English Target Words Research Articles

Modelling the bilingual lexicon as a multiplex phonological network.

Phonological word form networks of the mental lexicon are of psycholinguistic relevance, offering insights into the efficiency of lexical access. While much research has concentrated on first languages, there is growing evidence suggesting that phonological networks of second languages are equally significant for lexical processes. Bilingual language processing is proposed to involve the integration of first and second languages, with lexical activation spreading between similar word forms in both languages. Multiplex networks provide a framework to combine different phonological networks, allowing for the analysis of the integrated lexical system's behaviour during lexical processing. In the context of the present study, which focusses on German learners of English as a second language, a multiplex network analysis was constructed to model the interactive complexity of the bilingual mental lexicon. The study tested cross-linguistic effects in a word recognition task using English stimuli. Results revealed that during lexical processing in their second language English, German speakers also activate phonological neighbours from German. In addition, the bilinguals are attuned to the interconnectedness (i.e., clustering) of the German and English neighbours with one another in the phonological neighbourhood of the English target words. These findings can contribute to the ongoing debate on the degree of integration in the bilingual mental lexicon and shed light on the role that phonological networks can play in modelling bilingual lexical processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Observing gesture at learning enhances subsequent phonological and semantic processing of L2 words: An N400 study

This study employed the N400 event-related potential (ERP) to investigate how observing different types of gestures at learning affects the subsequent processing of L2 Mandarin words differing in lexical tone by L1 English speakers. The effects of pitch gestures conveying lexical tones (e.g., upwards diagonal movements for rising tone), semantic gestures conveying word meanings (e.g., waving goodbye for to wave), and no gesture were compared. In a lexical tone discrimination task, larger N400s for Mandarin target words mismatching vs. matching Mandarin prime words in lexical tone were observed for words learned with pitch gesture. In a meaning discrimination task, larger N400s for English target words mismatching vs. matching Mandarin prime words in meaning were observed for words learned with pitch and semantic gesture. These findings provide the first neural evidence that observing gestures during L2 word learning enhances subsequent phonological and semantic processing of learned L2 words.

Exploring L2 English Proficiency and Translation of Academic English Vocabulary

Knowledge of academic English vocabulary is essential for upper secondary L2 English learners preparing for university studies, yet previous research suggests students in Scandinavian settings may need support to acquire this lexis (Edgarsson, 2017; Henriksen & Danelund, 2015). The abundance of Graeco-Latin cognates between European languages and academic English has been shown to lessen the learning burden of academic English vocabulary for speakers of Romance languages (Cobb, 2000; Petrescu et al., 2017). However, less research has been conducted for speakers of Scandinavian languages who also have appropriate translations of Germanic origin for this vocabulary. Interestingly, previous studies have indicated that proficient Norwegian-speaking students taking tertiary studies made extensive use of Graeco-Latin cognates when translating academic English vocabulary, but research has yet to expand this investigation to upper secondary students and across proficiency levels. Therefore, the current study investigated if Norwegian-speaking students (N= 132) in their first year of upper secondary education produced Graeco-Latin cognates when translating academic English. Findings showed extensive use of L1 Latinate cognate forms to translate the English target words. However, less proficient learners had significantly fewer cognate translations and significantly more untranslated target words than more proficient learners. Findings suggest that in-class instruction raising awareness of Graeco-Latin cognates in academic English may be worthwhile, especially for less-proficient learners.
 Keywords: Academic vocabulary, cognates, translation, English language learners, vocabulary knowledge, proficiency, educations

Does MOED Rhyme with FRUIT? An event-related potential study of cross-language rhyming.

The study aimed to characterize the event-related potentials signature elicited by visual rhyme judgements across two alphabetic orthographies that differ in depth (shallow: Dutch; deep: English) and by spelling-sound consistency in a deep L2-English orthography. Twenty-four Dutch-English bilinguals who varied on measures of L2-English proficiency, made rhyme judgments of semantically unrelated Dutch-English word pairs presented sequentially in the visual modality, while behavioral and electrophysiological responses were recorded. The spelling-sound consistency of target words was varied systematically. Nonrhyming targets elicited a larger N450 amplitude than rhyming targets, indicating sensitivity to mismatching phonology across languages. English target words with consistent spelling-sound mappings elicited less negative N250 amplitudes when preceded by rhyming Dutch primes. Overall, event-related potentials revealed robust responses to phonological mismatch, but subtle responses to spelling-sound inconsistency in L2-English. Results suggest that bilingual readers of a shallow L1 orthography who are immersed in an L1-speaking environment may not tune into the degree of spelling-sound consistency of a deep L2 orthography.

