Japanese-English Bilinguals Research Articles

Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence with different-script languages: Evidence from eye tracking

AbstractThis study compared patterns of nonselective cross-language activation in L1 and L2 visual word recognition with different-script bilinguals. The aim was to determine (1) whether lexical processing is nonselective in the L1 (as in L2), and (2) if the same cross-linguistic factors affected processing similarly in each language. To examine the time course of activation, eye movements were tracked during lexical decision. Thirty-two Japanese–English bilinguals responded to 250 target words in Japanese and in English. The same participants and items (i.e., cognate translation equivalents) were used to directly compare L1 and L2 processing. Response latencies as well as eye movements representing early and late processing were analyzed using mixed-effects regression modeling. Similar cross-linguistic effects, namely cognate word frequency, phonological similarity, and semantic similarity, were found in both languages. These factors affected processing to different degrees in each language, however. While cognate frequency was significant as early as the first fixation, effects of cross-linguistic phonological and semantic similarity arose later in time. Increased phonological similarity slowed responses in L2 but speeded them in L1, while greater semantic overlap was facilitatory in both languages. Results are discussed from the perspective of the BIA+ model of visual word recognition.

Does L2 influence on use of L1 animacy constraints depend on alignment of syntactic and semantic features?: Evidence from Japanese–English bilinguals

Aims and Objectives:English allows inanimate objects to be sentence subjects (e.g., “The knife cut the bread”) but Korean and Japanese restrict subjects of causal sentences on the basis of animacy. In previous work, we found that Korean speakers relaxed their native grammatical animacy constraint when immersed in English (e.g., found knives to be acceptable sentence subjects in Korean). We suggested this L2 influence occurred because the Korean animacy constraint does not map cleanly onto the semantic representation of animacy—some inanimate objects (e.g., “fire”) can be subjects of causal sentences. In the current study, we further test this idea by examining the case of Japanese–English bilinguals. We predict that because the Japanese animacy constraint aligns well with the semantic representation of animacy, it will be less susceptible to L2 influence.Methodology:We first independently assessed the semantic representation of animacy by comparing animacy ratings from native speakers of Korean, Japanese, and English for 60 objects. We then asked Japanese–English bilinguals and Japanese monolinguals to provide grammaticality judgments for sentences that varied in subject animacy.Data and Analysis:We analyzed participants’ animacy ratings and grammaticality judgments using mixed-effects models.Findings:Animacy ratings supported a closer correspondence between semantic representation of animacy and the grammatical animacy constraint for Japanese grammar than for Korean grammar. In contrast to previous results for Korean speakers, Japanese–English bilinguals’ grammaticality judgments did not significantly differ from those of Japanese monolinguals.Originality:The current study is unique in that it suggests the vulnerability of structures at the syntax–semantics interface to L2 influence varies across different language groups based on the alignment between syntactic and semantic features.Implications:The current findings support the possibility that representations at the syntax–semantics interface may only be vulnerable to influence when syntax is incongruent with semantic features.

Auditory precision hypothesis-L2: Dimension-specific relationships between auditory processing and second language segmental learning

Growing evidence suggests a broad relationship between individual differences in auditory processing ability and the rate and ultimate attainment of language acquisition throughout the lifespan, including post-pubertal second language (L2) speech learning. However, little is known about how the precision of processing of specific auditory dimensions relates to the acquisition of specific L2 segmental contrasts. In the context of 100 late Japanese-English bilinguals with diverse profiles of classroom and immersion experience, the current study set out to investigate the link between the perception of several auditory dimensions (F3 frequency, F2 frequency, and duration) in non-verbal sounds and English [r]-[l] perception and production proficiency. Whereas participants' biographical factors (the presence/absence of immersion) accounted for a large amount of variance in the success of learning this contrast, the outcomes were also tied to their acuity to the most reliable, new auditory cues (F3 variation) and the less reliable but already-familiar cues (F2 variation). This finding suggests that individuals can vary in terms of how they perceive, utilize, and make the most of information conveyed by specific acoustic dimensions. When perceiving more naturalistic spoken input, where speech contrasts can be distinguished via a combination of numerous cues, some can attain a high-level of L2 speech proficiency by using nativelike and/or non-nativelike strategies in a complementary fashion.

