The Growing Demand for Bilingualism in Modern Society - Research Paper Example

Introduction: The Importance of Bi- and Multilingualism Every generation witnesses a boom in a specific set of skills that become necessary to the advancement of citizens in political, economic, and social arenas. In the 1960s, knowledge of constitutional laws and human rights was essential for the civil rights and feminist movements; in the 1990s (until now), the shift from paper and pen to computers demanded a mass of people proficient in technical skills; today, our global words requires bi and multilingualism in order to efficiently handle the cross-lingual and cultural interactions that characterize the twenty first century (Edwards, 1994). It is not difficult to see the central importance of bilingualism, with an emphasized importance on English language acquisition, in today’s society. Although having English as the world language raises numerous issues about identity and power that need to be further investigated, the reality is that being bilingual – in both one’s native language as well as in English – is quickly becoming the norm. In an attempt to compete globally, countries are investing mass amounts of capital into establishing bilingual institutions of higher learning, in which English-speaking instructors are being enticed to move to some of the most remote and exotic places on the globe to educate children and adults in China and Cambodia and Oman, etc. Therefore, the discussion of how non-English speakers become proficient in a second language (L2) is pivotal in the educational community, which raises issues of recognition, comprehension, and stimuli that aid the brain in developing the connections that enable the interpretation and processing of foreign information. In an attempt to study how these connections are made, many linguists rely on the Stroop test, which serves to study the reaction time of a task. Applying this test to L2 acquisition provides invaluable insight which will enable language instructors to create learning environments that will aid language learners in transitioning from a basic or intermediate knowledge to an advanced fluency of the second language. A Century of Influence: Understanding the Stroop Effect J.R. Stroop has made an invaluable contribution to the history of experimental psychology, and his test has been utilized in a myriad of subject areas, from neuropsychology to affective disorders. The Stroop effect has been used to discuss frontal lobe function (brain patterns), the role of emotions on cognition, the speed at which individuals process and compartmentalize information, and the process of second language acquisition (Stroop Effect, 2010). The Stroop test has even found its way into pop culture, in which Ryuta Kawashima developed a software program for Nintendo DS, called “Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day,” which incorporates a variation of the test as a means to aid memory and shorten the reaction time of a response. However, reviewing the literature on the Stroop effect can be maddening, especially for the lay person trying to grasp a concept that is frequently defined in inaccessible jargon. As a result, it is more beneficial to return to the original study that made this experiment so valuable to the academic community. Initially published in 1935, in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, John Ridley Stroop was primarily concerned with explaining interference, and his experiment sought to investigate the following, “if a is already connected with b, then it is difficult to connect it with k, [because] b gets in the way” (Stroop, 1935). Although it is difficult to connect a with k when a has already been linked in conceptual value to b, it is not impossible to re-create a link between a and k through repetitive practice. In this regard, the Stroop effect tests for the following phenomena: first, it investigates the length of the response time (RT) when an uncommon stimulus is introduced, requiring the individual to reconceptualize links between new pieces of information (in this instance, a does not related to b anymore; a relates now to k); and second, it continually tests the duration of the RT as the new connections are reinforced through repetition (the link between a and k will continue to strengthen as a and k are internalized through saying or doing the same action over and over again). Stroop relied on a color-word test which looked at RT when the color of the ink was incongruent with the word of the color written on the card, arguing that, initially, RT is delayed when the test subject is required to say that the font color is in blue when the letters on the card say red, because “interference is very probably the present strength of the associations between colors and their names, already determined by past use” (Stroop, 1935). This finding is imperative because it argues that the connection between words and visual stimuli are connections developed through past experiences (education, socialization, etc.), which results in imbedding the value of the image on the written word. Simply put, if a word is written in blue and the test subject is told to read the color word on the card, the subject will automatically assume that the word on the card matches the color of the font. RT is lengthened when the subject has to stop and think about what they are actually seeing without being allowed to rely on their socialized assumption that the color of the font and the word will match. The discussion on the processes that connect a to b is important to understanding how to assist bilingual language learners move past the beginner and intermediate phase of L2 acquisition into a level of language fluency congruent to the L1 fluency. Placing Stroop in Historical Context: Reviewing the Importance of the Stroop Test on Cognition over the past Century. Over the past half century, the Stroop test has become increasingly influential in the fields of psychology and linguistics. After completing a comprehensive historiography on the Stroop effect, MacLeod argues that the power of the test lies in the fact that, “perhaps the task is seen as tapping into the primitive operations of