Thursday November 20th 4:05pm Navigating Two Languages In One

Transcript

Thursday November 20th 4:05pm Navigating two languages in one mind: A cognitive perspective on code-switching Psycholinguistic research on multilingual speakers has overwhelmingly shown that multiple languages are active to varying degrees even in contexts in which only one language is needed. This evidence has led to proposals that multilingual speakers engage in inhibitory processes in order to appropriately speak and understand in one language alone. Additionally, certain bilingual communities engage in a unique bilingual skill known as code-switching, i.e. the fluid and intentional alternation between languages within conversation. Despite the prevalence of this bilingual mode of speech in heavy language contact settings such as South Florida, the mental processes that support the successful comprehension of code-switched speech are greatly understudied. In this talk, I will present two experiments that investigate how the bilingual mind dynamically adapts to successfully integrate two languages during speech comprehension. Jorge Valdés Kroff nació en Viña del Mar, Chile. Emigró con su familia a Miami a los 2 años de edad. Inició sus estudios en University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill donde sacó su BA en lingüística y estudios internacionales en 2001. Completó su tesis doctoral en Penn State University en 2012. Hizo un postdoc de 2 años en University of Pennsylvania a través de una beca postdoctoral de NSF (National Science Foundation). Jorge investiga la comprensión auditiva en los bilingües y aprendices de segundas lenguas por medio de métodos psicolingüísticos.