As the world becomes more interconnected, more people are growing up or becoming bilingual, making the study of how the brain manages multiple languages more relevant than ever. In everyday communication, bilinguals often show an impressive command of speaking the target language. This phenomenon prompts us to investigate the mechanisms by which bilinguals control their languages.

To put it simply, bilingual people are usually quite good at communicating in both of their languages in a regular conversation. This leads us to wonder how they can control their languages so effectively. Understanding how bilinguals control their languages is not only important for theoretical reasons, but it also has practical implications for daily life. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon, it is necessary to study bilingualism in a way that is similar to how people use language in their everyday lives. 

In daily life, people often produce complex utterances that are influenced by a variety of factors. However, it is very difficult to reflect on the use of language in everyday life in a laboratory environment. In the Langusta lab, I am currently pursuing a PhD with a focus on language control and naturalistic experiments. By using naturalistic settings, I will be able to study bilingualism in a way that is similar to how people use language in their everyday lives.

With that goal in mind, I use daily life linguistic tasks such as reading paragraphs or describing images. These tasks are designed to mimic the types of language use that bilinguals encounter in their everyday lives, and they provide a realistic representation of the cognitive processes involved in bilingual language control. This will help me to understand how bilinguals control their language skills and provide valuable insights into bilingualism.