cognition, offering clues to the fundamental process of attention. Perhaps the robustness of the phenomenon provides a special challenge to decipher. Together these are powerful attractions in a field of complex phenomena where the most subtle variations may exert a dramatic effect” (1991). Macleod states that Stroop’s test was inspired by work completed by James McKeen Cattel in 1886, in which Cattel argues that naming the color of a group of objects takes longer than reading the color word aloud. However, it was Stroop’s experiments that explained Cattel’s hypothesis, in which Stroop’s findings demonstrated that “words [evoke] a single reading response, whereas colors [evoke] multiple responses, thereby making naming colors slower than reading words” (Stroop, 1935; MacLeod, 1991). Coupled with an important conclusion, Stroop’s article was also bolstered by the large sample of people tested, his conclusive data analysis, careful acknowledgement of the academic forefathers who had contributed to his hypothesis. Another major contribution of the Stroop test is that it opened up the field of inquiry to other factors not initially considered by Stroop himself. Ensuing articles on the Stroop effect took such variables as sex, age, and language differences into consideration. Sex differences when assessing the Stroop effect take into account that women and men have different interferences (established biologically and through a process of socialization) and react differently to them. Age considerations in the Stroop test find that younger children and the elderly have an increased level of difficulty in filtering out interferences in the cognitive procedure (MacLeod, 1991). Considering language as a factor in the Stroop effect comes with a myriad of other considerations which are not as easy to separate and analyze as gender and age. For example, interference was different for bilinguals when they had to name the color of the block but had the word of the color written in English, versus when they had to name the color in their native language while also being presenting with the word written in their native language. In addition, the matter is further complicated when issues of proficiency are taken into account. Finally, there have been studies on how the Stroop effect is altered when the subjects are from morphosyllabic languages (for example, Chinese characters) rather than romance languages (for example, French alphabet). However, interestingly enough, studies on bilingualism and the Stroop effect present the following findings: “interference between the two languages of a bilingual, although not as great as that within either one of the languages, is very robust: Between-language interference typically is about 75% of within-language interference” (MacLeon, 1991). Although the Stroop effect is not as great for individuals’ participating in the test in an L2 context, it is a significant factor to consider, especially when trying to assess the best methods in which to assist a language learner in becoming fluently bilingual. Bilingualism and The Stroop Effect: Ascertaining the Role of Character versus Alphabet-based Languages on Interference Although numerous studies have been conducted on how skilled readers interpret words, “little research has been devoted to character recognition in morphosyllabic writing systems… Given the fundamental differences in the way alphabetic and morphosyllabic writing systems are constructed, it seems obvious that there should also be fundamental differences in the cognitive processes involved in reading both types of scripts” (Saalbach & Stern, 2004; Sumiya & Healy, 2008; ). In this regard, the Stroop effect has to gauge how these differences in writing systems affect different cognitive processes, most notably which hemisphere of the brain is activated and how each hemisphere reacts to interferences differently (MacLeon, 1991). Saalbach and Stern (2004) argue that, as a result of the visual nature of morphosyllabic languages, “access from the print [of the word] to phonology is faster in Chinese than in German readers,” which, simply put, means that character-driven languages enable the reader to see the word in characters and respond with the correct reading of the word quicker than those coming from an alphabetic language background. In light of this information, it is no wonder why it interference is more poignant for L2 learners who are going from a morphosyllabic language to a romance language, and vice versa. The Present Experiment: Hypothesis and Method The purpose of this experiment is two fold: first, it attempts to contribute its findings to the growing corpus which investigates the cognitive processes involved in L2 acquisition; and second, it endeavors to show that morphographic language participants respond differently to interferences than alphabetic language participants, which should result in a different Stroop effect for both groups of participants. This information will pose useful for future discussions on how to improve second language learning, especially for students who are from a morphographic language background and are attempting to become fluent in English. Participants The participants in the study were from three ethnic backgrounds: Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. The largest ethnicity in the study was Chinese, with 32 participants; secondly, there were 31 Japanese participants; and thirdly, there were 28 Spanish participants. The ages of the participants ranged from 19 years to 33 years, with the mean average age 24 years. In regards to gender, the Chinese bilingual group was equally represented with male and female participants; however, the Japanese cohort was overrepresented with male participants and the Spanish cohort was overrepresented with female participants. Further studies on how this may affect these particular test results are advisable, especially when gender has already been established as a criterion that affects the Stroop test. Materials The materials used were simple. On sheets of paper, different color fonts were used to write a variation of color words. The following color fonts and color words written in English were used in various combinations: