Project description
Bilingual activation in anaphora resolution by adult Spanish learners
Anaphora resolution in Spanish as a second language (L2) involves identifying the antecedent for pronouns or null subjects. Since Spanish allows null subjects, English speakers not accustomed to them may find them difficult to interpret and often rely too heavily on overt pronouns. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ABLAR project will examine how bilingual individuals resolve Spanish pronouns, focusing on L2 anaphora resolution among adult native speakers of Italian and English. Participants are tested in both monolingual and dual-language modes using visual-world eye-tracking and picture-selection tasks. By using bilingual stimuli, the research captures the interaction between the two languages, challenging the traditional view of bilinguals as two separate monolinguals.
Objective
This project investigates how two languages interact in the bilingual mind by examining anaphora resolution in L2 Spanish among adult native speakers of Italian and English. Participants are tested in both mono-language and dual-language mode. Specifically, the study assesses how bilingual speakers link Spanish pronouns (null/overt) to their referents during online processing (via visual world eye-tracking) and offline comprehension (via untimed picture-selecton task).
The innovation of this research lies in the use of bilingual stimuli (English–Spanish and Italian–Spanish) within the same experiment, allowing for simultaneous co-activation of both languages of participants' linguistic repertoire while they process linguistic stimlu in real time. Results from the dual-language mode are compared with those from a mono-language mode, in which participants are required to suppress one language (Spanish-only). This comparison aims to determine whether language co-activation influences pronoun resolution in bilinguals.
By incorporating bilingual input, this project advances beyond most second language acquisition and processing studies, which typically make use of experimental stimuli in one language only, and compare L2 learners to monolingual controls as a normative baseline. However, this approach does not capture the dynamic nature of bilingual cognition, failing to account for the real-life situation of two languages constantly interacting in a bilingual’s mind, and reinforcing the outdated view of bilinguals as two monolinguals in one person.
Therefore, this study offers a more ecologically valid framework for psycholinguistic research, avoiding the bilingual/monolingual comparative fallacy. The role of word order and pragmatic factors (topic and focus) in modulating L2 anaphora resolution is also investigated. Societal implications concern the promotion of multilingual practices in education and assessment through outreach and public engagement activities.
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- humanities languages and literature general language studies
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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18071 Granada
Spain
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