Morphological Priming Effects in L2 English Verbs for Japanese-English Bilinguals.

For native (L1) English readers, masked presentations of past-tense verb primes (e.g., fell and looked) produce faster lexical decision latencies to their present-tense targets (e.g., FALL and LOOK) than orthographically related (e.g., fill and loose) or unrelated (e.g., master and bank) primes. This facilitation observed with morphologically related prime-target pairs (morphological priming) is generally taken as evidence for strong connections based on morphological relationships in the L1 lexicon. It is unclear, however, if similar, morphologically based, connections develop in non-native (L2) lexicons. Several earlier studies with L2 English readers have reported mixed results. The present experiments examine whether past-tense verb primes (both regular and irregular verbs) significantly facilitate target lexical decisions for Japanese-English bilinguals beyond any facilitation provided by prime-target orthographic similarity. Overall, past-tense verb primes facilitated lexical decisions to their present-tense targets relative to both orthographically related and unrelated primes. Replicating previous masked priming experiments with L2 readers, orthographically related primes also facilitated target recognition relative to unrelated primes, confirming that orthographic similarity facilitates L2 target recognition. The additional facilitation from past-tense verb primes beyond that provided by orthographic primes suggests that, in the L2 English lexicon, connections based on morphological relationships develop in a way that is similar to how they develop in the L1 English lexicon even though the connections and processing of lower level, lexical/orthographic information may differ. Further analyses involving L2 proficiency revealed that as L2 proficiency increased, orthographic facilitation was reduced, indicating that there is a decrease in the fuzziness in orthographic representations in the L2 lexicon with increased proficiency.

Effects of orthography in the picture-word task: Evidence from Japanese scripts

The picture-word task presents participants with a number of pictured objects together with a written distractor word superimposed upon each picture, and their task is to name the depicted object while ignoring the distractor word. Depending on the specific picture and word combination, various effects, including the identity facilitation effect (e.g., DOG + dog) and the semantic interference effect (e.g., GOAT + cow), are often observed. The response patterns of the picture-word task in terms of naming latencies reflect the mechanisms underlying lexical selection in speech production. Research using this method, however, has typically focused on alphabetic languages, or involved bilingual populations, making it difficult to specifically investigate orthographic effects in isolation. In this paper, we report five experiments investigating the role of orthography in the picture-word task by varying distractor script (using the multiscriptal language Japanese, and pseudohomophonic spellings in English) across three different populations (Japanese monolinguals, Japanese-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals), investigating both the identity facilitation effect and the semantic interference effect. The results generally show that the magnitude of facilitation is affected by orthography even within a single language. The findings and specific patterns of results are discussed in relation to current theories on speech production.

Do Bilinguals Acquire Similar Words to Monolinguals? An Examination of Word Acquisition and the Similarity Effect in Japanese-English Bilinguals' Vocabularies.

Previous research has paid much attention to the overall acquisition of vocabularies among bilingual children in comparison to their monolingual counterparts. Much less attention has been paid to the type of words acquired and the possible transfer or cross-linguistic effects of the other language on vocabulary development. Thus, this study aims to explore similarities and dissimilarities in the vocabularies of simultaneous bilinguals and Japanese monolinguals and considers the possible cross-linguistic similarity effect on word acquisition. Six simultaneous Japanese–English bilingual children (mean age = 34.75 months (2.56)) were language–age-matched with six Japanese monolinguals; their productive vocabularies were compared regarding size and categories. Additionally, characteristic acquired words were compared using correspondence analyses. Results showed that, although delayed due to the reduced inputs, young bilinguals have a similar set of vocabularies in terms of word category as monolinguals. However, bilingual children’s vocabularies reflect their unevenly distributed experience with the language. Fewer interactive experiences with language speakers may result in a lower acquisition of interactive words. Furthermore, there is a cross-linguistic effect on acquisition, likely caused by form similarity between Japanese katakana words and English words. Even between languages with great dissimilarities, resources and cues are sought and used to facilitate bilingual vocabulary acquisition.

