# Word recognition in dual language learners: The mechanisms underlying listening and reading in two languages

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2021 · $89,352

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Children who speak and read in two languages are the norm around the world and in many US communities.
However, there is a gap in understanding how language and literacy develops in bilingual and biliterate
children. A fundamental component of language and literacy development is word recognition. Central to both
spoken and written word recognition is competition: given a word (e.g., cap), multiple lexical candidates are
activated (e.g., cap, cab, cat) and compete for recognition. The nature of lexical competition within and across
languages in children is largely unaddressed. This is a crucial limitation as prominent theories of bilingual
language and cognition rest on how these skills develop. This is of clinical significance because for
monolingual children, the ability to manage competition is highly predictive of language and literacy outcomes
and represents significant challenges for children with language disorders (McMurray et al., 2010). Because
there are health disparities that perpetuate disproportionate educational achievement for many Spanish-
English learners in the US, it is crucial that our theoretical models extend beyond single-language learners, to
students who hear and read words in more than one language. The proposed research addresses this
limitation in two aims. In Aim 1, we characterize competition for spoken and written words within and across
languages in Spanish-English dual language learners during a developmental period characterized by
variability in word-level reading skills (middle school). We developed a novel variant of an eye-tracking
paradigm to measure both spoken and written word recognition. Individuals hear or see a word and click the
corresponding picture from a display of four: the target (e.g., cap), an acoustically and visually similar
competitor (e.g., cab) and unrelated items (e.g., net and mud). Eye-movements are time-locked to the
dynamics of lexical competition. Given that there are more differences in speech sounds than in letters across
languages (e.g., the speech sound /b/ differs in English and Spanish, yet the letter “b” is identical), we predict
that for spoken words, competition will be greater within than across languages, whereas for written words,
competition will be similar within and across languages. In Aim 2, we take an individual differences approach
and examine how language and reading proficiency influence these competition dynamics. This aim will
determine the sources of variability that promote proficient bilingual and biliterate children to achieve efficient
word recognition. The current research has a broad-based appeal for theories of language processing because
it will help characterize a core set of computational principles involved in spoken and written word recognition.
Further, this project informs theories of bilingual language and literacy development – a high priority research
area for NICHD – and represents a crucial step toward our long-term...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10217506
- **Project number:** 1R03HD102404-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Kristi Hendrickson
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $89,352
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-05-12 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10217506

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10217506, Word recognition in dual language learners: The mechanisms underlying listening and reading in two languages (1R03HD102404-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10217506. Licensed CC0.

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