Cover not available
To be specified published In:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 7:5 (2017) ► pp.614–636
Squib/Short article

The effects of language immersion on the bilingual lexicon

Evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals

| The Chinese University of Hong Kong
| University of Chicago
Previous studies have consistently found an asymmetry where priming in the L1-L2 direction is stronger than that in the L2-L1 direction. However, some studies showed that an L2 immersion environment could attenuate bilingual speakers’ access to the L1 and result in a ‘bilingual disadvantage’. This study investigated how language immersion modulates the priming effects of late adult bilingual speakers. We compared late Chinese-English bilingual speakers with high L2 (English) proficiency in an L1 environment and those in an L2 immersion environment. Both semantic and translation priming in same-language and cross-language conditions were investigated. The results showed no ‘bilingual disadvantage’ of the immersed participants. The priming asymmetry was weakened for the immersed participants who were more comparable in their reaction time to different language conditions. Both semantic and translation priming were found in L1-L2 and L2-L1 directions, suggesting that both types of priming are similar in nature in the bilingual lexicon.
Keywords: bilingual lexicon, language immersion, priming, Chinese, English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Asymmetry in the bilingual mental lexicon
    • 1.2Language immersion
    • 1.3Translation and semantic priming
    • 1.4The present study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Materials
    • 2.3Procedure
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Reaction Time (logRT)
    • 3.2Accuracy rate
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 May 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.15029.mok
References (41)
References
Altarriba, J. & Basnight-Brown, D. M. (2007). Methodological considerations in performing semantic- and translation-priming experiments across languages. Behavior Research Methods, 391, 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Argyri, E. & Sorace, A. (2007). Crosslinguistic influence and language dominance in older bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 101, 79–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Basnight-Brown, D. M. & Altarriba, J. (2007). Differences in semantic and translation priming across languages: The role of language direction and language dominance. Memory & cognition, 351, 953–965. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baus, C., Costa, A. & Carreiras, M. (2013). On the effects of second language immersion on first language production. Acta Psychologica, 1421, 402–409. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bedore, L. M., Pena, E. D., Summers, C. L., Boerger, K. M., Resendiz, M. D., Greene, K., Bohman, T. M. & Gillam, R. B. (2012). The measure matters: Language dominance profiles across measures in Spanish–English bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 151, 616–629. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cantone, K., Kupisch, T., Müller, N. & Schmitz, K. (2008). Rethinking language dominance in bilingual children. Linguistische Berichte, 2151, 307–343.Google Scholar
Chen, B., Zhou, H., Gao, Y. & Dunlap, S. (2014). Cross-language translation priming asymmetry with Chinese-English bilinguals: A test of the Sense Model. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 431, 225–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, H. C. & Ng, M. L. (1989). Semantic facilitation and translation priming effects in Chinese-English bilinguals. Memory & cognition, 171, 454–462. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coderre, E. L., Van Heuven, W. J. B. & Conklin, K. (2013). The timing and magnitude of Stroop interference and facilitation in monolinguals and bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 161, 420–441. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Daller, M. H., Yildiz, C., de Jong, N. H., Kan, S. & Başbaĝi, R. (2010). Language dominance in Turkish–German bilinguals: methodological aspects of measurements in structurally different languages. International Journal of Bilingualism, 151, 215–236. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Degner, J., Doycheva, C. & Wentura, D. (2012). It matters how much you talk: On the automaticity of affective connotations of first and second language words. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 151, 181–189. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dong, Y., Gui, S. & MacWhinney, B. (2005). Shared and separate meanings in the bilingual mental lexicon. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 81, 221–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dunn, A. L. & Fox Tree, J. E. (2009). A quick, gradient Bilingual Dominance Scale. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 121, 273–289. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dussias, P. E. & Sagarra, N. (2009). The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 101, 101–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Finkbeiner, M., Forster, K., Nicol, J. & Nakamura, K. (2004). The role of polysemy in masked semantic and translation priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 511, 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Montoya, R. I., Fennema-Notestine, C. & Morris, S. K. (2005). Bilingualism affects picture naming but not picture classification. Memory & cognition, 331, 1220–1234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Green, D. M. & Swets, J. A. (1966). Signal Detection Theory and Psychophysics New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 67–81. