Effects of language bias and proficiency on cross-language activation: Evidence from eye-tracking

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Language bias and proficiency have been proposed to modulate cross-language activation, but it is unclear how they operate and whether they interact. This study sheds further light on this by investigating whether stress differences between Spanish-English cognates (material, final-syllable stress in Spanish) affect how native-English second-language-Spanish bilinguals recognize Spanish words (materia “subject/matter,” second-syllable stress in Spanish). In a Spanish-English eye-tracking experiment, participants heard trisyllabic Spanish targets with second-syllable stress (materia) and saw four orthographic words, including the target and a Spanish-English cognate competitor. Cross-language activation was examined by manipulating the stress of the cognate in English; English cognates with the same stress as the Spanish target (target: materia, competitor: material) were predicted to cause more cross-language interference than English cognates with a different stress (target: litera “bunk bed,” competitor: literal). Participants were assigned to a Spanish-bias condition, with 20% of English (filler) items, or an English-bias condition, with 65% of English (filler) items. Spanish proficiency was assessed with a cloze test and LexTALE. Results indicate that English cognates with the same stress as the Spanish target interfered with the recognition of the Spanish target only in the English-bias condition, and bilinguals better controlled this cross-language interference with increasing Spanish proficiency.