red, blue, green, pink, grey, black, and orange. In addition, several color fonts and word colors were repeated sporadically to see if this would contribute to an increase or a decrease in RT. Procedure Each participant was tested privately, away from the other participants, in a quiet and well-lit room. While sitting in front of the participants, cards were handed to them, one card at a time, in order to avoid having them read the following cards in between testing. This decision was based on the assumption that having all the cards out at once would allow the participants to scan over the subsequent cards, which would not produce an authentic RT because of the opportunity to cognitively understand the next card before being asked the question. As each card was presented, the participant was required to say the color of the font in English, not the color word included. During this period, a record of the responses was kept. In a chart that listed the color fonts included in the test, the following letters and symbols were used: w indicated that the participant had said the wrong color font, h indicated that the participant hesitated before saying the correct color font, a blank space indicated that there was no mistake or hesitation on that particular color font, and a shaded line through all of the color fonts indicated that the participant made no mistakes or hesitations during the testing. Results After conducting the test, 14 participants in the three ethnic groups made no mistakes or hesitations when naming the color font. The Japanese cohort had the highest number of participants who made no errors, with 6 perfects scores; while the Chinese and Spanish cohorts had 4 perfect scores each. In terms of errors, the Chinese bilinguals received 47 h’s and 5 w’s; the Japanese bilinguals received 42 h’s and 1 w; and the Spanish bilinguals received 58 h’s and 4 w’s. The following equation was used to find out the average number of correct answers made for each participant in the three groups: the number of participants multiplied (x) by the number of questions asked, subtracted (-) by the total number of mistakes, and finally divided by the number of participants per group (/). Using the Spanish group as an example, the equation is as follows: [28 (participants) x 12 (color questions) - 62 (errors, including hesitations and mistakes)] / 28 (participants). In this regard, the average number of correct answers for the Chinese participants is 10.4 ( [32 x 12 - 52] / 32). The average number of correct answers for the Japanese participants is 10.6 ( [31 x 12 – 43] / 31). Finally, the average number of correct answers for the Spanish participants is 9.8. Discussion Although the differences between the groups are not as vast as one would hope to be able to make conclusive arguments, it does raise the interesting question of how coming from an alphabetic versus a morphosyllabic language background affects L2 acquisition. Initially, it was assumed that transitioning from a morphosyllabic language system to an alphabetic system, as in the case of Chinese and Japanese speakers responding in English, would cause a longer RT in the Stroop test than a participant coming from an alphabetic language system, such as Spanish, and also participating in the Stroop test in another alphabetic language system, such as English. The test case demonstrates the opposite. It seems that the Japanese group had the highest number of correct answers per participant, and the Spanish group had the lowest number of correct answers per participant. In this case, perhaps the issue at play is that the words, written in English, pose as a greater interference stimuli to Spanish bilinguals who are accustomed to using the alphabet, than to Japanese and Chinese bilinguals who are more accustomed to seeing words written in their language characters, which makes English letters less of a distraction to the participants. Although further studies need to be conducted on this matter, these results suggest two central conclusions. First, the Stroop affect is decreased when participants come from a morphographic language background but take the test in an alphabetic language, and increased for participants from an alphabetic background who take the test in another alphabetic language. Second, due to impact of morphographic versus alphabetic languages on learning English, the alphabetic language learner attempting to learn English may have a more difficult time becoming fluent because having a longer RT to seeing something and communicating the information back serves to make the conversation seem more unnatural or lacking in a flow that is common in L1 interactions. References Edwards, J. (1994). Multilingualism. London: Routledge. 1 – 14, 15 - Retrieved December 1, 2010, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103926047 Macleod, C.M. (1991). Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 109(2), 163 – 203. Rosselli, M., et. al. (2002). Stroop effect in Spanish-English bilinguals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8(6) 819 – 27. Saalbach, H., & Stern, E. (2004). Differences between Chinese morphosyllabic and German alphabetic readers in the Stroop interference effect. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11(4), 709+. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5035460037 Sumiya, H. & Healy, A.F. (2008). The Stroop effect in English-Japanese bilinguals. Experimental Psychology, 55(2), 93 – 101. Stroop, J.R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643 – 662. Sutton T.M., Altarriba, J., Gianico, J.L., & Basnight-Brown, D.M. (2007). The automatic access of emotion: Emotional Stroop effects in Spanish-English bilingual speakers. Cognition and Emotion, 21(5), 1077 – 1090. The Indomitable Mr. Stroop. (2009). Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, 71(4), 668+. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5035337731 Wiggett, A. J., & L Davies, I. R. (2008). The Effect of Stroop interference on the categorical -perception of color. Memory & Cognition, 36(2), 231+. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5035302312 Wikipedia. (2010, November 30). Stroop Effect. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect Read More