Research
My research interests center around how learners of Spanish continue to acquire new vocabulary beyond explicit instruction. In particular, my research examines how the recognition of word parts can more easily facilitate vocabulary learning, particularly through contexts such as reading. In other words, if they see a new word with parts they might already know, does that make the learning of that word easier? Additionally, I am interested in the development of word families within the mental lexicon, as well as the connections between morphologically complex words in English and Spanish.
My dissertation work has focused on the processing of novel Spanish verbs as a starting point for accessing full verbal paradigms (i.e., verb conjugations). I use self-paced reading to study reading times of verbs embedded in sentences. It synthesizes research in morphological priming, implicit and explicit vocabulary learning, and the development and processing of verbal paradigms and word families by both first- and second-language readers.
I study whether second language learners of Spanish can "see" morphemes in newly-encountered verbs while reading in real time, and whether this recognition of individual morphemes influences learners' access to the remaining verbal paradigm.
The findings from my research can help linguists and language instructors understand how new information gets connected to established verb knowledge. Results of this work can also inform how we teach morphology as a comprehension strategy in the classroom.
Click on Ongoing Projects below to learn about my research beyond my dissertation.
Research Keywords
second language acquisition, vocabulary learning, morphological processing, lexical development, second language reading, L2 vowel production
Ongoing Projects
L1 and L2 English and Spanish Vowel Duration | North Carolina State University
One of the more marked features of native (L1) versus second language (L2) learner speech is the way we pronounce vowel sounds (such as a, e, i, o, and u). Researchers believe that we may transfer the way we pronounce sounds in our L1s to our L2s, especially if the sounds in the learned language are quite different from our L1.
One key difference between English and Spanish vowels is that English vowels are often elongated due to syllable stress, the position within the word, and even simply the vowel itself.
This study examines how the length of vowels manifests in the English and Spanish of native English speakers, and the English and Spanish of native Spanish speakers, where vowel length is relatively more regular.
16 participants were recruited to read lists of words in English and in Spanish. Each of the lengths and frequencies of the tonic (stressed) vowels in the words were extracted using a software called Praat, and analyzed using R and R Studio.
Results supported previous findings for sound and syllable structures that influence vowel duration (e.g., the voicing of the consonant that follows, the place of articulation of the consonant, whether the vowel appears at the end of a syllable or within the syllable, and the identity of the vowel itself).
Interestingly, L1 English speakers' vowels in English and Spanish were markedly longer than the L1 Spanish participants, suggesting that they transferred this lengthening phenomenon. L1 Spanish speakers' English vowels were similar to L1 English vowels, suggesting that the lengthening phenomenon is marked in English and can be acquired over time.
Completed Projects
Metathesis Resolution in Spanish Speech Production | Appalachian State University
Sometimes as we are reading, we encounter words which are misspelled. We still understand what the word is supposed to be, however, a phenomenon which we might consider a cognitive shortcut - an “autocorrect” of sorts. This develops thanks to our familiarity with vocabulary words and experience processing them, particularly while we read.
This research project asked whether learners of Spanish as a second language (L2) with ranging proficiencies could experience this same phenomenon, and how their experiences compare with that of native speakers (L1) of Spanish.
Participants read 50 sentences aloud, some of which contained misspelled words. They were recorded while they were reading, then completed the task by filling out a questionnaire about their own assessments of their language skills.
Rates of “autocorrect” were determined by adding the total number of misspelled words which were read aloud correctly and dividing by the total number of misspelled word stimuli in the sentences.
Analysis of the rates of autocorrect and self-reported proficiency to Spanish suggested that the more a speaker was exposed to Spanish, the more likely they were to automatically correct the metastasized words in their sentence production.
Conference Presentations
Chandler, L. (March 2023). Novel morphological processing in L1 and L2 Spanish reading. Poster presentation at the 36th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Pittsburgh, PA.
Chandler, L. (March 2022). Novel Verb Reading in First- and Second-Language Spanish. Virtual presentation at the Graduate Exhibition, University Park, PA.
Chandler, L. (2021). Novel morphological processing during L2 Spanish reading. Virtual presentation at the Graduate Exhibition, University Park, PA.
Chandler, L. (2020). Vocabulary in Action: Exposure Modulates Online Processing of Content Words in the L2. Poster presented at the Young Scholar Speaker Series, hosted by the Center for Language Science (CLS), University Park, PA.
Chandler, L., & Cruz Martínez, J. (2018). Word Order in Puerto Rico Spanish: Different from Other Varieties of Spanish? Presented at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Austin, TX.
Chandler, L. (2018). Vowel duration in bilingual English-Spanish speech. Presented at Current Approaches to Spanish and Portuguese Second Language Phonology (CASPSLaP), Bloomington, IN.
Chandler, L. (2017). Vowel duration in bilingual English-Spanish speech. Poster session presented at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Lubbock, TX.
Chandler, L. (2015). Autocorrect as a processing tool: Metathesis resolution in Spanish speech production. Presented at Spanish Linguistics in North Carolina (SLINKI), Greenville, NC.
Invited Talks & Presentations
Chandler, L. (February 2022). Processing novel Spanish verb inflection while reading. Center for Language Science Speaker Series, University Park, PA.
Chandler, L. (May 2021). Virtual Data Collection Using Gorilla. Virtual demonstration at the Technische Universität, Braunschweig, Germany.
Chandler, L. (January 2021). L2 Vocabulary Learning: What the intersection of word families, incidental learning, and psycholinguistics can tell us. Virtual presentation at the Center for Language Acquisition Roundtable Speaker Series, University Park, PA.
Chandler, L. (October 2020). Writing a Doctoral Dissertation. Virtual presentation at 6th Annual Penn State Undergraduate Exhibition in Hispanic and General Linguistics (PSUxLing6), University Park, PA.
Chandler, L., & Pahis, A. (October 2018). The First-Year Graduate Experience. Presentation at 5th Annual Penn State Undergraduate Exhibition in Hispanic and General Linguistics (PSUxLing5), University Park, PA.
Selected Funding & Awards
The Pennsylvania State University
First Place, Liberal Arts Research Poster at the 37th Annual Graduate Exhibition
Partners for International Research and Education (PIRE) NSF Graduate Fellowship
Liberal Arts Teaching and Research Award
Center for Language Science Conference Travel Award
Graduate Scholar Award
The Robert W. Graham Endowed Graduate Fellowship Award
Appalachian State University
T. Marvin Williamsen Study Abroad Scholarship (read about my experience here!)