Higher L2 Proficiency Research Articles

Individual differences in word skipping during reading in English as L2.

The Multilingual Eye-movement Corpus (MECO; Siegelman et al., 2022) contains data from unbalanced bilinguals reading in their first language (L1) for a variety of languages and in English as their second language (L2). We analyzed word skipping in L2 on the basis of five predictors consisting of the frequency and length of the word in L2 and three measures of individual differences. Besides the L2 proficiency of the participant, two novel measures were also constructed: the average amount of skipping in L1 across participants per language and whether an individual reader skips words often in their L1 compared with other L1 readers in the same language. Word skipping in L2 increased for short and high-frequency words, for participants with higher L2 proficiency, for readers whose L1 featured relatively high average skipping rates compared with the other languages, and especially for participants who skip more often in L1 than their peers. All three individual differences interacted with word length such that their influence was more pronounced for longer words. Our results show that readers prefer to maintain a certain level of word skipping resembling how they read in L1. Due to lower L2 than L1 proficiency in unbalanced bilinguals, word skipping in L2 would often be based on a comparatively less advanced stage in parafoveal word recognition.

The Effect of L2 Proficiency on the Processing of Multiword Expressions

The processing of multiword expressions (MWEs) has gained increasing attention nowadays, and many factors have been proven to influence it. However, within all these factors, whether L2 proficiency affects MWE processing has still not been answered satisfactorily. Some studies have shown that higher L2 proficiency will lead to a processing advantage while others have not. Thus, this paper intends to answer this question by synthesizing and analyzing the related studies about the effect of L2 proficiency on the processing of MWEs through research methods, characteristics of participants, research procedures, and research results and conclusion. This paper provides some possible reasons for the mixed findings of those studies from the aspects of the division of the proficiency levels, the differences of research methods, and the amounts of participants. Based on the limitations of studies that found L2 proficiency did not influence the processing of MWEs, this paper concludes that L2 proficiency plays a role in MWEs processing.

Horizontal mapping of time-related words in first and second language

The existence of a consistent horizontal spatial-conceptual mapping for words denoting time is a well-established phenomenon. For example, words related to the past or future (e.g., yesterday/tomorrow) facilitate respective leftward/rightward attentional shifts and responses, suggesting the visual-spatial grounding of temporal semantics, at least in the native language (L1). To examine whether similar horizontal bias also accompanies access to time-related words in a second language (L2), we tested 53 Russian-English (Experiment 1) and 48 German-English (Experiment 2) bilinguals, who classified randomly presented L1 and L2 time-related words as past- or future-related using left or right response keys. The predicted spatial congruency effect was registered in all tested languages and, furthermore, was positively associated with higher L2 proficiency in Experiment 2. Our findings (1) support the notion of horizontal spatial-conceptual mapping in diverse L1s, (2) demonstrate the existence of a similar spatial bias when processing temporal words in L2, and (3) show that the strength of time-space association in L2 may depend on individual L2 proficiency.

Embracing bilingualism: L1 retention amidst L2 acquisition

ABSTRACT In L1 attrition research, it's recognized that a previously acquired language can transform under the influence of a newly acquired one. However, the precise L1-L2 relationship is intricate and warrants further study. Some research suggest that L2 mastery might reduce L1 proficiency, while others show that both languages can be maintained. Age of onset and L1 use are the factors that have been discussed in the debate surrounding L1 attrition. The study aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion by examining L1 and L2 proficiency of Russian-English bilingual speakers (N = 35). The participants with comparable L2 proficiency but various degrees of L1 attrition who arrived at different ages and differed in their frequency of L1 use were recruited for the study. This diverse group provided an ideal quality sample for investigating the role of age of onset and L1 use, as well as the interplay between L1 and L2. By comparing L1 and L2 lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, and fluency, the study revealed that higher L2 proficiency was not associated with lower levels of L1 proficiency, suggesting that L1 retention is possible amidst L2 acquisition. L1 use played a more significant role in the L1 maintenance of these bilingual individuals.

The effects of watching subtitled videos on the perception of L2 connected speech by L1 Chinese-L2 English speakers.

