Cross-language activation in bimodal bilinguals: Do mouthings affect the co-activation of speech during sign recognition?

Ellen Ormel,Marcel R Giezen,Janet G Van Hell

doi:10.1017/s1366728921000845

Abstract

AbstractThe present study provides insight into cross-language activation in hearing bimodal bilinguals by (1) examining co-activation of spoken words during processing of signs by hearing bimodal bilingual users of Dutch (their L1) and Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT; late learners) and (2) investigating the contribution of mouthings to bimodal cross-language activation. NGT signs were presented with or without mouthings in two sign-picture verification experiments. In both experiments the phonological relation (unrelated, cohort overlap or final rhyme overlap) between the Dutch translation equivalents of the NGT signs and pictures was manipulated. Across both experiments, the results showed slower responses for sign-picture pairs with final rhyme overlap relative to phonologically unrelated sign-picture pairs, indicating co-activation of the spoken language during sign processing, but no significant effect for sign-picture pairs with cohort overlap in Dutch. In addition, co-activation was not affected by the presence or absence of mouthings.

Highlights

Research has demonstrated that bilinguals of two spoken languages co-activate both languages when speaking, reading or listening in one language
Morford, Wilkinson, Villwock, Piñar and Kroll (2011) found that deaf American Sign Language (ASL)–English bilinguals were faster to decide that two English words were semantically related when the ASL sign translation equivalents of these words overlapped in sign phonology
They were slower to decide that two printed English words were not semantically related when their ASL translation equivalents overlapped in sign phonology

Summary

Introduction

Research has demonstrated that bilinguals of two spoken languages co-activate both languages when speaking, reading or listening in one language (for reviews, see e.g., Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002; Kroll, Bogulski & McClain, 2012; Shook & Marian, 2013; van Hell & Tanner, 2012). Children responded slower and were less accurate when words and pictures were phonologically related in NGT than when they were unrelated These findings have since been replicated in various other studies with deaf signers (e.g., Kubuş, Villwock, Morford & Rathmann, 2015; Meade, Midgley, Sevcikova Sehyr, Holcomb & Emmorey, 2017; Morford, Kroll, Piñar & Wilkinson, 2014; Morford, Occhino-Kehoe, Piñar, Wilkinson & Kroll, 2017), and in studies with native and non-native hearing signers (e.g., Giezen, Blumenfeld, Shook, Marian & Emmorey, 2015; Giezen & Emmorey, 2016; Shook & Marian, 2012; Villameriel, Dias, Costello & Carreiras, 2016; Williams & Newman, 2015). Cross-language activation is a robust characteristic of bilingual processing in bilinguals of spoken languages, and in deaf and hearing signers, which we will refer to as ‘bimodal bilinguals’

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