Research statement

Ana Beatriz Arêas da Luz Fontes

My program of research focuses on the development of second language reading skills in adult
bilinguals. I am particularly interested in the cognitive processes that enable non-native speakers,
who enter college with limited reading experiences in the second language, to develop the level
of reading proficiency required for university coursework in a matter of just a few semesters.

For my masters’ thesis, I focused on the process of lexical disambiguation (i.e. how one accesses
and selects meanings of words with multiple interpretations). Since previous research has
demonstrated that individual differences in lexical disambiguation efficiency are a critical
component of reading skill, I investigated what cognitive factors build this skill for bilinguals
reading in a second language. I was specifically, interested in what role verbal working memory
plays in the efficiency of this process. The major finding from this study was that bilinguals with
high verbal working memory in Spanish were more efficient at negotiating competition from the
shared, dominant meaning of ambiguous cognates (e.g., “BOOK” meaning of “novel”) while
simultaneously reaping an accuracy benefit from the lexical form transparency of the cognates
(Arêas da Luz Fontes & Schwartz, in preparation for re-submission). The cognate facilitation
finding for high verbal working memory readers is a novel finding in the literature. It suggests
that the nature of cross-language lexical activation effects (i.e. facilitative or inhibitory) is
influenced by individual differences in working memory capacity.

I am currently continuing this line of inquiry through my dissertation in which I am carrying out
a systematic investigation of lexical disambiguation in a second language. I am interested in
specifying the cognitive factors that contribute to the relative speed with which bilinguals access
subordinate meanings in a second language. In particular I am focusing on the role of individual
differences in speed of access to subordinate meanings in the first language and working memory
capacity as well as the degree of cross-language lexical overlap of the ambiguous words.
I hypothesize that the relative amount of variance that these factors will account for will depend
on whether the ambiguous word is presented in isolation (Experiment 1) or embedded in a
sentence context (Experiment 2). Findings from this study will provide a clearer picture of the
processes involved in bilingual lexical ambiguity resolution in both single-word and sentence
context. This will in turn have implications for how models of ambiguity resolution should me
modified to accommodate bilingualism.

I want to extend my program of research by studying how bilingual reading processes, such as
lexical disambiguation develop over time. One way that I would like to approach this question is
by testing English as Second Language (ESL) readers at various points in their college career.
Furthermore, basic questions regarding the development of reading efficiency can be tested by
applying similar paradigms within a sample of monolingual English speaking students who are
struggling with reading. As an Assistant Professor at Brown University I will build a program of
research that advances theories and models of language processing that are sensitive to the
unique dynamics of bilingual processing. At the same time this body of work will also produce
findings that can be applied to the improvement of second language reading comprehension for
adult readers.