The distribution of cognates and their impact on response accuracy in the EIKEN tests

Although there is abundant evidence for the use of first-language (L1) knowledge by bilinguals when using a second language (L2), investigation into the impact of L1 knowledge in large-scale L2 language assessments and discussion of how such impact may be controlled has received little attention in the language assessment literature. This study examines these issues through investigating the use of L1-Japanese loanword knowledge in test items targeting L2-English lexical knowledge in the Reading section of EIKEN grade-level tests, which are primarily taken by Japanese learners of English. First, the proportion of English target words that have loanwords in Japanese was determined through analysis of corpus-derived wordlists, revealing that the distribution of such items is broadly similar to that in language in general. Second, the impact of loanword frequency in Japanese (and cognate status) was demonstrated through statistical analysis of response data for the items. Taken together, the findings highlight the scope and impact of such cognate items in large-scale language assessments. Discussion centers on how test developers can and/or should deal with the inclusion of cognate words in terms of context validity and test fairness.

SPACED VOCABULARY ACQUISITION WHILE INCIDENTAL LISTENING BY ESL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Based on a prior study by Zubenko and Shwedel (2019), the present study investigated the possible effects of repetition (repeated exposure) on the incidental acquisition and retention of 120 English target words by 51 Ukrainian-speaking ESL learners at a Ukrainian university. The hypothesis was that regular repetition of vocabulary while incidental listening would have a significant and positive effect on students’ vocabulary acquisition and performance. The paper examines the results of the implementation of spaced repetition of L2 vocabulary strategy of the second-year students who were covering the same vocabulary they learned during the experiment in the previous year. 7 audio lessons were created for increasing the long-term retention of target vocabulary in the students’ memory. Participants (N=51) were second-year Ukrainian university students majoring in English as a second language (ESL) at the age of 17-19. They were assigned to three groups, one experimental and two comparison. The optimal result based on the interval of repetitions influences the vocabulary recall and retention. Students who used the spaced L2 vocabulary acquisition strategy (SVAS) outperformed on the End-of-Experiment test 84,1 versus 80,6 for the Comparison group. The results prove that spaced L2 vocabulary acquisition strategy is an efficient part of enriching new vocabulary. The findings indicate that implications of this research are connected with the spaced vocabulary acquisition strategy as an effective tool for learning new lexical units by ESL learners while incidental listening to the audio dictionary lessons. Thus, the study results open up new possibilities for the teachers and learners to consider implementing audio dictionaries and similar tools as assets for efficient vocabulary learning.

Incidental Vocabulary Learning From Bilingual Subtitled Viewing: An Eye‐Tracking Study

AbstractThis study examined the effectiveness of bilingual subtitles relative to captions, subtitles, and no subtitles for incidental vocabulary learning. Learners’ processing of novel words in the subtitles and its relationship to learning gains were also explored. While their eye movements were recorded, 112 intermediate to advanced Chinese learners of English watched a documentary in one of 4 conditions: bilingual subtitles, captions, L1 subtitles, and no subtitles. Vocabulary pretests and posttests assessed the participants’ knowledge of the target vocabulary for form recognition, meaning recall, and meaning recognition. Results suggested an advantage for bilingual subtitles over captions for meaning recognition and over L1 subtitles for meaning recall. Bilingual subtitles were less effective than captions for form recognition. Participants in the bilingual subtitles group spent more time reading the Chinese translations of the target items than the English target words. The amount of attention to the English target words (but not to the translations) predicted learning gains.

Effects of Language Skills and Strategy Use on Vocabulary Learning Through Lexical Translation and Inferencing

This study explores how vocabulary learning strategy usage and skills in the four language domains relate to participants’ increase in vocabulary size and to the learning of specific vocabulary items over a certain period of time. Sixty-one advanced L1 Arabic L2 learners of English read target words in semi-authentic reading materials and were instructed to either guess the meaning from context or consult a dictionary. Pre- and delayed post-tests assessed vocabulary size and knowledge of the target vocabulary items. Results showed that learning through inferencing, but not learning through dictionary use, depended on learners’ familiarity with the particular learning strategy. Additionally, note taking and reading comprehension influenced lexical knowledge and acquisition in complex ways.

