L1 production following brief L2 exposure: Evidence for cross-talk across comprehension and production.

Abstract

Language control allows bilinguals to fluently shift between their languages. Here, we tested whether comprehension and production tasks initiate language control processes to the same extent, and whether these processes operate over specific concepts or globally. Seventy Hebrew-English bilinguals completed an L1 picture-naming production task in the first and third blocks, and either a reading aloud (word production) or an animacy judgment (word comprehension) task in their L2 in the second block. Further, concepts were either repeated across blocks or not. Results showed more filled pauses in the third block relative to the first block. Additionally, the size of this blocked-language order effect was similar following word production and word comprehension tasks in the L2, suggesting that production and comprehension tasks were similarly efficient in instigating control processes. Finally, both recurring and new concepts were affected, suggesting that mostly global language control is at play. These findings provide constraining evidence for fully understanding the scope of bilingual language control.