Doctoral Dissertation Research: The cognitive and linguistic consequences of early life language experiences

Early life experience is more varied than we often realize. For children coming of age in families where the language spoken at home differs from the language of the larger community, exposure to two languages typically produces bilingualism. Using a home language different than the language spoken outside by the larger society, called heritage bilingualism, is the most common form of bilingualism in this country although it has not been an area of much investigation. A feature of heritage bilingualism is that children in this context are often called upon to translate for their caregivers. The stronger language skills that the children in these contexts come to have, particularly once they enter school, enable them to become brokers or translators for their caregivers, who may only speak the home language or may have only partial knowledge of the language of wider communication. Language brokering may involve translating conversations, documents, and providing language support in medical settings. The focus of the research in the current project is on the consequences of this translation or brokering experience once these children become young adults. The researchers hypothesize that the highly dynamic use of both languages required to broker will be associated not only with more integrated language representations but also with a greater ability to regulate the effective use of the two languages under a range of communicative contexts. The team takes a novel approach by analyzing young adult bilinguals’ brain and behavior to examine the impact of language brokering on language processing and cognition. They ask whether this early life experience of intensive translation creates enduring consequences for young adult bilinguals. Outcomes of this study bring awareness to the cognitive affects of language brokering, thus contributing to demystifying views of bilingualism. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.