Second language immersion impacts native language lexical production and comprehension

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Roxana Botezatu ◽  
Judith F. Kroll ◽  
Morgan I. Trachsel ◽  
Taomei Guo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Native Language ◽  
English Word ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Semantic Errors ◽  
Cross Language

Abstract We investigated whether the features of the second language (L2) matter when we consider the consequence of short-term L2 immersion on performance in the native language (L1). We compared L1 performance in English-speaking learners of a typologically-dissimilar L2-Chinese immersed in Chinese while living in Beijing, China and learners of a typologically-similar L2 (Spanish or French) exposed to the L2 in a classroom setting only. The groups were matched on cognitive abilities. Each group performed a battery of language tasks in English that assessed the ability to produce and recognize spoken words, as well as to name written words and pseudo-words in the native language. Immersed learners produced fewer words in their native language, made more semantic errors, and benefited more from higher lexical frequency when retrieving L1 words relative to classroom learners. Immersed learners also revealed reduced competition from dense phonological neighborhoods when listening to English words presented in noise, but no difference in English word reading and phonemic decoding performance compared to classroom learners. Results are consistent with the view that L2 immersion reduces access to the native language, but suggest that the consequences of L2 immersion on the L1 may be dependent upon the form of cross-language differences.

Activation of L1 orthography in L2 word reading: Constraints from language and writing system

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832092776
Author(s):  
Lin Chen ◽  
Charles A Perfetti ◽  
Xiaoping Fang ◽  
Li-Yun Chang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Word ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Co Activation ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Color Judgment

When reading in a second language, a reader’s first language may be involved. For word reading, the question is how and at what level: lexical, pre-lexical, or both. In three experiments, we employed an implicit reading task (color judgment) and an explicit reading task (word naming) to test whether a Chinese meaning equivalent character and its sub-character orthography are activated when first language (L1) Chinese speakers read second language (L2) English words. Because Chinese and English have different spoken and written forms, any cross language effects cannot arise from shared written and spoken forms. Importantly, the experiments provide a comparison with single language experiments within Chinese, which show cross-writing system activation when words are presented in alphabetic Pinyin, leading to activation of the corresponding character and also its sub-character (radical) components. In the present experiments, Chinese–English bilinguals first silently read or made a meaning judgment on an English word. Immediately following, they judged the color of a character (Experiments 1A and 1B) or named it (Experiment 2). Four conditions varied the relation between the character that is the meaning equivalent of the English word and the following character presented for naming or color judgment. The experiments provide evidence that the Chinese meaning equivalent character is activated during the reading of the L2 English. In contrast to the within-Chinese results, the activation of Chinese characters did not extend to the sub-character level. This pattern held for both implicit reading (color judgment) and explicit reading (naming) tasks, indicating that for unrelated languages with writing systems, L1 activation during L2 reading occurs for the specific orthographic L1 form (a single character), mediated by meaning. We conclude that differences in writing systems do not block cross-language co-activation, but that differences in languages limit co-activation to the lexical level.

Bidirectional cross-linguistic relations of first and second language skills in reading comprehension of Spanish-speaking English learners

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Gottardo ◽  
Christine Javier ◽  
Fataneh Farnia ◽  
Lorinda Mak ◽  
Esther Geva
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
English Word ◽  
English As Second Language ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Linguistic Relations ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
L1 And L2

This study examines the bidirectional, cross-linguistic associations between language and word-level reading skills and reading comprehension for 51 students in grades 4 to 6 who speak Spanish as first language (L1) and English as second language (L2). Within-language predictors of reading comprehension were consistent with the simple view of reading. We found unidirectional cross-linguistic associations between Spanish word reading and English reading comprehension. However, the results do not support a cross-linguistic association between English word reading and Spanish reading comprehension. Specifically, results indicate that although L1 and L2 language and reading constructs correlate, L2 skills do not strongly contribute to L1 reading comprehension. Findings are discussed in terms of possible factors that might influence potential cross-language relations among Spanish and English measures. Keywords: reading comprehension; bilingualism; cross-linguistic relations

scholarly journals Using phonics to develop the emergent English literacy skills of Spanish learners