Phonetic drift reveals interconnected phonological representations in simultaneous bilinguals: A case study of English and Czech stop consonants

Purpose: The interconnectedness of phonological categories between the two languages of early bilinguals has previously been explored using single-probe speech production and perception data. Our goal was to tap into bilingual phonological representations in another way, namely via monitoring instances of phonetic drift due to changes in language exposure. Design: We report a case study of two teenage English–Czech simultaneous bilinguals who live in Canada and spend summers in Czechia (Czech Republic). Voice onset time (VOT) of word-initial voiced and voiceless stops was measured upon the bilinguals’ arrival to and before their departure from a two-month stay in Czechia. Data and Analysis: Each bilingual read the same set of 71 Czech and 58 English stop-initial target words (and additional fillers) at each time of measurement. The measured VOT values were submitted to linear mixed effects models, assessing the effects of target language, measurement time, and underlying voicing. Findings/Conclusions: After the immersion in a Czech-speaking environment, for both speakers the count of voiced stops realized as prevoiced (i.e., having negative VOT) increased and the measured VOT of voiced stops (appearing different for English and Czech initially) drifted towards more negative (more Czech-like) values in both languages, while no change was detected for the voiceless stops of either English (aspirated) or Czech (unaspirated). The results suggest that the bilinguals maintain three-way VOT distinctions, differentiating voiceless aspirated (English), voiceless unaspirated (Czech), and voiced (English–Czech) stops, with connected bilingual representations of the voiced categories. Originality: Data on phonetic drift in simultaneous bilinguals proficient in their two languages have not previously been published. Significance/Implications: We show that observing phonetic shifts due to changes in the ambient linguistic environment can be revealing about the organization of phonological space in simultaneous bilinguals.

The Effects of Home Language and Bilingualism on the Realization of Lexical Stress in Welsh and Welsh English.

This study investigates effects of long-term language contact and individual linguistic experience on the realization of lexical stress correlates in Welsh and Welsh English. To this end, a production study was carried out in which participants were asked to read out Welsh and English disyllabic words with stress on the penultimate syllable, placed within carrier phrases. Recordings were made of the productions of Welsh and English target words, by two groups of Welsh-English bilinguals differing in home language, as well as the productions of English target words by Welsh English monolinguals and speakers of Southern Standard British English (SSBE). Acoustic measures were taken of fundamental frequency (f0) and intensity ratios of stressed and unstressed vowels, duration of stressed and unstressed vowels, and duration of the post-stress consonant. The results of acoustic comparisons of Welsh English with SSBE and Welsh revealed that SSBE differs from the other groups in all measures of lexical stress. Welsh and Welsh English, however, show considerable phonetic overlap, albeit with language-specific differences in two of the five measures (unstressed vowel duration, intensity ratio). These findings suggest cross-language convergence in the realization of lexical stress in Welsh and Welsh English disyllabic words with penultimate stress. Individual linguistic experience, in turn, did not play a major role in the realization of lexical stress in these words. Bilinguals did not differ from monolinguals when speaking English, and home language also had no effect on any measure. This suggests that other factors must be responsible for the observed patterns. We discuss the possibility that the varieties of Welsh and Welsh English spoken in this community function as a sign of regional or peer group identity, rather than as markers of linguistic experience.

Effects of different reading texts on vocabulary gain, use and retention

This study investigated whether encountering the target language words in variety of reading texts would have positive effects on vocabulary development or not. The participants of the study were 55 EFL learners from a state university in Turkey, and two classes were randomly assigned to a control (n=27) or an experimental (n=28) group. 58 English target words in total were chosen to be used in the study. The learners in the experimental group learnt the words through reading texts, and then they repeated them in different reading texts. That is to say, these students had the opportunity to meet the target words in different types of reading texts. Contrary to this, the learners in the control group encountered the words in reading texts only once, and then they repeated them in word lists out of context. A vocabulary test as pre-, post- and delayed post-test was used to measure vocabulary gain and retention. The data obtained from the vocabulary test were analyzed through paired-samples t-tests and independent-samples t-tests to see how the implementation affected the learners’ vocabulary development. Additionally, a writing task was used to find out the effects of the implementation on the learners’ vocabulary production. The findings showed that encountering words in different reading texts was more effective for vocabulary gain, use and retention.

Orthographic and phonological priming effects in the same-different task.

Masked priming tasks have been used widely to study early orthographic processes—the coding of letter position and letter identity. Recently, using masked priming in the same–different task Lupker, Nakayama, and Perea (2015a) reported finding a phonological priming effect with primes presented in Japanese Katakana, and English target words presented in the Roman alphabet, and based on this finding, suggested that previously reported effects in the same–different task in the literature could be based on phonology rather than orthography. In this article, the authors explain why the design of Lupker et al.’s experiment does not address this question; they then report 2 new experiments that do. The results indicate that the priming produced by orthographically similar primes in the same–different task for letter strings presented in the Roman alphabet is almost exclusively orthographic in origin, and phonology makes little contribution. The authors offer an explanation for why phonological priming was observed when the prime and target are presented in different scripts but not when they are presented in the same script.

