Bilingual lexical and semantic representation of numbers

In this thesis, I have reviewed and investigated bilingual lexical and semantic number representations. In three different studies, we compared German and French lexical representations, the influence of language-dependent morpho-syntax on accessing lexical representation and the associations with lexico-semantic representations. The bilingual samples in all three studies are Luxembourgish German-French bilinguals. In the Luxembourgish education system, German is the general instruction language for the first 6 years (i.e. LM1). Then the language for math instruction switches to French for the next 4 years (i.e. LM2) and gradually becomes the general instruction. In study 1 we found an LM2 cost in lexical retrieval for the LM2 compared to the LM1, (i.e. slower number naming). In addition to the LM2 cost, French ’70s to ’90s base-20 numerals were slower to process, indicating an effect of morpho-syntax on accessing lexical representations of numbers. This independently from increasing LM2 proficiency, the results replicate on four age groups with increasing proficiency. In study 2 we investigated the morpho-syntactic effect on German-French bilinguals and language-matched monolinguals. In an auditory-visual number matching task, we manipulated the visual presentation of two-digit numbers, either mimicking LM1’s inverted unit-ten morpho-syntax or LM2’s more transparent ten-unit morpho-syntax. We found that only the LM2 was affected by the morpho-syntactic experimental manipulation Moreover, we found a bilingual lexical cost such that bilingual in the LM1 German were slower than German monolinguals. In study 3 we compared lexico-semantic associations in bilinguals with a priming distance effect paradigm. The results indicate that while both language’s equivalent primes facilitate number naming (i.e. “cinq” and “fünf” facilitate the naming of 5) the priming distance effect was only observed with LM1 primes. Since the priming distance effect arises from the association between different numerals, it is interpreted as weaker lexico-semantic associations of the LM2 compared to LM1. In a nutshell, this thesis presents empirical evidence for LM2 weaker lexical associations which are more impacted by linguistic morphos-syntax as well as weaker lexico-semantic associations compared to the LM1

Number transcoding in bilinguals—A transversal developmental study

Number transcoding is the cognitive task of converting between different numerical codes (i.e. visual “42”, verbal “forty-two”). Visual symbolic to verbal transcoding and vice versa strongly relies on language proficiency. We evaluated transcoding of German-French bilinguals from Luxembourg in 5th, 8th, 11th graders and adults. In the Luxembourgish educational system, children acquire mathematics in German (LM1) until the 7th grade, and then the language of learning mathematic switches to French (LM2). French `70s `80s `90s are less transparent than `30s `40s `50s numbers, since they have a base-20 structure, which is not the case in German. Transcoding was evaluated with a reading aloud and a verbal-visual number matching task. Results of both tasks show a cognitive cost for transcoding numbers having a base-20 structure (i.e. `70s, `80s and `90s), such that response times were slower in all age groups. Furthermore, considering only base-10 numbers (i.e. `30s `40s `50s), it appeared that transcoding in LM2 (French) also entailed a cost. While participants across age groups tended to read numbers slower in LM2, this effect was limited to the youngest age group in the matching task. In addition, participants made more errors when reading LM2 numbers. In conclusion, we observed an age-independent language effect with numbers having a base-20 structure in French, reflecting their reduced transparency with respect to the decimal system. Moreover, we find an effect of language of math acquisition such that transcoding is less well mastered in LM2. This effect tended to persist until adulthood in the reading aloud task, while in the matching task performance both languages become similar in older adolescents and young adults. This study supports the link between numbers and language, especially highlighting the impact of language on reading numbers aloud from childhood to adulthood

Thinking about numbers in different tongues: An overview of the influences of multilingualism on numerical and mathematical competencies

peer reviewe

Weaker semantic priming effects with number words in the second language of math learning.

peer reviewedBilinguals' exact number representations result from associations between language-independent Indo-Arabic digits ("5"), two verbal codes ("fünf" and "cinq") and a common, largely overlapping semantic representation. To compare the lexical and semantic access to number representations between two languages, we recruited a sample of balanced highly proficient German-French adult bilinguals. At school, those bilinguals learned mathematics in German for 6 years (LM1) and then switched to French (LM2) in 7th grade (12 years old) until 13th grade. After the brief presentation of primes (51 ms) consisting of Indo-Arabic digits or number words in German or French, an Indo-Arabic digits target had to be read in either German or French in an online study. Stimuli were numbers from 1 to 9, and we varied the absolute distance between primes and targets from 0 (i.e., 1-1) to 3 (1-4; as in Reynvoet et al., 2002). The priming distance effect (PDE) was used to measure the strength of numerical semantic association. We find comparable PDEs with Indo-Arabic digits and German number word primes, independently from the target naming language. However, we did not find a clear PDE with French number word primes, neither when naming targets in German, nor in French. The weaker PDE from LM2 compared to LM1 primes is interpreted as a weaker lexico-semantic association of LM2 number words. These results indicate a critical role of the LM1 and further emphasize the role of language in processing numbers. They might have important implications for designing bilingual school curricula. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Bilinguisme et mathématiques

peer reviewe