Investigating the Speed of Lexical Activation in the Bilinguals' L1 and L2 through Forward and Backward Translation Task

The relationship between lexical activation in L1 and L2 was investigated using a backward and forward translation task. Bilingual Arabic-English speakers first translated forward from L1 to L2, then backward from L2 to L1. Two groups of participants were established (high and low proficient bilinguals). The translation task included words that were being translated in both L1 and L2. The goal of the study was to see how strong the relation between L1 and L2 translation is. The findings of the study revealed that bilingual memory relations are asymmetric: translation from L1 to L2 is conceptually mediated, but the translation from L2 to L1 is lexically mediated.

Bilingual memory, to the extreme: Lexical processing in simultaneous interpreters

This study assessed whether bilingual memory is susceptible to the extreme processing demands of professional simultaneous interpreters (PSIs). Seventeen PSIs and 17 non-interpreter bilinguals completed word production, lexical retrieval, and verbal fluency tasks. PSIs exhibited enhanced fluency in their two languages, and they were faster to translate words in both directions. However, no significant differences emerged in picture naming or word reading. This suggests that lexical enhancements in PSIs are confined to their specifically trained abilities (vocabulary search, interlingual reformulation), with no concomitant changes in other word-processing mechanisms. Importantly, these differences seem to reflect specifically linguistic effects, as both samples were matched for relevant executive skills. Moreover, only word translation performance correlated with the PSIs’ years of interpreting experience. Therefore, despite their tight cooperation, different subcomponents within bilingual memory seem characterized by independent, usage-driven flexibility.

List composition effect on cognate and non-cognate word acquisition in children

Previous studies on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition with children showed that the use of a picture learning method favours the creation of direct links between the semantic system and new lexical representations at early stages of L2 acquisition (Comesaña et al., 2009). However, recent studies found that this influence seems to vary according to the cognate status of the words being learned (Comesaña et al., 2012), raising the question of how the type of words involved can modulate the lexical-semantic connections between the words of both languages in the bilingual memory. The main goal of the present study was to explore list composition effects in the establishment of L2 word-to-concept connections in Portuguese children by using a picture-based method. Results showed no influence of list composition in the establishment of L2 lexical-semantic connections when cognates have to be learned. Findings are discussed in light of relevant models of bilingual memory.