Cover not available

Article published In: Studies of Bilingual Processing Presented to Kenneth I. Forster
Edited by Nan Jiang
[Journal of Second Language Studies 4:2] 2021
► pp. 268–292

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Lexical selection in bilingual language production

Evidence from a picture-naming task

 | Santa Monica College, USA
 | University of Arizona, USA
Published online: 2 August 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.21016.hal
Abstract
The goal of this study is to examine whether bilingual speakers can inhibit one language while naming pictures in the other. In two picture-word interference task experiments, Spanish-English and English-Spanish bilinguals named pictures in Spanish. We used language-neutral (nonword) interfering stimuli to probe the phonological activation of the nontarget language (English). Three different interfering stimulus conditions were presented: nonwords phonologically related to the Spanish picture name (Phono-Spanish), nonwords phonologically related to the English picture name (Phono-English) and phonologically unrelated nonwords (Unrelated). When participants named pictures in Spanish (Experiment 1), facilitation was found for both groups in the Phono-Spanish condition. No interference was found in the Phono-English condition for either group. From this result and the results of a control experiment in which participants named pictures in English (Experiment 2), we argue that under some circumstances, bilinguals are able to effectively inhibit the nontarget language during language production.
Article outline
  • Experiment 1: Picture naming in Spanish
    • Method
      • Participants
      • Materials and design
      • Spanish proficiency test
      • Naming pretest
      • Procedure
  • Results
    • Group 1: English as L1
    • Naming latencies
    • Errors
    • Group 2: Spanish as L1
    • Naming latencies
    • Errors
  • Discussion
  • Experiment 2: Picture naming in English
    • Method
      • Participants
      • Materials and design
      • Procedure
  • Results
    • Group 1: English as L1
    • Naming latencies
    • Errors
    • Group 2: English as L2
    • Naming latencies
    • Errors
  • General discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (35)
References
Barr, D. J., Levy, R., Scheepers, C., & Tily, H. J. (2013). Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language, 68(3), 255–278. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, D., Maechler, M., & Bolker, B. (2012). Ime4: Linear mixed-effects models using S4 classes. (Version 0.999999-0) [Computer software]. [URL]
Berkes, M., Friesen, D. C., & Bialystok, E. (2018). Cultural context as a biasing factor for language activation in bilinguals. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 331, 1032–1048. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colomé, À. (2001). Lexical Activation in Bilinguals’ Speech Production: Language- Specific or Language-Independent? Journal of Memory and Language, 451, 721–736. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A. (2005). Lexical Access in Bilingual Production. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 289–307). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Colomé, À., Gomez, O. & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2003). Another look at cross- language competition in bilingual speech production: Lexical and phonological factors. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 61, 167–179. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilingual’s two lexicons compete for selection? Journal of Memory and Language, 411, 365–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., & Sebastian-Gallés, N. (1998). Abstract phonological structure in language production: Evidence from Spanish. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 241, 886–903.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dell, G. S. (1986). A spreading-activation theory of retrieval in sentence production. Psychological review, 93(3), 283–321. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finkbeiner, M., Gollan, T., & Caramazza, A. (2006). Bilingual lexical access: What’s the (hard) problem. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9(2), 153–166. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forster, K. & Forster, J. (2003). DMDX Display Software. [Computer software]. [URL]
Garrett, M. F. (1980). Levels of processing in sentence production. In Butterworth, B. (Ed.), Language Production (Vol. 11). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 1(2), 67–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with two languages: An introduction to bilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1997). Processing mixed language: Issues, findings and models. In de Groot, A. and Kroll, J. (Eds.). Tutorials in Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1998). Transfer and language mode. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1 (3), 175–176. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2001). The bilingual’s language modes. In J. Nicol (ed.), One mind, two languages: Bilingual language processing. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hermans, D., Bongaerts, T., De Bot, K., & Schreuder, R. (1998). Producing words in a foreign language: Can speakers prevent interference from their first language? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1 (3), 213–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hermans, D., Ormel, E., van Besselaar, R., & van Hell, J. (2011). Lexical activation in bilinguals’ speech production is dynamic: How language ambiguous words can affect cross-language activation. Language and Cognitive Processes, 261, 1687–1709. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaeger, T. F. (2008). Categorical data analysis: Away from ANOVAs (transformation or not) and towards logit mixed models. Journal of Memory and Language, 59(4), 434–446. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, D. E. (2009). Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and linguistics compass, 3(1), 359–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Bobb, S. C., Misra, M., & Guo, T. (2008). Language selection in bilingual speech: Evidence for inhibitory processes. Acta Psychologica, 1281, 416–430. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Bobb, S. C., & Wodniecka, Z. (2006). Language selectivity is the exception, not the rule: Arguments against a fixed locus of language selection in bilingual speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 81, 119–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kutas, M., & Federmeier, K. D. (2011). Thirty years and counting: Finding meaning in the N400 component of the event related brain potential (ERP). Annual Review of Psychology, 621, 621–647. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
La Heij, W., de Bruyn, E., Elens, E., Hartsuiker, R., Helaha, D., & Van Schelven, L. (1990). Orthographic facilitation and categorical interference in a word-translation variant of the Stroop task. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 441, 76–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levelt, W. J., Roelofs, A., & Meyer, A. S. (1999). A theory of lexical access in speech production. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 221, 1–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mahon, B. Z., Costa, A., Peterson, R., Vargas, K. A., and Caramazza, A. (2007). Lexical selection is not by competition: a reinterpretation of semantic interference and facilitation effects in the picture-word interference paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory and Cognition, 331, 503–535. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, N., & Kroll, J. (2002). Stroop effects in bilingual translation. Memory & Cognition, 30 (4), 614–628. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moon, J., & Jiang, N. (2012). Non-selective lexical access in different-script bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(1), 173–180. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pickering, M. J. & Garrod, S. (2004). Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 271, 169–226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poulisse, N., & Bongaerts, T. (1994). First language use in second language production. Applied Linguistics, 15(1), 36–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodriguez-Fornells, A., van der Lugt, A., Rotte, M., Britti, B., Heinze, H. & Münte, T. (2005). Second language interferes with word production in fluent bilingual: Brain potential and functional imaging evidence. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17 (3), 422–433. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomoschuk, B., Ferreira, V. S., & Gollan, T. H. (2020). Translation distractors facility production in single- and mixed-language picture naming. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 1–13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weatherholtz, K., Campbell-Kibler, K., & Jaeger, T. F. (2014). Socially-mediated syntactic alignment. Language Variation and Change, 26(3), 387–420. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woodcock, R. W., & Munoz-Sandoval, A. F. (1993). Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue