Lexicality, frequency and stress assignment effects in bilingual children reading Italian as a second language

In Italian, developing readers exhibit lexicality and frequency effects, and are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language. But how do bilingual children with different ages of first L2 (Italian) exposure and L2 vocabulary sizes read L2 words and pseudowords? Two reading aloud experiments investigated lexicality, frequency and stress assignment effects in fourth- and fifth-grade bilinguals and monolinguals. Naming latencies and pronunciation accuracy were analyzed. In Experiment 1, effects of lexicality and frequency and between-group differences emerged. In Experiment 2, the word frequency effect was confirmed. Late bilinguals, characterized by a smaller L2 vocabulary size, were less accurate than early bilinguals and monolinguals in assigning non-dominant stress. As with monolinguals, lexical information seems to be employed when reading Italian as a second language. Furthermore, bilingual readers are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language. Stress assignment is affected by the L2 lexicon size of second-language learners

Lexical and default stress assignment in reading Greek

Greek is a language with lexical stress that marks stress orthographically with a special diacritic. Thus, the orthography and the lexicon constitute potential sources of stress assignment information in addition to any possible general default metrical pattern. Here, we report two experiments with secondary education children reading aloud pseudo-word stimuli, in which we manipulated the availability of lexical (using stimuli resembling particular words) and visual (existence and placement of the diacritic) information. The reliance on the diacritic was found to be imperfect. Strong lexical effects as well as a default metrical pattern stressing the penultimate syllable were revealed. Reading models must be extended to account for multisyllabic word reading including, in particular, stress assignment based on the interplay among multiple possible sources of information

Sources of information for stress assignment in reading Greek

To assign lexical stress when reading, the Greek reader can potentially rely on lexical information (knowledge of the word), visual–orthographic information (processing of the written diacritic), or a default metrical strategy (penultimate stress pattern). Previous studies with secondary education children have shown strong lexical effects on stress assignment and have provided evidence for a default pattern. Here we report two experiments with adult readers, in which we disentangle and quantify the effects of these three potential sources using nonword materials. Stimuli either resembled or did not resemble real words, to manipulate availability of lexical information; and they were presented with or without a diacritic, in a word-congruent or word-incongruent position, to contrast the relative importance of the three sources. Dual-task conditions, in which cognitive load during nonword reading was increased with phonological retention carrying a metrical pattern different from the default, did not support the hypothesis that the default arises from cumulative lexical activation in working memory

The influence of individual differences on reading in readers of consistent compared to inconsistent orthographies

Languages differ in terms of how consistently they reflect spelling-sound relationships, and research has found that this may lead to differences in naming (reading aloud) processes. Readers themselves differ from each other in terms of relevant task performance, such as nonword decoding ability, vocabulary knowledge, spelling ability and reading experience. Such tasks tap into individual differences which have also been shown to influence the reading aloud process. The present study investigated whether language-related differences in reading aloud persisted even when reading-related individual differences were taken into account, and how effects of individual differences may vary between languages. The comparison necessitated a number of preparatory tasks to facilitate cross-language comparison. This included the computation of spelling-sound consistencies for both languages, the collection of German age-of-acquisition ratings and the creation of comparable measures to capture reading experience in both languages. For the naming study, reading aloud reaction times (RTs) on a set of 85 cognates were compared between skilled readers of English and German. Readers also completed tasks to assess individual differences. Linear mixed-effects modelling analysis showed that language differences remained, but that individual differences contributed additionally to explaining reading performance. To further examine how individual differences may impact differently on naming RTs between languages, the same data set was split four times into those who had scored higher and lower in each of the four individual differences (ID) tasks. Each ID group was then analysed separately. This resulted in eight different analyses. The language effect remained significant for all ID groups. Variations in effect patterns between different ID groups were observed. Effect patterns were more similar between languages for those readers who had scored higher in the ID tasks. Strong nonword decoders emerged as the fastest reader group for both languages, indicating that nonword decoding indexes a vital processing mechanism for skilled readers of different languages. As no significant interactions were found involving language or language and IDs for this group, strong decoders seemed to be most similar in their naming across the two languages. Although semantics were used by readers of both languages, person-level semantic knowledge was more beneficial for readers of the opaque script, especially when decoding skills were weaker. Good spelling ability facilitated naming in both languages, but differences between languages became apparent in weaker spellers, as those reading English were more influenced by other IDs, such as decoding skill. Unexpectedly, print exposure was not the strongest modulator out of all individual differences. Together the results suggest that alongside language differences, individual differences are important factors to be considered to account for a universal process of reading aloud

Lexical processing in monolinguals and bilinguals.

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