Context, word, and student predictors in second language vocabulary learning

ABSTRACTWe examined to what extent the variation in vocabulary learning outcomes (vocabulary knowledge, learning gain, and rate of forgetting) in English as a second language (L2) in context can be predicted from semantic contextual support, word characteristics (cognate status, Levenshtein distance, word frequency, and word length), and student characteristics (prior vocabulary knowledge, reading ability, and exposure to English) in 197 Dutch adolescents. Students were taught cognates, false friends, and control words through judging sentences with varying degrees of semantic contextual support using a pretest/posttest between subjects design. Participants were presented with an English target word and its Dutch translation, followed by an English sentence. They were instructed to judge the plausibility of the sentence. Mixed-efffects models indicated that learning gains were higher for sentences with more semantic contextual support and in students with stronger reading comprehension skills. We were the first to show that Levenshtein distance is an important predictor for L2 vocabulary learning outcomes. Furthermore, more accurate as well as faster learning task performance lead to higher learning outcomes. It can thus be concluded that L2 study materials containing semantically supportive contexts and that focus on words with little L1-L2 overlap are most effective for L2 vocabulary learning.

Limitations of translation activation in masked priming: Behavioural evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals and computational modelling

Electrophysiological and behavioural evidence suggests that Chinese translations of English words are automatically activated when Chinese-English bilinguals read English words (e.g., Thierry & Wu, 2007; Wu & Thierry, 2010; Zhang, van Heuven, & Conklin, 2011). The present study investigated the impact of translation activation in three behavioural experiments with in total 118 Chinese-English bilinguals. First, we investigated whether Chinese phonology was the source of the effects of Chinese character repetition in the Chinese translations of English masked primes and targets (hidden repetition priming) observed in Zhang et al.’s (2011), and whether these hidden repetition priming effects were affected by Chinese morpheme complexity and prime duration. However, we failed to find any evidence of hidden repetition priming. An exact replication of Zhang et al. (2011) was conducted next, which again provided no evidence for hidden repetition priming. However, cross-language priming data collected with the same group of participants did reveal masked translation priming and crucially Chinese character repetition priming with masked Chinese primes and English targets (partially hidden repetition priming), indicating that the activation of Chinese translations in the masked priming paradigm is limited to English target words. Computational modeling work provided further support that translation form activation is limited to target words in the masked priming paradigm.

Cross-script orthographic and phonological preview benefits.

The present experiment examined the use of parafoveally presented first-language (L1) orthographic and phonological codes during reading of second-language (L2) sentences in proficient Russian-English bilinguals. Participants read English sentences containing a Russian preview word that was replaced by the English target word when the participant's eyes crossed an invisible boundary located before the preview word. The use of English and Russian allowed us to manipulate orthographic and phonological preview effects independently of one another. The Russian preview words overlapped with English target words in (a) orthography (ВЕЛЮР [vʲɪ'lʲʉr]-BERRY), (b) phonology (БЛАНК [blank]-BLOOD), or (c) had no orthographic or phonological overlap (КАЛАЧ [kɐ'lat͡ɕ]-BERRY; ГЖЕЛЬ [ɡʐϵlʲ]-BLOOD). The results of this study showed a clear and strong benefit of the parafoveal preview of Russian words that shared either orthography or phonology with English target words. This study is the first demonstration of cross-script orthographic and phonological parafoveal preview benefit effects. Bilinguals integrate orthographic and phonological information across eye fixations in reading, even when this information comes from different languages.

Parallel semantic processing in reading revisited: effects of translation equivalents in bilingual readers

ABSTRACTPrevious research has failed to establish semantic parafoveal-on-foveal effects during reading. As an explanation, we theorise that sentence reading engages a sentence-level representation that prevents semantic parafoveal-foveal integration. Putting this account to the test, we examined parafoveal-foveal influences both in- and outside a sentence reading setting. Optimising chances of establishing parafoveal-on-foveal effects, we used translation-equivalent word pairs with French-English bilingual participants. Experiment 1 provided no evidence for semantic parafoveal-on-foveal integration during sentence reading, but some evidence that semantic information had been extracted in parallel from multiple words. Experiments 2 and 3 employed a flanker paradigm in which participants semantically categorised English foveal target words, while these were flanked by the French translation or an unrelated French word (stimulus on-time 170 ms). Performance was drastically better with translation flankers, suggesting that readers can integrate semantic information across multiple words when the task does not require a strict separation of higher-order information.

