Bilingual Sentence Processing: When Models Meet Experiments

Although sentence comprehension and production are increasingly often studied by combining computational modeling and human experiments, this approach remains mostly restricted to studies of monolingual or first-language (L1) processing. There are currently only very few sentence-level computational models of second-language (L2) or bilingual processing (Frank, 2021). This lack of computational specifications can hamper further progress in bilingualism research. Moreover, better understanding of bilingual processing will give more insights into more general mechanisms such as cognitive control processes involved while switching languages (Luk et al., 2012). Our symposium aims to bring together researchers from different labs and with different research traditions, working on the intersection of models and experiments in bilingual sentence processing. The symposium has four talks, by Edith Kaan (associate professor, specializing in psycholinguistics of bilingualism), Yung Han Khoe (PhD student, working on models of bilingual sentence production), Lin Chen (research associate with an expertise in reading processes), and a joint talk by Irene Winther (PhD student working on bilingual sentence processing) and Yevgen Matusevych (research associate in computational cognitive science of language). Finally, we will have a panel discussion to suggest how models could be challenged by experimental data, and provide new explanatory mechanisms. This discussion will be moderated by Xavier Hinaut (research scientist in computational neuroscience) and Stefan Frank (associate professor in computational psycholinguistics).