Do Cross-Language Script Differences Enable Bilinguals to Function Selectively When Speaking in One Language Alone?

The present study examined the role of script in bilingual speech planning by comparing the performance of same and different-script bilinguals. Spanish-English bilinguals (Experiment 1) and Japanese-English bilinguals (Experiment 2) performed a picture-word interference task in which they were asked to name a picture of an object in English, their second language, while ignoring a visual distractor word in Spanish or Japanese, their first language. Results replicated the general pattern seen in previous bilingual picture-word interference studies for the same-script, Spanish-English bilinguals but not for the different-script, Japanese-English bilinguals. Both groups showed translation facilitation, whereas only Spanish-English bilinguals demonstrated semantic interference, phonological facilitation, and phono-translation facilitation. These results suggest that when the script of the language not in use is present in the task, bilinguals appear to exploit the perceptual difference as a language cue to direct lexical access to the intended language earlier in the process of speech planning.

Perceptual discrimination measure of non-native phoneme perception in early and late Spanish-English and Japanese-English bilinguals

This study examined speech discrimination of English vowels /ɑ/ (as in “hot”), /ʌ/ (as in “hut”), and /æ/ (as in “hat”) by non-native English speakers, using an AXB discrimination task. Previous research shows that a person’s first language (L1) changes how speech is perceived in a second learned language (L2). Spanish and Japanese were chosen for this study because both languages share the same five spectrally different vowels, but Japanese additionally distinguishes between short and long versions of those five vowels. L2 proficiency and/or amount of L2 input were used as additional predictor variables. The target populations were early and late Spanish-English bilinguals and early and late Japanese-English bilinguals, which were compared to a control group of monolingual American English speakers. We are currently collecting data and based on previous studies (Shafer et al., under review), we predict: (1) monolinguals and early-bilinguals will show better performance than late-bilinguals; (2) discrimination of /ʌ/ vs. /æ/ contrast will be easier than other contrasts, /ʌ/ vs. /ɑ/ and /ɑ/ vs. /æ/. Our findings will address how L1 spectral-temporal cues and L2 age of acquisition affect L2 speech perception.

Phonetic interaction between late Japanese-English bilinguals' L1 and L2 vowels—A longitudinal study

We investigated late bilinguals' (N = 31) change in their production and perception of the L1 Japanese vowel /i/ and its phonetically associated L2 vowel /i/ and /I/ over one year. The perceptual boundaries between both English /i/-/I/ and Japanese /i/-/e/ were examined through identification tasks. Participants' production of the high front vowels was also analyzed. More than half of the participants exhibited evidence of separating English and Japanese high front vowels from each other in production. Participants who seemed to use similar F1-F2 values for these vowels still tended to separate them. The perception task results showed a perceptual boundary shift in bilinguals' L1 Japanese after one year. That is, they identified more tokens as /i/ than /e/ in /i/-/e/ continuum. This phenomenon was also observed when comparing bilinguals to Japanese monolingual controls. We argue that this change in L1 perception stems from learning a new L2 phonetic category /I/ and associating it with a similar L1 /i/. Individual differences in bilinguals' relative language use and exposure were also examined as potential factors driving changes in perception and production of Japanese/English high front vowels.

Rethinking bilingual enhancement effects in associative learning of foreign language vocabulary: The role of proficiency in the mediating language

The present study investigated claims that learning vocabulary in an unfamiliar language is more efficient in bilinguals than in monolinguals and the possible effects of language proficiency and dominance. In Experiment 1, monolingual (n = 48) and bilingual participants (n = 96) learned Japanese words paired with English translations and completed cued-recall and associative-recognition tests. Accuracy did not differ across monolingual and bilingual or language dominance groups. Nevertheless, in bilinguals, higher English proficiency was associated with higher accuracy. In Experiment 2, Japanese-English bilinguals (n = 40) learned Spanish-Japanese word pairs, and higher Japanese proficiency was associated with higher accuracy. Associative strategies were reported at a higher rate in bilingual than in monolingual participants but were not associated with more accurate performance. Careful comparisons of the present and previous results support the conclusion that higher proficiency in the language through which bilinguals learn foreign vocabulary enhances associative memory, but bilingualism itself does not.