The current study explores whether watching subtitled videos could facilitate L1 Chinese-L2 English speakers' perception of L2 English connected speech. Three hundred ninty seven Chinese college students of L2 English completed a video-based spot dictation task after watching English videos with or without L1/L2 subtitles, featuring various connected speech types (e.g., linking, deletion, and their combinations). Results suggested an overall facilitation effect of watching videos on L2 connected speech perception, which was modulated by proficiency, subtitle form,and the complexity of connected speech. First, subtitled videos were more facilitative than non-subtitled videos in L2 perception. Second, participants with higher L2 proficiency better perceived English connected speech than those with lower proficiency. Third, the more connective devices an item used, the more difficult it was for L2 perception. When this complexity was controlled, the L2 perception was not influenced by connected speech type. Finally, the complexity of connected speech also mediated the subtitle facilitation effects. When the connected speech involved triple connective devices, L2 speakers benefited more from L1 subtitles than L2 subtitles. The findings can provide insights into multi-modal speech perception and English connected speech learning.

Language contexts induced by the interlocutors’ proficiencies modulate bilingual language monitoring

Abstract Using a voluntary object-naming paradigm, we examined if bilinguals with high or low L2 proficiency monitor their language selection and production according to their interlocutors' L2 language proficiency. Telugu (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals were introduced to audio-visual stimuli that consisted of animated interlocutors that were high or low proficient in English. In Experiment 1, interlocutors were presented at different frequencies in each block, and in Experiment 2, the presentation of each interlocutor was blocked. We predicted that the frequency of interlocutors would modulate language activation and selection. The participants named the objects language that came to their minds to respond to interlocutors. Indeed, consistent with our predictions, monitoring contexts induced by such interlocutors influenced latencies, language choice and switch-cost. High-L2 proficient participants employed higher language control than low-L2 proficient participants. These results support the hypothesis that bilinguals are sensitive toward their interlocutors' language proficiency and employ context-appropriate cognitive control.

An exploratory study of intonational variation in L1 and L2 English speakers’ pragmatic production of high imposition requests and refusals

Abstract This exploratory study examined the intonational patterns and corresponding speech act strategies in L1 and L2 English speakers’ production of high imposition requests and refusals that were elicited using video-based multiple turn discourse completion tasks (DCTs). The participants, 34 L1 American English speakers and 14 high-proficiency L2 English speakers, recorded their oral responses to 10 multiple-turn video-based DCTs. Using Brazil’s (1997) framework, the collected speech samples were analyzed for tone choices in each tone unit. Pragmatic strategies in the produced speech acts were analyzed by adapting the existing coding frameworks (Beebe et al., 1990; Blum-Kulka et al., 1989). The extracted tone choices and lexico-mathematical strategies were compared between the two language groups. The results preliminarily revealed differences in the use of tones by L1 and L2 English speakers in performing requests and refusals. Moreover, while the employed speech act strategies were largely similar between the two speaker groups, the associated tone choices showed contrasting usage patterns.

The (dis)engagement of different components of inhibitory control in trilingual language control.

Despite the worldwide prevalence of multilingualism, the knowledge of the relationship between domain-general cognitive control and multilingual language control remains scant. Here we provide new insights into this issue by examining systematically how different components of inhibitory control (i.e., response inhibition and interference suppression) contribute to language control in multilingual populations with high L2 proficiency. To this end, 65 Tibetan-Chinese-English trilinguals highly proficient in L2 were recruited to complete three tasks: a picture-naming task measuring the performance of online trilingual speech production, and two nonlinguistic tasks, a go/no-go task and a Simon task, as proxies for measuring response inhibition and interference suppression abilities, respectively. Using mixed-effects modeling, we analyzed both the trilingual language switching/nonswitching performances and their correlations with these two components of inhibitory control. Our data revealed unexpected patterns of reversed language dominance effect and (a)symmetries in switch costs. Notably, interaction analysis revealed that while response inhibition was robustly engaged in trilingual language control, interference suppression did not appear to play a role. Taken together, our study suggests that, for trilingual speakers highly proficient in L2, the recruitment of different subprocesses of inhibitory control in lexical access was selective and was constrained to reactive and local-level language control. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Language proficiency modulates L2 orthographic learning mechanism: Evidence from event-related brain potentials in overt naming

AbstractThe present study investigates bilinguals’ capacity to rapidly establish memory traces for novel word forms in a second language (L2), as a function of L2 linguistic proficiency. A group of Chinese-English bilinguals with various English proficiency levels were presented with a reading-aloud task, consisting of 16 pseudowords and 16 English words repeatedly presented across six training exposures. Behavioral and neurophysiological data were collected, and modulations in the word-length effect across repetitions were measured as an index of transition from sublexical to lexical involvement. Results revealed that higher L2 proficiency was associated with decreased word-length effect on novel words, reflected in both naming latencies and early N1 and P200 brain responses. In contrast, lower proficiency learners appeared to engage in effortful letter-to-sound decoding processes, with higher attentional allocation to the letter sequence and greater use of sublexical processing across exposures. Our findings highlight the need to tackle specific grapheme-to-phoneme skills for efficient learning of L2, particularly in populations where the L1 is nonalphabetic.

