Language-switching cost in Chinese-English bilingual reading comprehension: Evidence from eye-tracking

Chen, Danyi

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124142 Copy

Description

Title

Language-switching cost in Chinese-English bilingual reading comprehension: Evidence from eye-tracking

Author(s)

Chen, Danyi

Issue Date

2024-02-28

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Christianson, Kiel

Department of Study

Educational Psychology

Discipline

Educational Psychology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• bilingual processing
• language-switching
• code-switching
• reading comprehension
• eye-tracking

Abstract

Code-switching, or language-switching, which is the use of elements from two or more languages in the same utterance or in the same stretch of conversation (Paradis et al., 2011), is prevalent among bilingual and multilingual speakers. According to the parallel activation hypothesis of language comprehension, both languages of a bilingual are activated during sentence processing, even when there is only monolingual input (Spivey & Marian, 1999). However, studies have also shown that such language mixing can slow down processing (Macnamara & Kushnir, 1971; Soares & Grosjean, 1984). The following experiment investigated the cognitive cost brought by code-switching in Chinese-English bilinguals via eye-tracking. More specifically, this experiment determines the source of the baseline cost of language-switching in inter-sentential code-switching. Results have shown that compared with the general switch in language, narrative consistency and the amount of prime information had greater effects on bilinguals’ total reading times, indicating that the cognitive cost of language-switching arises more from the surprisal of encountering an unpredicted word, compared with encountering an unexpected language. This study provides more information on how bilinguals coordinate different linguistic information during bilingual language processing and adds to our knowledge of the underlying cognitive processes of language-switching in comprehension.

Graduation Semester

2024-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2024 Danyi Chen

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