Psycholinguistics What is psycholinguistics ? Psycholinguistics is the study of the cognitive processes that support the acquisition and use of language.

The scope of psycholinguistics : 1- Historically = First language (L1) 1-What is the nature of the input that is critical for language to develop? 2-To what extent is this developmental process biologically constrained ? 3- How are words recognized when listening to speech or reading text ? The questions that have been the focus of investigation :

4- How do we understand sentences and texts ? 5- By what means are lexical and syntactic ambiguities resolved? 6- How are abstract thoughts mapped onto utterances prior to speaking?

2- Recently = Bilinguals (Individuals who are acquiring or actively using more than one language) Specific questions with respect to bilinguals are : 1- Is L2 acquisition different from L1 acquisition ? 2- To what extent does the L1 play a role in using the L2 ?

3- Are there roles governing code- switching (the use of more than one language in an utterance )? 4- How do speakers of more than one language keep the two languages apart? 5- How are languages acquired at some point in time lost or maintained over time ?

Review of psycholinguistic research on L2 acquisition and competent bilingual performance Assumptions : - L2 learners and proficient bilinguals rely on similar cognitive mechanisms. - Those mechanisms are generally universal across languages. - The same cognitive resources are universally available to all learners..

Cognitive Models: Language Production in Bilinguals Modelling language production of the competent bilingual Levelt’s “Speaking” model (1989, 1999) - Aim - Procedure 1- Conceptualizer - 2- Formulator 3- Articulator

Lexical items Lemma Lexeme * What happens in the production of these items ?? - The distinction bet. three levels: conceptusl, lemma and lexeme is crucial - to the model used.

Poulisse (1997) factors * To turn a monolingual model into a bilingual model : - L2 knowledge is typically incomplete - - L2 speech is more hesitant and contains more errors and slips - - L2 speech often carries traces of the L1

Keeping Languages Apart 1- Earlier proposals suggested that there were ‘switches’. 2- Paradis has proposed the ‘sub-set hypothesis: words from a given lang. form a sub-set of the total inventory. Each sub-set can be activated independently.

Language choice : How language choice is implemented ? 1-semantic specification. 2-syntactic information..3-A pointer to a particular lexeme Thus there are a number of steps in the process of lexical access where choices have to be made

Experimental Studies of Language Production in L1 and L2 Comprehension studies: A word,sentence or text can be presented and we can examine the way in which processing reflects its structure and meaning.

Production studies: Investigate the planning of utterances in real time. 1- Picture-naming task. - Description - Results 2- Picture-word interference - Description - Results

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A growing field of research now deals with the opposite of language acquisition: language attrition and language loss. Through non-use of a language,the level of activation of knowledge decreases and eventually lost.

‘Savings’ Model The assumption The procedure The results showed significant savings effects for the old words. Relearning the old words was easier than learning completely new words

Information Accessibility of linguistics element must have been acquired and stored Information Information must be accessible in time

Done by : 4 th year/Gr. B Ohood Al-Qurashi Heba Al- Ansari Gohfran Samkary Mona Bagazi Sundus Al-Nabahani Rahma Mulla Aisha Al Khuza’I ‘Alyaa Al Garni