Cross-linguistic lexical effects in different-script bilingual reading are modulated by task

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Bilingual lexical processing is non-selective, which allows for activation of the non-target language, even when reading in a different script. However, while the influence of cross-script L1 lexical knowledge has been demonstrated in isolated word reading, it is unknown whether it survives in more natural reading tasks. We investigated whether crosslinguistic facilitation due to phonological similarity, semantic similarity, and L1 cognate frequency, is observed when different-script bilinguals read cognate words in their L2 in sentence context and in isolation. Design/methodology/approach: Two tasks were conducted with the same Japanese-English bilinguals and target items: A self-paced English reading task with non-highlighted target items embedded in sentence context; and an English lexical decision task. A monolingual control group also completed both tasks. Data and analysis: 108 cognate items were embedded in sentence context and read by 23 Japanese-English bilinguals and 23 English monolinguals for meaning comprehension. The same items were then responded to by the same participants in lexical decision. Linear mixed-effects models were used to investigate the impact of continuous measures of L1–L2 phonological and semantic similarity, L1 cognate frequency, and L2 proficiency, while controlling for L2 lexical characteristics. Findings/conclusions: Cross-linguistic phonological and semantic similarity, as well as cognate frequency, partially determined reading times of words in both tasks but only in bilingual, not monolingual, reading. These effects were modulated by task, revealing reduced cross-linguistic facilitation in sentence reading relative to lexical decision. Originality: This is the first study to investigate different-script cognate processing in sentence context and compare it with isolated word reading. Significance/implications: Although bilinguals do not switch off their L1 during L2 reading, the type of task partially determines how cross-linguistic effects impact reading times. The degree of overlap of Japanese-English cognates is less influential in natural reading tasks compared with isolated word reading tasks.

Understanding semantic accents in Japanese–English bilinguals: A feature-based approach

AbstractA bilingual exhibits a “semantic accent” when they comprehend or use a word in one language in a way that is influenced by its translation. Semantic accents are well-captured by feature-based models: however, few studies have specifically examined the processing of features that contribute to a semantic accent. Japanese–English bilinguals and monolinguals of each language completed three feature-based tasks focusing on culture-specific semantic features. Bilinguals exhibited semantic accents in L1 and L2 in that they had stronger associations than monolinguals between the features specific to one culture and words in the other language. Within bilinguals, culture-specific features were more strongly associated with the congruent language than the incongruent language. Finally, changes in the strengths of associations between culture-specific features and words depended more on L2 cultural immersion than L2 proficiency. Semantic accents lessened in L2 and increased in L1 after many years of exposure to the L2 culture.

Functional MRI and Structural Connectome Analysis of Language Networks in Japanese-English Bilinguals

We aimed to clarify the mechanisms of neural plasticity involved in language. We hypothesized that alterations which occur in bilinguals could reflect the mechanisms of acquisition of a second language and simulate neural plasticity related to language. We compared spatial characteristics of story listening-related hemodynamic modulations and subcortical fiber networks between monolinguals and bilinguals. Participants were Japanese monolinguals and Japanese–English bilinguals whose first language was Japanese. We divided bilinguals into early and late bilinguals depending on whether the age of acquisition was before after 7 years of age. We applied intergroup analysis to investigate the following: (1) blood oxygen level-dependent response (BOLD) responses during story listening by block-based fMRI; (2) number of fibers (NOFs) between specific edges by DTI. Both bilingual samples showed larger BOLD responses (BRs) in the right putamen and bilateral superior temporal gyri compared to the Japanese monolinguals in fMRI. Late bilinguals demonstrated bigger BRs in the right anterior temporal lobe and left medial parietal lobe than early bilinguals. Early bilinguals showed a higher NOFs between the right putamen and precentral gyrus than monolinguals and late bilinguals in DTI. Late bilinguals showed a lower NOFs between the left superior temporal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus than monolinguals and early bilinguals. Early bilinguals reinforce the subcortical fiber network between the right putamen and precentral gyrus, and activate the right putamen to gain alternative language function. We conclude that these key cerebral regions and subcortical fiber networks could contribute to the neural plasticity of language.

