Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children : an fMRI study

Background: In their daily communication, bilinguals switch between two languages, a process that involves the selection of a target language and minimization of interference from a nontarget language. Previous studies have uncovered the neural structure in bilinguals and the activation patterns associated with performing verbal conflict tasks. One question that remains, however is whether this extra verbal switching affects brain function during nonverbal conflict tasks. Methods: In this study, we have used fMRI to investigate the impact of bilingualism in children performing two nonverbal tasks involving stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response conflicts. Three groups of 8-11-year-old children - bilinguals from birth (2L1), second language learners (L2L), and a control group of monolinguals (1L1) - were scanned while performing a color Simon and a numerical Stroop task. Reaction times and accuracy were logged. Results: Compared to monolingual controls, bilingual children showed higher behavioral congruency effect of these tasks, which is matched by the recruitment of brain regions that are generally used in general cognitive control, language processing or to solve language conflict situations in bilinguals (caudate nucleus, posterior cingulate gyrus, STG, precuneus). Further, the activation of these areas was found to be higher in 2L1 compared to L2L. Conclusion: The coupling of longer reaction times to the recruitment of extra language-related brain areas supports the hypothesis that when dealing with language conflicts the specialization of bilinguals hampers the way they can process with nonverbal conflicts, at least at early stages in life

A Cross-linguistic Form and Meaning Priming Study on Mandarin Chinese Multilingual Speakers

Linguistics - Master's ThesisMAHF-LINGLING35

Cognate facilitation effects in bilingual children of varying language dominance

A widely accepted theory is that bilinguals activate both of their languages regardless of which is in use. Though there is abundant research on this phenomenon in bilingual adults, less research has focused on bilingual children. Cognates (i.e., words that share meaning and sound across languages) have frequently been used to explore language co-activation. The present study investigates cognate facilitation effects in child bilinguals of varying language dominance. Spanish-English bilingual children between 6 and 10 years old performed a picture-naming task that included pictures of cognates and non-cognates. Children who were more English-dominant experienced larger cognate facilitation effects when producing words in their non-dominant language but not in their dominant language. In contrast, children with more balanced dominance did not experience cognate facilitation effects in either language. The findings from this study may have implications for the development of the bilingual lexicon.Psycholog

Second language lexical processing: influence of teaching method and word characteristics

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Kansas, Linguistics, 2004.Word learning was investigated in two experiments: a word translation experiment and a picture naming experiment. Two groups of bilinguals, differing in second language proficiency, were taught 40 Spanish words using one of these two tasks. One group of participants translated a set of words from L1 (English) to L2 (Spanish) Another group of participants named pictures. For each task, the training involved two presentations of the same 40 Spanish words, coupled either with the translation in English or with a picture. In both experiments subjects heard each Spanish words repeated 3 times in each presentation. Subjects' task was to name the Spanish word either given an English word prompt (word translation) or a picture prompt (picture naming). The stimulus materials were manipulated on word frequency and cognate status. The results show that cognate and high frequency words were easier to learn (fewer errors and shorter response times). Proficiency and task hardly affected error rates. Overall, picture naming showed better recall for beginner learners whereas word translation showed better recall for learners with a good proficiency level. This suggests that conceptual memory appeared to operate as much in the translation task as in the picture naming task

Resolving Between-Language and Within-Language Competition in Bilinguals

Friesen et al. (2011) reported behavioural and electrophysiological differences in how monolinguals and bilinguals resolved lexical competition in a picture selection task (PST). Participants selected a named picture from two alternatives that were related semantically, phonologically, or unrelated. Both groups were slower on related pairs, but the additional RT cost on semantically-related pairs was smaller for bilinguals than for monolinguals. Importantly, monolinguals exhibited attenuated N400s for semantically-related pairs while bilinguals did not. The current study pursued these results with a homogeneous group of English-French bilinguals performing the task in both languages. Measures of executive control, language proficiency, and language production abilities were acquired to investigate their influence in resolving interlingual and intralingual competition. In both languages, semantic pairs generated longer RTs than phonological and unrelated pairs and as in the earlier study, there was no modulation of the N400. There was no evidence for a relation between the PST and the flanker task. However, a relation was found between vocabulary knowledge and the PST in the weaker language

Head start for target language in bilingual listening

In this study we investigated the availability of non-target language semantic features in bilingual speech processing. We recorded EEG from Dutch-English bilinguals who listened to spoken sentences in their L2 (English) or L1 (Dutch). In Experiments 1 and 3 the sentences contained an interlingual homophone. The sentence context was either biased towards the target language meaning of the homophone (target biased), the non-target language meaning (non-target biased), or neither meaning of the homophone (fully incongruent). These conditions were each compared to a semantically congruent control condition. In L2 sentences we observed an N400 in the non-target biased condition that had an earlier offset than the N400 to fully incongruent homophones. In the target biased condition, a negativity emerged that was later than the N400 to fully incongruent homophones. In L1 contexts, neither target biased nor non-target biased homophones yielded significant N400 effects (compared to the control condition). In Experiments 2 and 4 the sentences contained a language switch to a non-target language word that could be semantically congruent or incongruent. Semantically incongruent words (switched, and non-switched) elicited an N400 effect. The N400 to semantically congruent language-switched words had an earlier offset than the N400 to incongruent words. Both congruent and incongruent language switches elicited a Late Positive Component (LPC). These findings show that bilinguals activate both meanings of interlingual homophones irrespective of their contextual fit. In L2 contexts, the target-language meaning of the homophone has a head start over the non-target language meaning. The target-language head start is also evident for language switches from both L2-to-L1 and L1-to-L

