UROP Project

The processing of Passive Sentences by L2 Learners of Italian and Spanish: an exploratory study

SLA Syntax Passives Italian Spanish
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Research Mentor: Mr Pietro Pesce,
Department, College, Affiliation: Modern Languages, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: ppesce@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators: Dr Michael Leeser, Lara Reglero (lreglero@fsu.edu)
Faculty Collaborators Email: mleeser@fsu.edu
Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Linguistics
Spanish
Italian
Statistics
Psychology
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 4, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Topic: UROP ROUNDTABLE -- PESCE
Time: Sep 7, 2023 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Time: Sep 7, 2023 1:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://fsu.zoom.us/j/92785533986
Meeting ID: 927 8553 3986

Project Description

This project aims to collect data in the Linguistics lab: participants will complete the experiment (in Italian or Spanish) and their responses will be recorded and analyzed in SPSS.
The project targets language acquisition, syntax, and cognitive models: specifically, we will be trying to gauge how students process advanced syntax in a foreign language by exposing them to written and auditory stimuli and have them interpret their meaning by way of a picture selection or sentence equivalence task.
Since L2 comprehension is more effortful than it is for the L1, it is expected that performance will vary not only on account of proficiency levels, but also due to individual differences pertaining the cognitive system (memory and control functions).
The project will shed light on some unanswered questions about the relationship between the complexity of L2-syntax and the possibility to repurpose previous knowledge to foster correct processing. Additionally, an attempt at teasing apart the effects of cross-linguistic influence (L1-L2) will be made, to resolve a doubt on the 'weakness' of the intrusion of the non-native language in the processing of the native one.

Research Tasks: Literature review, data collection, data analysis, lab report write-ups

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required: use of excel and word, bibliography search, academic writing

Recommended: use of SPSS, knowledge of a foreign language (Romance), basic notions of statistics

Mentoring Philosophy

The involvement of mentees in this project is aimed at having them explore the world of Linguistics research, from literature review and experiment design, to data collection and lab report write-ups. Since so many factors play a role in the successful outcome of research, my concern lies with having mentees learn new skills that may be serviceable outside of my field, and acquire a degree of ease with running experiments and interpreting data; at the same time, it is important to understand that no methodology is perfect, that errors may require a day's work to be thrown out, that being overwhelmed is business as usual, and that it is ok to take a step back and reconvene before deciding where the next step lies. Much the same way as what I do in my classes, I will strive to create a safe and engaging work environment for my mentees, one where collaboration is key to a solid outcome (be it the expected one, or not), and where every contribution counts and is recognized as a win for the person and the group.

Additional Information

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Link to Publications

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