Oral and Written Language interactions

Project Information

OWLi

Grant agreement ID: 892200

DOI

10.3030/892200

Project closed

EC signature date 29 April 2020

Start date 28 April 2021

End date 27 April 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 160 932,48

EU contribution

€ 160 932,48

Coordinated by

BCBL BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OWLi (Oral and Written Language interactions)

Reporting period: 2021-04-28 to 2023-04-27

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

New technologies have changed the way language is used. Although speaking and writing differ at least in terms of their motor actions, the cognitive processes leading to word selection are likely similar. However, scientists haven’t identified the specificities of speaking and writing as regards the cognitive, linguistic and motor processes and neural pathways involved. The EU-funded OWLi project therefore aimed to identify the shared attributes and differences between language modalities. To do this, this project studied the interaction between language modalities when learning the oral and written forms of new words. It also assessed the structural and dynamic interplay between language modalities at the neural level.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The main objective of this project was to identify the commonalities and differences between language modalities. Its originality resided in looking at the collaborative and competitive processes at play between speaking and writing to describe their interaction.

The first aim of this action was to describe the interaction of the written and spoken modalities during language learning, more specifically during the acquisition of novel words. The results of a behavioral study conducted with native Spanish speakers revealed that words were learned better through written than oral production, as more words were remembered in this training condition. The performance during written production was better after written training specifically, while performance during spoken production was less sensitive to the type of training. These results are currently being written up into a manuscript.
The second aim of this action was to evaluate the structural and dynamic interplay between language modalities in an already acquired language. The current state of the art on the neural and cognitive underpinnings of speaking and writing revealed the necessity of studying them together and this project filled this gap. We conducted a neuroimaging study using fMRI that addresses the commonalities and differences between spoken and typed language production. Data analysis is under progress, but first results already suggest similar activation of core language regions and modality-specific activation of motor regions. To address more specific questions about the behavioral productions in each modality, we decided to conduct a complementary behavioral study using the same design but that allowed to use more fine-grained measures to characterize differences between modalities (e.g. acoustic measures). The results allow for the direct comparison of speech and typing and are currently being prepared for publication.

Overall, this body of work addresses the research questions set up at the beginning of this action about the interaction between the different modalities of language production.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of this project add to the basic knowledge on the interaction between oral and written language production modalities. Specifically, it provides new insights in the structural and dynamic interplay between modalities during language production and language learning. It will guide researchers in their future investigations to select the appropriate modality when conducting research on language production. It also holds implications for language learning that should be taken into consideration when designing educational programs involving technology.
This research project yielded results that are of high interest for the European Union to develop policies for language education, appropriate to such a multicultural environment that is the EU. It also fits within the UN sustainability goals for quality education. By providing people a better language education, it will give them more employment opportunities, and facilitate inter-cultural communications that are crucial in our globalized society.
This research project also fits within a context that sees new technologies taking an increasing role in our daily lives and educational systems. By studying and directly comparing how people use and learn oral and written language we are more likely to develop appropriate policies for the integration of technology, for instance in the classroom.
The results of this project have been widely spread over social networks and through press releases. On top of outreach events and press releases, specific measures were taken to reach the population most interested in these results: language teachers. Through the organization of an event specifically geared at fostering two-way interactions between researchers and language teachers (Teachers’ Day), specific collaborations with local language academies were created (London School of Languages, Donostia-San Sebastián). This will facilitate developing research projects in real-life learning settings.

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