The L2 proficiency level effect in L3 lexical learning: high-proficiency L2s do not transfer

In this case study we investigate the role of the proficiency level in an earlier formally learned L2 for the transfer source in L3 learning at the lexical level, by comparing two pairs of learners with different proficiency levels in their L2s English, French, Spanish and Italian. The data were gathered with a mirror design: L1 German/L3 Swedish and L1 Swedish/L3 German. The learners were absolute beginners of the L3. Both pairs were recorded over 6 months during conversation with a bilingual German/Swedish interlocutor. The recordings were conducted on a monthly basis. The proficiency levels of all L2s were tested in written tests, based on the CEFR scale. The results show that the proficiency level in the L2s has an impact on the transfer source. The L2s at C1+ level were not transferred, but L2s with lower proficiency levels were. These results confirm what is predicted by the L2 status factor (Bardel & Falk, 2012), namely that a high-proficiency L2 can lose its status as an L2, approaching L1 status, which makes it less susceptible to transfer. The study also confirms the value of case studies in L3 research.
 Keywords: lexical transfer, proficiency, L3 learning, oral production

Bilingualism but not bidialectalism influences cognitive control among young adult Chinese–English bilinguals

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This study investigates whether bilingualism and bidialectalism influence cognitive control, and whether the two variables interact. Design/methodology/approach: The study compared two matched groups differing in second language (L2) proficiency through the Flanker and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The two groups were further divided into four groups differing in dialect proficiency, so that the effects of L2 proficiency and dialect proficiency and the interactive effect were examined. Data and analysis: A mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to the Flanker task data, with the task condition as the within-subject variable and the participant group as the between-subject variable. Independent t-test and ANOVA analyses were used to compare the performance differences between groups on the WCST. Findings/conclusion: The high L2 proficiency group performed better than the low L2 proficiency group both in the Flanker task and the WCST, reflecting better monitoring and shifting ability. L2 proficiency effect on cognitive control was significant. However, no dialect effect was observed, and no interaction effect was found. Further multiple regression results confirmed the role of L2 proficiency but not dialect proficiency. Originality: This is one of the first bilingual studies to incorporate both bilingualism and bidialectalism simultaneously. Significance/implications: The current research provides robust evidence that bilingualism is related to the enhancement of cognitive control, but questions the effect of bidialectalism.

The effect of L2 German on grammatical gender access in L1 Polish: proficiency matters

Abstract Previous research has shown that bilinguals process nouns that have the same grammatical gender in their two languages faster than nouns that differ in gender between L1 and L2. This finding, referred to as the gender congruency effect, has so far only been documented in L2. Hence, the aim of the present study was to examine whether late unbalanced bilinguals would also show gender congruency effects in their L1. To that end, 44 L1 Polish/L2 German bilinguals were tested in a gender decision task in Polish, which included gender-congruent and gender-incongruent nouns. The results revealed a robust gender congruency effect in L1, which was limited to bilinguals with very high L2 proficiency. This indicates that bilinguals activate grammatical gender information in L2 when accessing gender in L1, providing that they are highly proficient in L2. More broadly, the study demonstrates that foreign language knowledge can affect native language performance in exclusively native contexts. Finally, as a first attempt to examine grammatical gender access in Polish, this study shows that feminine gender is accessed faster compared to masculine and neuter, suggesting that the ending -a is the most reliable gender cue in Polish.

The congruency effect in L2 collocational processing: The underlying mechanism and moderating factors

AbstractThe congruency effect—that is, faster and more accurate processing of congruent multiword units, has been demonstrated in multiple studies. It is still unclear, however, what its underlying mechanism is, and how congruency may interact with other factors. Using an acceptability judgement task, this study examined the congruency effect in immersive (Experiment 1) and nonimmersive (Experiment 2) L2 learners’ collocational processing while taking into account L2 collocation frequency, immersive learners’ L2 use, their length and starting age of immersion, nonimmersive learners’ length of instruction, and their L2 proficiency. The study also tested whether L1 counterparts of words in L2 collocations were activated. Nonmmersive learners showed a congruency effect in both processing speed and accuracy. In contrast, immersive learners were affected by congruency only in processing accuracy. Higher L2 collocation frequency, greater length of instruction, and higher L2 proficiency did not reduce the congruency effect, whereas longer duration of immersion improved the processing of incongruent items. An effect of L1 lexical frequency was found, an indication of L1 activation. Results were discussed in light of how L2 proficiency and experiences changed the amount of L1 influence in L2 collocational processing.

Auditory pseudoword rhyming effects in bilingual children reflect second language proficiency: An ERP study

This study investigated second language (L2-English) phonological processing in 31 Spanish-English bilingual, 6- to 8-year-old schoolchildren in an event-related potential (ERP) auditory pseudoword rhyming paradigm. In addition, associations between ERP effects and L2 proficiency as measured by standardized tests of receptive language and receptive vocabulary were explored. We found a classic posterior ERP rhyming effect that was more widely distributed in children with higher L2 proficiency in group analyses and was larger for children with better L2 proficiency in correlation analyses. In contrast, the amplitude of an early (75–125 ms) auditory positivity was larger in children with lower L2 proficiency. This pattern suggests differential use of early and late auditory/phonological processing resources in the pseudoword rhyme task associated with L2 proficiency, which is consistent with the predictions of the lexical restructuring model in a bilingual context.

Mandarin Chinese L1 and L2 complex sentence reading reveals a consistent electrophysiological pattern of highly interactive syntactic and semantic processing: An ERP study.

A hallmark of the human language faculty is processing complex hierarchical syntactic structures across languages. However, for Mandarin Chinese, a language typically dependent on semantic combinations and free of morphosyntactic information, the relationship between syntactic and semantic processing during Chinese complex sentence reading is unclear. From the neuropsychological perspective of bilingual studies, whether second language (L2) learners can develop a consistent pattern of target language (i.e., L2) comprehension regarding the interplay of syntactic and semantic processing, especially when their first language (L1) and L2 are typologically distinct, remains to be determined. In this study, Chinese complex sentences with center-embedded relative clauses were generated. By utilizing the high-time-resolution technique of event-related potentials (ERPs), this study aimed to investigate the processing relationships between syntactic and semantic information during Chinese complex sentence reading in both Chinese L1 speakers and highly proficient L2 learners from South Korea. Normal, semantically violated (SEM), and double-violated (containing both semantic and syntactic violations, SEM + SYN) conditions were set with regard to the nonadjacent dependencies of the Chinese complex sentence, and participants were required to judge whether the sentences they read were acceptable. The ERP results showed that sentences with "SEM + SYN" did not elicit early left anterior negativity (ELAN), a component assumed to signal initial syntactic processing, but evoked larger components in the N400 and P600 windows than those of the "SEM" condition, thus exhibiting a biphasic waveform pattern consistent for both groups and in line with previous studies using simpler Chinese syntactic structures. The only difference between the L1 and L2 groups was that L2 learners presented later latencies of the corresponding ERP components. Taken together, these results do not support the temporal and functional priorities of syntactic processing as identified in morphologically rich languages (e.g., German) and converge on the notion that even for Chinese complex sentence reading, syntactic and semantic processing are highly interactive. This is consistent across L1 speakers and high-proficiency L2 learners with typologically different language backgrounds.

High-Proficiency L1 and L2 English Learners’ Morphological Words in Writing

English differs from other languages in morphology, which may cause trouble in EFL learning. The interesting topic is whether ESL learners can obtain the same level of morphology in their English learning as native English speakers. The study explores whether high-proficiency EFL learners differ from native EL1 learners in writing using root words, inflected words, and derived words. This article reported on a comparative study between Advanced EFL learners (TOEFL Testees (n = 318)) and native English learners (writers of the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (n = 176)) by lexical frequency profile analysis on their use of root words, inflected words, and derived words in writing. The findings suggest that there are significant differences between the two groups. TOEFL writers used a much higher proportion of root words but a much lower proportion of inflected and derived words than native English learners. The findings will expose the differences between EFL learners and native L2 learners in word learning and contribute to L2 language teaching and learning theoretically and practically.

