Research

Cognitive Sciences and Psychology

Title :

Bilingual experiences in heritage language speakers and its impact on cognitive control Creating data base from varying socio-cultural background

Area of Research :

Cognitive Sciences and Psychology

Focus Area :

Bilingualism, Heritage Language Acquisition

Principal Investigator :

Dr. Bidisha Som, Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, Assam (781039)

Contact info :

Timeline Start Year :

2023

Timeline End Year :

2026

Total Budget (INR):

48,10,751

Details

Executive Summary :

Research on bilingual language processing has long focused on the bilingual advantage in linguistic and non-linguistic tasks. However, studies have shown that this advantage is not found in all participants and task conditions. This has led to the need to investigate the impact of bilingualism on language processing, rather than a universal rule. To better understand bilingual cognitive control, more studies involving bi/multilingual societies speaking multiple local languages are needed. The investigator aims to contribute by creating a database from at least four different types of speech communities, examining their socio-cultural and linguistic practices. The impact of subtle aspects of language acquisition/usage, hierarchy of the first and second language, and genetic distance between the two languages will be investigated. The results will be analyzed using the Adaptive Control Hypothesis. The Principal Investigator is already engaged in similar studies in northeast India, and results from few studies indicate interesting differences in processing strategies adopted. The next step is to expand the study to include more bilingual populations from different parts of the country. The investigator will focus more on heritage language speakers rather than English as a second language, as English entails a certain amount of "status" that could impact the findings.

Equipments :

Organizations involved