Second Language Interference during First Language Processing by Arabic-English Bilinguals.

Tahani Alsaigh,Shelia M Kennison

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01956

Abstract

The research investigated whether a bilinguals’ second language (L2) is activated during a task involving only the first language (L1). We tested the hypothesis that the amount of L2 interference can vary across settings, with less interference occurring in testing locations where L2 is rarely used. In Experiment 1, we compared language processing for 50 Arabic–English bilinguals tested in Saudi Arabia and 49 Arabic–English tested in the United States. In the task, participants viewed a picture and judged whether a phoneme presented over headphones was part of the L1 picture name. The results showed no effect of testing location on processing. For both groups of bilinguals, we observed L2 interference in mean error rates, but not in mean response times. We also found evidence for L2 interference in correlational analyses between response times and (a) participants’ weekly L2 usage and (b) frequency of English picture names. A second experiment with 24 Arabic monolinguals supported the conclusion that the results with bilinguals were due to L2 interference. Implications for theories of bilingual memory are discussed.

Highlights

The nature of bilingual memory remains poorly understood, with regard to whether a bilingual’s two languages are stored separately in memory or together (Grosjean, 1982, 2010; Kroll and Stewart, 1994; Dijkstra and Van Heuven, 2002; Altarriba and Isurin, 2013; Heredia and Altarriba, 2014)
We found that participants who were tested in the United States reported using English significantly more each week than those tested in Saudi Arabia t(97) = −2.28, p = 0.02
The research investigated whether the testing location influenced the amount of L2 (i.e., English) interference experienced by Arabic–English bilinguals during a processing task involving only L1 (Arabic)

Summary

Introduction

The nature of bilingual memory remains poorly understood, with regard to whether a bilingual’s two languages are stored separately in memory or together (Grosjean, 1982, 2010; Kroll and Stewart, 1994; Dijkstra and Van Heuven, 2002; Altarriba and Isurin, 2013; Heredia and Altarriba, 2014). Some researchers advocate for separation of languages in bilingual memory (e.g., the revised hierarchical model or RHM, Kroll and Stewart, 1994). Other researchers claim that during processing, there is generally co-activation of both languages during all language processing (e.g., the bilingual interactive activation plus or BIA+ model, Dijkstra and Van Heuven, 2002). It remains unclear whether the activation of each of a bilingual’s languages varies across situational contexts. The focus of the present research was to explore the extent to which the country in which testing occurs affects the amount of second language (L2) interference experienced during first language (L1) processing

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