The acquisition of L3 French present simple and present progressive by adult L1 Chinese speakers of L2 English

AbstractThe study examines the acquisition of L3 French present form by advanced L2 English learners of L1 Chinese within the framework of theTypological Primacy Model(TPM) of Rothman (2011) and theInterpretability Hypothesisof Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou (Tsimpli, Ianthi-maria & Maria Dimitrakopoulou. 2007. The Interpretability Hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition.Second Language Research23. 215–242. The meaning-form distinction of the present form in relation to habitual and event-in-progress interpretations varies between French, English, and Chinese, but is constrained by the presence/absence of tense and agreement features. Thirty-two adult L1 Chinese speakers of high proficiency L2 English/low proficiency L3 French and thirty adult L1 Chinese speakers of low proficiency L2 English together with a native English control group and a French control group were invited to take part in an acceptability judgement test. The results provide partial support to the TPM, which posits that the perceived typological similarity between L3 and the previously acquired languages conditions transfer in L3 initial state. The findings are, instead, more consistent with theInterpretability Hypothesis, which assumes the inaccessibility of uninterpretable syntactic features in subsequent language acquisition. What remain available in adult multilingual acquisition are interpretable syntactic features, computational devices, and other aspects of Universal Grammar (UG).

The bilateral benefits of providing and receiving peer feedback in academic writing across varying L2 proficiency

Although the effectiveness of peer review has been examined, few have tested the joint benefits of providing and receiving feedback features and quality in L2 contexts. The present study investigated variation in key features and quality of feedback provided and received by high and low L2 proficiency students and its benefits on revision in the authentic setting of students experiencing both roles of providing and receiving peer feedback in English academic writing. Analyses on two drafts from 50 students, 1356 idea units of anonymous implementable peer feedback and back-evaluation ratings revealed that the combined effect of providing and receiving feedback on revision was prominent for all students. But the bilateral benefits of providing and receiving feedback features were more significant for high proficiency students, while providing feedback features and quality benefited low proficiency students more. The study implies that students need more bilateral training with both providing and receiving feedback.

The impact of L1 orthographic depth and L2 proficiency on mapping orthography to phonology in L2-English: an ERP investigation

AbstractEnglish monolinguals (Experiment 1) and first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals (Experiment 2), who differed in L1 orthographic depth (shallow: Spanish; deep: Chinese) and second language (L2–English) proficiency, decided whether visually presented letter strings were English words, while behavioral and EEG measures were recorded. The spelling-sound regularity and consistency of stimuli were covaried such that words had either regular/consistent (e.g., GATE) or irregular/inconsistent mappings (e.g., PINT). Irregular/inconsistent words elicited more positive P200 and less negative N400 amplitudes than regular/consistent words in monolinguals, yet only a P200 response in bilinguals. English proficiency modulated L2 reading strategies, such that bilinguals employed distinct reading unit sizes in the L2 than the L1 when L2 proficiency was low, but transferred L1 reading units to the L2 when L2 proficiency was high. ERP results suggest that high L2 proficiency may be a prerequisite to the cross-linguistic transfer of reading strategies.

English vowel production conditioned by probabilistic accessibility of words: A comparison between L1 and L2 speakers*

This study investigated the influences of probabilistic accessibility of the word being produced – as determined by its usage frequency and neighborhood density – on native and high-proficiency L2 speakers’ realization of six English monophthong vowels. The native group hyperarticulated the vowels over an expanded acoustic space when the vowel occurred in words with low frequency and high density, supporting the claim that vowel forms are modified in accordance with the probabilistic accessibility of words. However, temporal expansion occurred in words with greater accessibility (i.e., with high frequency and low density) as an effect of low phonotactic probability in low-density words, particularly in attended speech. This suggests that temporal modification in the opposite direction may be part of the phonetic characteristics that are enhanced in communicatively driven focus realization. Conversely, none of these spectral and temporal patterns were found in the L2 group, thereby indicating that even the high-proficiency L2 speakers may not have developed experience-based sensitivity to the modulation of sub-categorical phonetic details indexed with word-level probabilistic information. The results are discussed with respect to how phonological representations are shaped in a word-specific manner for the sake of communicatively driven lexical intelligibility, and what factors may contribute to the lack of native-like sensitivity in L2 speech.