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1998). Studying bilinguals: Methodological and conceptual issues. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 131–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013). Bilingualism: A short introduction in Grosjean, F. & Li, P. (eds.), The Psycholingusitics of Bilingualism, 5–25. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Guasch, M., Sánchez-Casas, R., Ferré, P. & Garciá-Albea, J. E. (2011). Effects of the degree of meaning similarity on cross-language semantic priming in highly proficient bilinguals. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 23(8), 942–961. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heredia, R. R. (1997). Bilingual memory and hierarchical models: A case for language dominance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 61, 34–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jiang, N. (1999). Testing processing explanations for the asymmetry in masked cross-language priming. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 21, 59–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keatley, C. W., Spinks, J. A. & de Gelder, B. (1994). Asymmetrical cross-language priming effects. Memory & cognition, 221, 70–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroll, J. F. & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language, 331, 149–174. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Linck, J. A., Kroll, J. F. & Sunderman, G. (2009). Losing access to the native language while immersed in a second language: Evidence for the role of inhibition in second language learning. Psychological Science, 201, 1507–1515. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Macmillan, N. A. & Creelman, C. D. (1990). Response bias: Characteristics of detection theory, threshold theory, and “nonparametric” indexes. Psychological Bulletin, 1071, 401–413. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Malt, B. C., Li, P., Pavlenko, A., Zhu, H. C. & Ameel, E. (2015). Bidirectional lexical interaction in late immersed Mandarin-English bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 821, 86–104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morales, L., Paolieri, D., Cubelli, R. & Bajo, M. T. (2014). Transfer of Spanish grammatical gender to English: Evidence from immersed and non-immersed bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17 (4), 700–708. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A. (ed.) (2009). The Bilingual Mental Lexicon: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perea, M., Duñabeitia, J. A. & Carreiras, M. (2008). Masked associative/semantic priming effects across langauges with highly proficient bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 581, 916–930. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ratcliff, R. (1993). Methods for Dealing with Reaction-Time Outliers. Psychological Bulletin, 114(3), 510–532. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sabourin, L., Brien, C. & Burkholder, M. (2013). The effect of age of L2 acquisition on the organization of the bilingual lexicon: Evidence from masked priming. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17(3), 542–555. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schoonbaert, S., Duyck, W., Brysbaert, M. & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2009). Semantic and translation priming from a first language to a second and back: Making sense of the findings. Memory & cognition, 371, 569–586. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sholl, A., Sankaranarayanan, A. & Kroll, J. F. (1995). Transfer between picture naming and translation: A test of asymmetries in bilingual memory. Psychological Science, 61, 45–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Silverberg, S. & Samuel, A. G. (2004). The effect of age of second language acquisition on the representation and processing of second langauge words. Journal of Memory and Language, 511, 381–398. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tokowicz, N., Michael, E. & Kroll, J. F. (2004). The roles of study-abroad experience and working-memory capacity in the types of errors made during translation. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 71, 255–272. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Treffers-Daller, J. (2010). Operationalizing and measuring language dominance. International Journal of Bilingualism, 151, 147–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Hell, J. G. & Tanner, D. (2012). Second Language Proficiency and Cross-Language Lexical Activation. Language Learning, 62: Suppl. 2, 148–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Whelan, R. (2008). Effective analysis of reaction time data. The Psychological Record, 581, 475–482. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhao, X., Li, P., Liu, Y., Fang, X. & Shu, H. (2011). Cross-language priming in Chinese-English bilinguals with different second language proficiency levels. Proceedings of The 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Berghoff, Robyn & Emanuel Bylund
2024. L2 activation during L1 processing is increased by exposure but decreased by proficiency. International Journal of Bilingualism 28:3 ► pp. 555 ff. DOI logo
Matsuki, Eriko, Yasushi Hino & Debra Jared
2021. Understanding semantic accents in Japanese–English bilinguals: A feature-based approach. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 24:1 ► pp. 137 ff. DOI logo
Xue, Jin, Xiaolan Hu, Rong Yan, Hong Wang, Xi Chen & Miao Li
2021. Onset Age of Language Acquisition Effects in a Foreign Language Context: Evidence from Chinese–English Bilingual Children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 50:2 ► pp. 239 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.