Gender assignment and gender agreement in advanced French interlanguage: a cross-sectional study

An analysis of 519 gender errors (out of 9,378 modifiers) in the advanced French interlanguage of 27 Dutch L1 speakers confirms earlier findings that gender assignment and/or agreement remain problematic for learners at all levels. A hypothesis derived from Pienemann's Processability Theory (1998a) that accuracy rates would be higher for gender agreement in structures involving no exchange of grammatical information between constituents was not confirmed. The analysis of interindividual and intra-individual variation in gender accuracy rates revealed effects from avoidance and generalisation strategies, from linguistic variables, sociobiographical variables and psycholinguistic variables. We argue that gender errors can originate at the lemma level, at the gender node level, or at the lexeme level. Different psycholinguistic scenarios are presented to account for intra-individual variation in gender assignment and agreement

Lexical Strategies of Chinese Learners of English in L1-L2 Translation

Es handelt sich hier um eine Dissertation, die sich mit dem Gebrauch von lexikalischen Suchstrategien in der Schriftform von L1 in L2 bei chinesischen Fortgeschrittenen und Anfängern mit Vorkenntnissen als Fremdsprache beschäftigt. Die Absicht der Studie war: (a) die lexikalischen Strategien zu beschreiben und zu analysieren wie englischlernende Chinesen ein Wort oder Satz versuchen zu übersetzten, wenn es ihnen nicht möglich ist dieses Wort oder die Bedeutung einer Phrase in einem geschriebenen Text zu Formulieren. (b) zu Untersuchen ob es Beziehungen zwischen den lexikalischen Strategien und den Fertigkeiten entsprechend eines L2 Lerners gibt (c) die Effektivität von verschiedenen Strategietypen für Gruppen verschiedener Fertigkeitslevels herauszuarbeiten (d) den Vorteil von L2 benutzende Gruppen und individuellen Strategien auszuarbeiten (e) die Diskrepanz zwischen L2 profiency levels und der Übersetzungsfähigkeit und die Charakteristik des Denkens und der lexikalischen Strategien der Lernenden beim Übersetzen von L1 in L2 darzustellen. Es wird die Annahme gestellt, dass lautes Denken und retrospektive Studien als Untersuchungsmethode zur Sammlung von empirischen Daten genutzt werden können. Alle Protokolle über lautes Denken und retrospektive Daten wurden aufgezeichnet und ausgearbeitet, um die verschieden lexikalen Strategien auszuarbeiten, die englischlernende Chinesen verschiedener Fertigkeitslevels benutzen. Verschiedene Strategien über Gruppen verschiedener Fertigkeiten wurden statistisch und die Signifikanz über den Gebrauch von verschiedenen lexikalischen Strategien ausgewertet und mit Hilfe von referenzieller Statistik bewiesen. Beim Analysieren der Daten betreffend the theoretical backround of the bilingual mental lexicon ( De Bot, 1993), language transfer (Odlin, 1989; Ringbom, 1987, 1991, 2001) und communication strategies (Bialystok, 1990; Kasper & Kellerman, 1997; Tarone, 1983); diese Ergebnisse wurden in der Studie erzielt: (1) die Taxonomie der lexikalischen Strategien von englischlernenden Chinesen als Anfängern mit Vorkenntnissen und Fortgeschrittenen wurde ermittelt. (2) Fortgeschrittene englischlernende Chinesen bevorzugten L2-basierte Strategien, während Anfänger mit Vorkenntnissen Strategien aussuchten, die aus ihrer Muttersprache stammten. (3) es gibt die Möglichkeit die sowohl L1- als auch L2-Strategien zu nutzten. (4) es zeigte sich dass, die Effektivität der lexikalischen Strategien abhängig ist von „the ease of comprehension“ (Littlemore, 2003) (5) Nomen-Plus-Nomen Komposita Strukturen wurden mehr von Anfängern mit Vorkenntnissen benutzt, jedoch auch die Fortgeschrittenen bevorzugten diese Techniken, weil die chinesische Sprache sich der Komposita Struktur bedient. (6) L2 proficiency bedeutet nicht unbedingt, dass eine Übersetzung besser sein muss. Dies bedeutet nicht unbedingt, dass die L2 profiency für eine höhere Qualität steht, sondern es gibt auch andere Faktoren. Die Studie kommt zum Schluss, dass Chinesen verschiedener L2 Fähigkeiten, die englisch lernen eine Kombination von lexikalischen Strategien benutzen, wobei die Bevorzugung der lexikalischen Strategien sich unterscheiden zwischen den einzelnen Personen und deren Fertigkeiten. Die Lehrimplikationen die diese Studien auslösen, könnten behilflich sein bei der Wortsuche im geistigen Lexikon der Lernenden. So ist das Lehren von lexikalen Strategien erstrebenswert. (Zimmermann, 1999). Obgleich die Ergebnisse der Studie ein besseres Verstehen von L2 Akquisition und Bilingualismus bewirkt, ist diese Studie selbstverständlich begrenzt und benötigt weitere Studien