Sumacku or Smack? The value of analyzing acoustic signals when investigating the fundamental phonological unit of language production.

An ongoing debate in the speech production literature suggests that the initial building block to build up speech sounds differs between languages. That is, Germanic languages are suggested to use the phoneme, but Japanese and Chinese are proposed to use the mora or syllable, respectively. Several studies investigated this matter from a chronometric perspective (i.e., RTs and accuracy). However, a less attention has been paid to the actual acoustic utterances. The current study investigated the verbal responses of two Japanese-English bilingual groups of different proficiency levels (i.e., high and low) when naming English words and found that the presence or absence of vowel epenthesis depended on proficiency. The results indicate that: (1) English word pronunciation by low-proficient Japanese English bilinguals is likely based on their L1 (Japanese) building block and (2) that future studies would benefit from analyzing the acoustic data as well when making inferences from chronometric data.

Is there lexical competition in the recognition of L2 words for different-script bilinguals? An examination using masked priming with Japanese-English bilinguals.

The present research examined whether a lexical competition process operates when different-script bilinguals process L2 words. In masked priming lexical decision experiments (67 ms prime duration), word neighbor primes facilitated target identification for Japanese-English bilinguals (Experiment 1) although the same primes produced inhibitory effects for L1 English readers (Experiment 2). Subsequent experiments confirmed that the facilitory priming effects are reliable (Experiment 4), and are not due to bilinguals' inability to process masked L2 primes to the lexical level (Experiments 3 and 4) or bilinguals relying on sublexical activation from neighbor primes in responding to upper-case English targets (Experiment 5). Some evidence of lexical competition was observed, however, with clearly visible primes (Experiment 6, using a 175 ms prime duration). These results suggest that different-script bilinguals deal with orthographic similarity in L2 words differently from L1 readers. The authors discuss ways in which the L2 lexicon of different-script bilinguals may be different. (PsycINFO Database Record

Phonologically-based priming in the same-different task with L1 readers.

The present experiment provides an investigation of a promising new tool, the masked priming same-different task, for investigating the orthographic coding process. Orthographic coding is the process of establishing a mental representation of the letters and letter order in the word being read which is then used by readers to access higher-level (e.g., semantic) information about that word. Prior research (e.g., Norris & Kinoshita, 2008) had suggested that performance in this task may be based entirely on orthographic codes. As reported by Lupker, Nakayama, and Perea (2015a), however, in at least some circumstances, phonological codes also play a role. Specifically, even though their 2 languages are completely different orthographically, Lupker et al.'s Japanese-English bilinguals showed priming in this task when masked L1 primes were phonologically similar to L2 targets. An obvious follow-up question is whether Lupker et al.'s effect might have resulted from a strategy that was adopted by their bilinguals to aid in processing of, and memory for, the somewhat unfamiliar L2 targets. In the present experiment, Japanese readers responded to (Japanese) Kanji targets with phonologically identical primes (on "related" trials) being presented in a completely different but highly familiar Japanese script, Hiragana. Once again, significant priming effects were observed, indicating that, although performance in the masked priming same-different task may be mainly based on orthographic codes, phonological codes can play a role even when the stimuli being matched are familiar words from a reader's L1. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cognate frequency and assessment of second language lexical knowledge

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Few studies have investigated different-script cognate effects in language assessment contexts. This paper examines the impact of Japanese cognates in a test of English receptive lexical knowledge that is widely used for placement purposes in second language learning contexts. Specifically, the present paper utilizes Japanese cognate frequency to predict test accuracy. 1. Does Japanese cognate frequency influence response accuracy? 2. Does the effect vary by English word frequency and/or lexical proficiency? Design/methodology/approach: Seventy Japanese-English bilinguals completed the multiple-choice English VLT. Data and analysis: Accuracy data for 150 target items and 150 distractor items were analysed separately (10,500 data points in each analysis). Generalized linear mixed-effects models were used with Japanese cognate frequency as the primary predictor and English word frequency and lexical proficiency as covariates. Findings/conclusions: A strong facilitatory cognate frequency effect was observed on both the selection of targets and the rejection of distractor items. This effect was marginally greater for lower proficiency learners. The English word frequency effect was also greater for lower proficiency test takers in the distractor analysis. Originality: The paper is the first to utilize cognate frequency to estimate the cognate effect in different-script languages in language testing. Significance/implications: The study provides robust evidence for the Japanese-English cognate effect in a test of lexical knowledge. This finding is broadly in line with the predictions of the bilingual interactive activation plus model of bilingual lexical processing. In addition, the paper demonstrates that the proportion of Japanese cognates in the test is significantly greater than the proportion of cognates in the language in general, indicating that it may over-estimate Japanese learners’ knowledge of English lexis. Test designers and users are thus recommended to be aware of the impact of cognates when making inferences about language ability based on such tests of lexical knowledge.

