Abstract
Language proficiency is predicted to modulate orthographic-semantic association in second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition, in accordance with the assumptions of the Developmental Bilingual Interactive-Activation model (BIA-d) (Grainger et al., 2010). The current study explored this modulation during pre-attentive L2 orthographic perception. ERPs were recorded from Chinese–English bilinguals with different L2 proficiency during their pre-attentive response to deviant and standard stimuli arranged in the oddball paradigm. Two stimulus types were investigated separately: L2 orthography and L1 orthography. In the L2 orthography condition, a MMN-N400 complex (i.e., deviancy effect) was found in the high L2 proficiency bilinguals, but only a marginally significant reduced negativity in an early time window was found in the low L2 proficiency bilinguals. In the L1 orthography condition, the high and low L2 proficiency bilinguals showed similar deviancy effect in the form of MMN-P3a-LPC complex. The current findings suggest that proficiency modulates pre-attentive L2 orthographic perception, such that the high L2 proficiency bilinguals activate the associated semantic representation instantly upon orthographic decoding, while the orthographic-semantic connection is not activated for the low L2 proficiency bilinguals. This is probably due to their difference in the strength of orthographic-semantic association. These findings contribute to the understanding of orthographic processing by bilinguals at the pre-attentive level and provide supporting evidence for the BIA-d model.
Highlights
Most available information in the environment is pre-attentively processed
The present study aimed to explore whether bilinguals with different L2 proficiency levels utilize distinct L2 orthographic perception mechanisms at the pre-attentive level
We expected that strong orthographic-semantic association may have been established for bilinguals with high L2 proficiency and this may lead to higher automatization of the spread of activation from the visual to the semantic system during visual word recognition at the pre-attentive stage
Summary
Most available information in the environment is pre-attentively (unconsciously) processed. Information after pre-attentive processing is ready to be selected for further attentive (conscious) processing (van der Heijden, 1996). The current study focused on orthographic processing of second language (L2) at the pre-attentive level, i.e., the unconscious, pre-attentive orthographic processing rather than conscious, overt orthographic recognition, since pre-attentive sensory processing may be a ready state which might “govern” some higher order attentive linguistic operations (Tiitinen et al, 1994). Ehri (2005) argues that the orthographic word recognition process. Orthographic Perception of Second Language seems to be unconscious and automatic. Readers are able to retrieve the pronunciations and meanings automatically upon the sight of the word form, with no need of the conscious attentional resources (LaBerge and Samuels, 1974; Guttentag and Haith, 1978; Pattamadilok et al, 2017)
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