L2-L1 Translation Priming Effects in a Lexical Decision Task: Evidence From Low Proficient Korean-English Bilinguals.

Yoonhyoung Lee,Euna Jang,Wonil Choi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00267

Abstract

One of the key issues in bilingual lexical representation is whether L1 processing is facilitated by L2 words. In this study, we conducted two experiments using the masked priming paradigm to examine how L2-L1 translation priming effects emerge when unbalanced, low proficiency, Korean-English bilinguals performed a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, we used a 150 ms SOA (50 ms prime duration followed by a blank interval of 100 ms) and found a significant L2-L1 translation priming effect. In contrast, in Experiment 2, we used a 60 ms SOA (50 ms prime duration followed by a blank interval of 10 ms) and found a null effect of L2-L1 translation priming. This finding is the first demonstration of a significant L2-L1 translation priming effect with unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals. Implications of this work are discussed with regard to bilingual word recognition models.

Highlights

A crucial question on understanding bilinguals’ lexico-semantic organization is how the native (L1) and the second language (L2) interact with each other
A significant L2-L1 translation priming effect in a masked priming lexical decision task has rarely been observed in the extant literature
The present study examined whether the L2L1 translation priming effect would emerge in low proficiency unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals by manipulating the duration of the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) (60 vs. 150 ms) while holding the prime duration constant (50 ms)

Summary

Introduction

A crucial question on understanding bilinguals’ lexico-semantic organization is how the native (L1) and the second language (L2) interact with each other. A substantial body of research has shown that priming effects are obtained in the direction of L1 to L2 (forward priming), in which an L2 target word is responded to faster when preceded by its translation (e.g., —apple) than by an unrelated L1 word [e.g., (chair in English)— apple; e.g., De Groot and Nas, 1991; Williams, 1994; Gollan et al, 1997; Jiang, 1999; Jiang and Forster, 2001; Kim and Davis, 2003; Basnight-Brown and Altarriba, 2007; Voga and Grainger, 2007; Duyck and Warlop, 2009; Dimitropoulou et al, 2011a,b; Lupker et al, 2015]. This effect has been robust and found between similar script pairs (e.g., Dutch-English, Spanish-English, and Spanish-Catalan), and between different script pairs (e.g., Chinese-English, Japanese-English, and Korean-English), suggesting that the L1-L2 translation priming effect should occur irrespective

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Conclusion