Research Projects

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.