Abstract
AbstractBilinguals’ two languages seem to be coactivated in parallel during reading, speaking, and listening. However, this coactivation in writing has been scarcely studied. This study aimed to assess orthographic coactivation during spelling-to-dictation. We took advantage of the presence of polyvalent graphemes in Spanish (one phonological representation with two orthographic specifications, e.g., / b /for both the graphemes v and b) to manipulate orthographic congruency. Spanish–English bilinguals were presented with cross-linguistic congruent (movement–movimiento) and incongruent words (government–gobierno) for a dictation task. The time and accuracy to initiate writing and to type the rest-of-word (lexical and sublexical processing) were recorded in both the native language (L1) and the second language (L2). Results revealed no differences between conditions in monolinguals. Bilinguals showed a congruency and language interaction with better performance for congruent stimuli, which was evident from the beginning of typing in L2. Language coactivation and lexical–sublexical interaction during bilinguals’ writing are discussed.
Highlights
A large number of studies have shown that, when bilinguals produce or understand a message in a language, the representation of the non-required language is activated in parallel (Costa, Miozzo & Caramazza, 1999; Kroll, Bobb, Misra & Guo, 2008; Marian & Spivey, 2003; Sadat, Martin, Magnuson, Alario & Costa, 2015)
Language coactivation has been observed through interference phenomena with interlingual homographs (e.g., Martín, Macizo & Bajo, 2010); with this type of word, the orthographic representation is analogous between the two languages, but the meaning is different
Note that the critical effect of the polyvalent graphemes should only be present in the bilingual group, since this is assumed to be the result of language coactivation
Summary
A large number of studies have shown that, when bilinguals produce or understand a message in a language, the representation of the non-required language is activated in parallel (Costa, Miozzo & Caramazza, 1999; Kroll, Bobb, Misra & Guo, 2008; Marian & Spivey, 2003; Sadat, Martin, Magnuson, Alario & Costa, 2015). Bilingual production models postulate that the conceptual representations of the intended message spread activation to the corresponding lexical representations of the two languages. Bilingual comprehension models (e.g., Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus BIA+ model; Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002) postulate that bilinguals have a unified orthographic lexicon with lexical nodes for words in both languages. Interlingual homographs are slower to process in both production and comprehension tasks due to the activation of two competing meanings from the two coactivated languages (Jared & Szucs, 2002; Lagrou, Hartsuiker & Duyck, 2011; Lemhöfer & Dijkstra, 2004; Martín et al, 2010; Smits, Martensen, Dijkstra & Sandra, 2006)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
