in with – and follow from – this view. These concepts include working memory, consciousness, attention, effort, codeswitching, and the possible cognitive benefits of being bilingual. The book should be of interest to professionals in the field as well as postgraduate students and advanced undergraduates.

In the world today, bilingualism is more common than monolingualism. Thus, the default mental lexicon may in fact be the bilingual lexicon. More than ever, social and technological innovation have created a situation in which lexical knowledge may change dramatically throughout an individual’s lifetime. This book offers a new perspective for the understanding of these phenomena and their consequences for the representation of words in the mind and brain. Contributing authors are leaders in the field who provide a re-analysis of key assumptions and a re-focusing of research. They bring new insights and new findings that advance the understanding of both bilingualism and the mental lexicon. This volume serves to generate new directions and advances in bilingualism research.

This thought-provoking monograph makes a multidisciplinary case for bilingualism as a possible enhancer of executive function, particularly cognitive control. Its central focus is the cognitive operations of the bilingual brain in processing two languages and whether they afford the brain a greater edge on neuroplasticity—in short, a cognitive advantage. Major issues and controversies in the debate are analyzed from cognitive neuroscience, psycholinguistic, and integrative perspectives, with attention paid to commonly and rarely studied domains at work in bilingual processing. The author also pinpoints future areas for improved research such as recognizing the diversity of bilingualism, not simply in languages spoken but also in social context, as seen among immigrants and refugees. Included in the coverage: The evolution of bilingualism. What goes on in a bilingual mind? The core cognitive mechanisms. Cognitive advantage of bilingualism and its criticisms. Neuroscience of bilingualism. Bilingualism, context, and control. Attention, vision, and control in bilinguals. With its cogent takes on ongoing questions and emerging issues, Bilingualism and Cognitive Control is of immediate interest to bilingual researchers and practitioners interested in understanding the behavioral aspects and neurobiology of bilingualism and the dynamic character of the bilingual/multilingual/second language learner’s mind, as well as the growing number of advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in the psychology/psycholinguistics of bilingualism, bilingual cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience.

In the past 30 years, the study of bilingualism processing has been conducted independently by two fields, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. This volume merges these two fields, addressing one of the tough problems dividing researchers in bilingualism, conceptually as well as methodologically. Joel Walters proposes a new approach to bilingualism processing--the Sociopragmatic-Psycholinguistic (SPPL) Model--which presents language as a social phenomenon. The author accomplishes this by identifying and organizing evidence from a wide range of linguistic disciplines, merging sociopragmatics, discourse analysis, and ethnography with social cognition, psycholinguistics, and neuroscience. By extension, the author offers convincing explanations of how related fields can profit from a comprehensive bilingual processing model. As a result, Joel Walters delivers a well-organized, comprehensive model that is thought through at every level. This book appeals to graduate students, scholars in the fields of linguistics, bilingualism, second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. It is useful to researchers for its comprehensiveness and methodological acumen and may be appropriate as a supplementary textbook for graduate-level courses in bilingualism or for seminars on similar topics.

A great majority of people around the world know more than one language. So, how does knowing one language affect the learning and use of additional languages? The question of cross-language influences is the focus of this book. Do bilinguals hear, understand, and produce language and meaning differently because of the languages they speak? How well can theoretical and computational models of language processing and acquisition explain and predict bilingual use patterns and acquisition trajectories? What learner, language, and context characteristics influence bilingual comprehension and production? This book provides a state-of-the-art review and critique of research into cross-language influences in phonology, lexicon, and morphosyntax, and suggests directions for future research. The interdisciplinary nature of the book bridges the gap between research on bilingualism and second language acquisition. The book will be of interest to graduate students, teachers, and researchers in linguistics and second language acquisition, cognitive psychology, and language education.

This collection brings together linguistic, psychological, and sociological perspectives reflecting on the relationships and interactions of the multilayered factors impacting second language development and cognitive competence. The book advocates a system approach as a counterpoint to existing scholarship, which has tended to focus on a small set of variables. The 13 chapters demonstrate the ways in which cognitive and linguistic development are intrinsically linked, occurring within a nested structure of multiple levels: individual neuro-cognitive systems and processes, individual engagement with the social world, and the wider social and institutional environments and cultural contexts affecting the belief systems and linguistic conventions of social groups. The volume begins by outlining the theoretical and methodological foundations before moving into a more focused look at the interplay of these different variables at the macro, meso, and micro levels. A final section features two commentary chapters from linguistics and psychology, respectively, synthesizing insights from earlier chapters and situating the collection within broader scholarship on linguistic and cognitive development, theoretical and methodological implications, and discussions of avenues for future empirical research. This book will be of particular interest to scholars in second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, cognition, psychology, and sociology.

This collection of 33 papers represents the most current thinking and research on the study of cognitive processing in bilingual individuals. The contributors include well-known figures in the field and promising new scholars, representing four continents and work in dozens of languages. Instead of the social, political, or educational implications of bilingualism, the focus is on how bilingual people (mostly adults) think and process language.

The human mind is a marvelous device that effectively regulates mental activities and facilitates amendable cognitive behaviour across several domains such as attention, memory, and language processing. For multilinguals, the mind also represents and manages more than one language system—a mental exercise which may lead to cognitive benefits. Through an in-depth exploration of these issues, Cognitive Control and Consequences of Multilingualism presents original studies and new perspectives which are cutting-edge and feature traditional and innovative methodologies such as ERPs, fMRIs, eye-tracking, picture- and numeral naming, the Simon, flanker, and oculomotor Stroop tasks, among others. The studies in this book investigate prominent themes in multilingual language control for both comprehension and production and probe the notion of a cognitive advantage that may be a result of multilingualism. The growing number of researchers, practitioners, and students alike will find this volume to be an instrumental source of readings that illuminates how one mind accommodates and controls multiple languages and the consequences it has on human cognition in general.