L2 word recognition in French–English late bilinguals: does modality matter?

Research in second language (L2) learning often considers one modality only during task completion. It is unclear if L2 performance is as accurate whatever the modality. L2 learning at school is characterized by a predominance of written materials. One might expect written L2 word recognition to be more accurate than spoken one. This modality effect could also depend on L2 proficiency and the presence of cognate items, closer orthographically than phonologically for most language pairs. Two experiments were conducted with 50 intermediate proficiency French–English bilinguals. Experiment 1 highlighted this modality effect on accuracy and a session effect reflecting a benefit from oral to written modality on latency. In Experiment 2, which included both cognate and non-cognate words, modality effect was even stronger for cognate words and cognate effect depended on modality. In both experiments, these effects depend on L2 proficiency. These findings are discussed according to bilingual word recognition models.

Examining L1 influence in L2 word recognition

The present study examined L1 influence in visual L2 word recognition in the area of letter case. Whether an English word is displayed in upper- or lower-case letters may be of little significance to English native speakers, but many ESL speakers from east Asia have found it more difficult to recognize words printed in upper-case letters. Two experiments were conducted to explore two questions: (a) whether there was indeed a case effect in L2 word recognition in that ESL speakers took longer in responding to upper-case words, and (b) whether this case effect only occurred for ESL speakers whose first languages employed a script other than the Roman alphabet. The participants included English native speakers, ESL speakers whose L1s employed the Roman alphabet (the Romance ESL group) and ESL speakers whose L1s did not. They were asked to perform a lexical decision task on English words displayed in either upper- or lower-case letters. In both experiments, a reliable case effect was found for the latter ESL group only. This L1-related case effect raised both theoretical and pedagogical issues to be explored in future research.

A tale of two frequency effects: Toward a verification model of L2 word recognition

This study examined the activation of first language (L1) translations in second language (L2) word recognition in a lexical decision task. Test materials included English words that differed in the frequency of their Chinese translations or in their surface lexical frequency while other lexical properties were controlled. Chinese speakers of English as a second language of different proficiencies and native speakers of English were tested. Native speakers produced a reliable lexical frequency effect but no translation frequency effect. English as a second language speakers of lower English proficiency showed both a translation frequency effect and a lexical frequency effect, but those of higher English proficiency showed a lexical frequency effect only. The results were discussed in a verification model of L2 word recognition. According to the model, L2 word recognition entails a checking procedure in which activated L2 words are checked against their L1 translations. The two frequency effects are seen to have two different loci. The lexical frequency effect is associated with the initial activation of L2 lemmas, and the translation frequency effect arises in the verification process. Existing evidence for verification in L2 word recognition and new issues this model raises are discussed.

The impact of cross-language phonological overlap on bilingual and monolingual toddlers’ word recognition

We examined how L2 exposure early in life modulates toddler word recognition by comparing German–English bilingual and German monolingual toddlers’ recognition of words that overlapped to differing degrees, measured by number of phonological features changed, between English and German (e.g., identical, 1-feature change, 2-feature change, 3-feature change, no overlap). Recognition in English was modulated by language background (bilinguals vs. monolinguals) and by the amount of phonological overlap that English words shared with their L1 German translations. L1 word recognition remained unchanged across conditions between monolingual and bilingual toddlers, showing no effect of learning an L2 on L1 word recognition in bilingual toddlers. Furthermore, bilingual toddlers who had a later age of L2 acquisition had better recognition of words in English than those toddlers who acquired English at an earlier age. The results suggest an important role for L1 phonological experience on L2 word recognition in early bilingual word recognition.

Impact of talker variability on L2 word recognition among Japanese EFL learners

This article is a pilot study investigating auditory word priming in 40 Japanese learners of English using speeded repetition tasks to measure the impact of talker changes on second language (L2) word recognition. The results showed that by focusing more on the perceptual dimension, in single-talker conditions, word recognition time was statistically significantly shorter and a perceptual learning effect was seen. However, with talker changes, word recognition time significantly increased and the repetition effects were nullified. The results indicate that Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners have high sensitivity to individual attributes of speech and seem to need some variations in auditory input for some period of time without any need for comprehension in order to form robust representations of L2 words.