ABSTRACT
When bilinguals process written language, they show delays in accessing lexical items relative to monolinguals. The present study investigated whether this effect extended to spoken language comprehension, examining the processing of sentences with either low or high semantic constraint in both first and second languages. English-German bilinguals, German-English bilinguals and English monolinguals listened for target words in spoken English sentences while their eye-movements were recorded. Bilinguals' eye-movements reflected weaker lexical access relative to monolinguals; furthermore, the effect of semantic constraint differed across first versus second language processing. Specifically, English-native bilinguals showed fewer overall looks to target items, regardless of sentence constraint; German-native bilinguals activated target items more slowly and maintained target activation over a longer period of time in the low-constraint condition compared with monolinguals. No eye movements to cross-linguistic competitors were observed, suggesting that these lexical access disadvantages were present during bilingual spoken sentence comprehension even in the absence of overt interlingual competition.
Subject(s)
Comprehension , Multilingualism , Psycholinguistics , Speech Perception , Adult , Eye Movement Measurements , Female , Humans , Male , Young AdultABSTRACT
Research with speakers with acquired production difficulties has suggested phonetic processing is more difficult in tasks that require semantic processing. The current research examined whether similar effects are found in bilingual phonetic processing. English-French bilinguals' productions in picture naming (which requires semantic processing) were compared to those elicited by repetition (which does not require semantic processing). Picture naming elicited slower, more accented speech than repetition. These results provide additional support for theories integrating cognitive and phonetic processes in speech production and suggest that bilingual speech research must take cognitive factors into account when assessing the structure of non-native sound systems.