An examination of L2-L1 noncognate translation priming in the lexical decision task: insights from distributional and frequency-based analyses

The main fact that is currently known about the nature of masked L2-L1 noncognate translation priming effects in the lexical decision task is simply that those effects are significant in some studies but not in others. In an effort to better understand these effects, we examined the data pattern for very proficient Japanese–English bilinguals using RT distributional analyses. We also examined the impacts of prime and target frequency on the priming effect. Significant priming was present even on the fastest trials, becoming larger on slower trials. Nonetheless, priming effects were generally constant across prime and target frequency with the only exception being when very high frequency L2 primes were used. In that situation, priming and target frequency were negatively related, a result that essentially produced the observed pattern of increasing priming on slower trials. Implications of these results and potential reasons for the presence/absence of L2-L1 priming effects are discussed.

Articulatory settings of high- and low-proficiency second-language speakers

Articulatory setting, a language-specific underlying position of the articulators during speech, can be measured by using inter-speech posture (ISP)—the speech rest position. In an x-ray study, it was shown to behave like a target posture, in that it has as little variability as /i/, one of the least variable vowels. In an rt-MRI study, it was found to be more mechanically advantageous than absolute rest position. In an ultrasound/Optotrak study, results showed differences across normalized monolingual groups of speakers, and bilinguals who were perceived to be native in each of their languages had a different articulatory setting for each language. In an EMA study, tongue width in the coronal plane during ISP was found to be less efficient in second-language (L2) speakers of English. In recent research using ultrasound and lower-proficiency Japanese-English bilinguals, we were surprised to find differences in their articulatory settings for each of their languages, when it would have been simpler for such a speaker to use the articulatory setting of their dominant language while speaking their non-dominant one. In this talk, a state-of-the-art analysis of research on articulatory setting will be given including recent research on Japanese-English bilinguals.

Age of Arrival (AOA) effects on anaphor processing by Japanese bilinguals

AbstractThis study investigates the role of exposure to English on discourse-reference processing by native Japanese speakers. Shoji et al. (2016a, The repeated name penalty, the overt pronoun penalty, and topic in Japanese.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007 %2Fs10936-016-9424-4) found that Japanese-English bilinguals residing in the United States show a Repeated Name Penalty (RNP; Gordon et al. 1993. Pronouns, names, and the centering of attention in discourse.Cognitive Science17. 311–347) and an Overt Pronoun Penalty (OPP; Gelormini-Lezama and Almor 2011, Repeated names, overt pronouns, and null pronouns in Spanish.Language Cognitive Processes26. 437–454) in Japanese with both topic (wa-marked) subject anaphors and non-topic (ga-marked) subject anaphors, indicating that the different morphological markings on anaphors do not alter these effects. In contrast, more recent data collected from L1-immersed Japanese speakers residing in Japan (Shoji et al. 2016b,The repeated name penalty and the overt pronoun penalty in Japanese. Unpublished manuscript) show that these speakers do not show a RNP or an OPP for topic-marked anaphors. Here we report a reanalysis of Shoji et al.’s (2016a) results showing that these effects are moderated by participants’ Age of Arrival (AOA; i. e. the age at which participants first arrived to the place where their second language is regularly spoken). Participants with an early AOA showed differential processing patterns for topic-marked anaphors and non-topic anaphors, while participants with late AOA did not. We propose as an explanation that early AOA bilinguals represent different languages separately, while late AOA bilinguals tend to rely on a single unified language system.