Do you hear ‘feather’ when listening to ‘rain’? Lexical tone activation during unconscious translation: Evidence from Mandarin-English bilinguals

Although lexical tone is a highly prevalent phonetic cue in human languages, its role in bilingual spoken word recognition is not well understood. The present study investigates whether and how adult bilinguals, who use pitch contours to disambiguate lexical items in one language but not the other, access a tonal L1 when exclusively processing a non-tonal L2. Using the visual world paradigm, we show that Mandarin-English listeners automatically activated Mandarin translation equivalents of English target words such as ‘rain’ (Mandarin ‘yu3’), and consequently were distracted by competitors whose segments and tones overlapped with the translations of English target words (‘feather’, also ‘yu3’ in Mandarin). Importantly, listeners were not distracted by competitors that overlapped with the translations of target words in all segments but not tone (‘fish’; Mandarin ‘yu2’), nor were they distracted by competitors that overlapped with the translations of target words in rime and tone (‘wheat’, Mandarin ‘gu3’). These novel results demonstrate implicit access to L1 lexical representations through automatic/unconscious translation, as a result of cross-language top-down and/or lateral influence, and highlight the critical role of lexical tone activation in bilingual lexical access.

Costs and cues in code-switched lexical access

While perceiving code-switches incurs processing costs [Soares & Grosjean (1984, Memory & Cognition 12(4):380-386)], bilingual listeners use acoustic cues to anticipate switches and facilitate processing [Fricke et al. (2016, J. Memory Lang. 89:110-137)]. This study investigates the role of anticipatory prosodic cues in the online processing of a code-switch from a non-tonal to a tonal language. Experiment 1 compares reaction times for perceiving Mandarin and English target words in English frames, to test whether recognizing code-switches is costly. Although reaction times for code-switched stimuli (475 ms) were not significantly slower than monolingual stimuli (466 ms), all participants self-reported as Mandarin-dominant speakers who frequently code-switch, suggesting that language dominance and experience may modulate switch costs. Reaction times to naturally-produced code-switched stimuli (426 ms) were faster than to spliced code-switched stimuli (511 ms), suggesting that anticipatory cues facilitate the perception of code-switches. Experiment 2 is a visual world eye-tracking task. The proportion of looks toward images corresponding to the target word (e.g., [mɑʊ4tsɨ5] “hat”), a cross-language phonetic competitor (e.g., [maʊs] “mouse”), and a within-language phonetic competitor (e.g., [mɑʊ2tɕin1] “towel”) are compared to assess any influence of anticipatory cues on target and non-target language activation levels during auditory recognition of code-switches.

Bilingual and Monolingual Idiom Processing Is Cut from the Same Cloth: The Role of the L1 in Literal and Figurative Meaning Activation.

The present study examines non-native (L2) and native (L1) listeners' access to figurative idiomatic meaning and literal constituent meaning in two cross-modal priming experiments. Proficient German learners of English (L2) and native speakers of American English (L1) responded to English target words preceded by English idioms embedded in non-biasing prime sentences in a lexical decision task. English idioms differed in levels of translatability: Lexical level idioms had word-for-word translation equivalents in German, while post-lexical level idioms had matching idiomatic concepts in German but could not be translated word for word. Target words either related to the figurative meaning of the idiom or related to the literal meaning of the final constituent word of the idiom (e.g., to pull someone's leg, literal target: walk, figurative target: joke). Both L1 and L2 listeners showed facilitatory priming for literally- and figuratively-related target words compared to unrelated control target words, with only marginal differences between the listener groups. No effect of translatability was found; that is, the existence of word-for-word translation equivalents in German neither facilitated nor hindered meaning activation for German L2 listeners. The results are interpreted in the context of L1 and L2 models of idiom processing as well as further relevant translation studies.

Non-adjacent consonant sequence patterns in English target words during the first-word period.

The goal of this study was to investigate non-adjacent consonant sequence patterns in target words during the first-word period in infants learning American English. In the spontaneous speech of eighteen participants, target words with a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (C1VC2) shape were analyzed. Target words were grouped into nine types, categorized by place of articulation (labial, coronal, dorsal) of initial and final consonants (e.g. mom, labial-labial; mat, labial-coronal; dog, coronal-dorsal). The results indicated that some consonant sequences occurred much more frequently than others in early target words. The two most frequent types were coronal-coronal (e.g. dad) and labial-coronal (e.g. mat). The least frequent type was dorsal-dorsal (e.g. cake). These patterns are consistent with phonotactic characteristics of English and infants' production capacities reported in previous studies. This study demonstrates that infants' expressive vocabularies reflect both ambient language characteristics and their own production capacities, at least for consonant sequences in C1VC2 word forms.