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
Sara Isabel Rendón-Romero ◽  
Macarena Navarro-Pablo ◽  
Eduardo García-Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
English Word ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Post Test ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Literacy ◽  
English Speaking World

Phonics is well established in the English-speaking world, but to date it has beenimplemented to only a limited extent in contexts where English is a foreign language.This study aimed to evaluate the appropriateness of phonics for developing literacy skills of Spanishlearners of English. An experimental pre-test – post-test design was used to determine the method’sadded value. The sample consisted of two equivalent groups in a Spanish bilingual state primaryschool, a control and a treatment group, where a phonic method was implemented by the researcher.Data were collected through tests measuring emergent Spanish and English literacy skills. Non-parametric tests and correlations were used for data analysis.The treatment group presented a significant improvement in phonological awareness, naming andletter and pseudo-word reading in the Spanish and English post-test. These 7-year-old childrenattained a level in English literacy skills equivalent to English children aged 5.8. The findings alsosuggested a positive transference of skills between English word reading and Spanish pseudo-wordreading.The present study can serve as a possible proposal to help improve our Spanish bilingual programmesthrough the use of phonics in the early years in order to increase learners’ English reading level.

scholarly journals Using Eye-Movements to Track Bilingual Activation

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
María Teresa Martínez-García
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
English Word ◽  
Stress Pattern ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Language Competition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Mismatch Condition

Recent research found that the languages of bilingual listeners are active and interact, such that both lexical representations are activated by the spoken input with which they are compatible. However, the time course of bilingual activation and whether suprasegmental information further modulates this cross-language competition are still not well understood. This study investigates the effect of stress placement on the processing of English–Spanish cognates by beginner-to-intermediate Spanish-speaking second-language (L2) learners of English and intermediate-to-advanced English-speaking L2 learners of Spanish using the visual-world eye-tracking paradigm. In each trial, participants saw a target (asado, ‘roast’), one of two competitors (stress match: asados, ‘roast (pl)’; stress mismatch: asador, ‘rotisserie’), and two unrelated distracters, while hearing the target word. The experiment included a non-cognate condition (asado-asados-asador) and a cognate condition, where the stress pattern of the English word corresponding to the Spanish competitor in the stress-mismatch condition (inventor) instead matched that of the Spanish target (invento, ‘invent’). Growth-curve analyses revealed cognate-status and stress-mismatch effects for Spanish-speaking L2 learners of English, and cognate-status and stress-mismatch effects, and an interaction for English-speaking L2 learners of Spanish. This suggests that both groups use stress for word recognition, but the English stress pattern only affects the processing of Spanish words in the English-speaking L2 learners of Spanish.

The effects of bilingual education on the English language and literacy outcomes of Chinese-speaking children

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Hipfner-Boucher ◽  
Katie Lam ◽  
Becky Xi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
English Word ◽  
The Other ◽  
French Immersion ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Literacy Outcomes ◽  
Cross Language

To evaluate the effects of bilingual education on minority-language children’s English language and literacy outcomes, we compared grade 1 Chinese-speaking Canadian children enrolled in three different instructional programs (French Immersion, Chinese-English Paired Bilingual, English-only). ANCOVA results revealed that the French immersion children outperformed the other two groups on measures of English phonological awareness and word reading and that the bilingual groups were comparable to monolingual English norms on a test of receptive vocabulary. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine cross-language transfer of skills. French morphological awareness explained unique variance in English word reading and vocabulary for the French immersion group. For the other two groups, Chinese phonological awareness was significantly related to English word reading. Our results suggest that instruction in French or Chinese does not delay the development of early English language and literacy skills for Chinese-speaking children, as the children may be able to leverage skills from their other language to facilitate their English learning. Keywords: Bilingual education; French immersion; cross-language transfer

Effects of Hand Gestures on Auditory Learning of Second-Language Vowel Length Contrasts

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 2090-2101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukari Hirata ◽  
Spencer D. Kelly ◽  
Jessica Huang ◽  
Michael Manansala
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Hand Gesture ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Hand Gestures ◽  
Auditory Learning ◽  
Segmental Phonology ◽  
Before And After ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking

Purpose Research has shown that hand gestures affect comprehension and production of speech at semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic levels for both native language and second language (L2). This study investigated a relatively less explored question: Do hand gestures influence auditory learning of an L2 at the segmental phonology level? Method To examine auditory learning of phonemic vowel length contrasts in Japanese, 88 native English-speaking participants took an auditory test before and after one of the following 4 types of training in which they (a) observed an instructor in a video speaking Japanese words while she made syllabic-rhythm hand gesture, (b) produced this gesture with the instructor, (c) observed the instructor speaking those words and her moraic-rhythm hand gesture, or (d) produced the moraic-rhythm gesture with the instructor. Results All of the training types yielded similar auditory improvement in identifying vowel length contrast. However, observing the syllabic-rhythm hand gesture yielded the most balanced improvement between word-initial and word-final vowels and between slow and fast speaking rates. Conclusions The overall effect of hand gesture on learning of segmental phonology is limited. Implications for theories of hand gesture are discussed in terms of the role it plays at different linguistic levels.

Effects of reading speed on second-language sentence processing

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 799-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
JOCELYN C. BALLANTYNE ◽  
FRANK WIJNEN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Reading Speed ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Language Conflict

ABSTRACTTo test the effects of reading speed on second-language (L2) sentence processing and the potential influence of conflicting native language word order, we compared advanced L2 learners of English with native English speakers on a self-paced reading task. L2 learners read faster overall than native English speakers. When differences in reading speed were controlled for, L2 learners were as sensitive to grammaticality manipulations as native English speakers. On-line reading times did not reflect any effect of cross-language conflict in the learners. Results from an end-of-sentence verification task showed a stronger bias toward a subject–object order in the cross-language conflict conditions in speed-matched L2 learners but not in L2 learners reading faster than native speakers. Results are compatible with hypothesized differences in resource allocation between L2 and native language processing.

Effects of retrieval formats on second language vocabulary learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatsuya Nakata
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Paired Associate ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
English Word ◽  
Paired Associate Learning ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Access Information ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

AbstractThe present study set out to examine how we can optimize paired-associate learning of second language (L2) vocabulary. In paired-associate learning, retrieval, where learners are required to access information about an L2 word from memory, is found to increase vocabulary learning. Retrieval can be categorized according to dichotomies of (a) recognition versus recall and (b) receptive versus productive. In order to identify the optimal retrieval format, the present study compared the effects of the following four conditions: recognition, recall, hybrid (combination of recall and recognition), and productive recall only. In this study, 64 English-speaking college students studied 60 Swahili-English word pairs using computer-based flashcard software. Results suggested that for paired-associate learning of L2 vocabulary, (a) recall formats are more effective than recognition for the acquisition of productive knowledge of orthography and (b) recognition formats are more desirable than recall when knowledge of spelling is not required.

Japanese co-occurrence restrictions influence second language perception

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 585-611
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER J. KILPATRICK ◽  
RIKKE L. BUNDGAARD-NIELSEN ◽  
BRETT J. BAKER
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Speech Learning Model ◽  
Nonnative Speech Perception ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Speech Learning ◽  
Assimilation Model

ABSTRACTMost current models of nonnative speech perception (e.g., extended perceptual assimilation model, PAM-L2, Best & Tyler, 2007; speech learning model, Flege, 1995; native language magnet model, Kuhl, 1993) base their predictions on the native/nonnative status of individual phonetic/phonological segments. This paper demonstrates that the phonotactic properties of Japanese influence the perception of natively contrasting consonants and suggests that phonotactic influence must be formally incorporated in these models. We first propose that by extending the perceptual categories outlined in PAM-L2 to incorporate sequences of sounds, we can account for the effects of differences in native and nonnative phonotactics on nonnative and cross-language segmental perception. In addition, we test predictions based on such an extension in two perceptual experiments. In Experiment 1, Japanese listeners categorized and rated vowel–consonant–vowel strings in combinations that either obeyed or violated Japanese phonotactics. The participants categorized phonotactically illegal strings to the perceptually nearest (legal) categories. In Experiment 2, participants discriminated the same strings in AXB discrimination tests. Our results show that Japanese listeners are more accurate and have faster response times when discriminating between legal strings than between legal and illegal strings. These findings expose serious shortcomings in currently accepted nonnative perception models, which offer no framework for the influence of native language phonotactics.

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