Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 8:3 (2018) ► pp.372–392
Lexical access in English-Spanish bilinguals
A comparison of advanced heritage speakers and late learners
Published online: 20 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.17039.shp
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.17039.shp
Abstract
Does early onset age of language learning in an informal setting always have a long-term advantage? We compared lexical access in adult heritage speakers of Spanish and late learners of Spanish in two word-production tasks, while also considering the speakers’ oral proficiency in their non-dominant language. In all speakers, word recall in the picture-naming task was less accurate and slower than in the translation task. Heritage speakers and late learners of high Spanish proficiency level were different only in the translation task, where learners were faster than heritage speakers, which may be explained by their experience with translation of visual input. These findings suggest that for a non-dominant language, an early onset of learning does not provide an advantage, at least when high-proficiency bilinguals, high-frequency words, and behavioral measures are concerned. Oral proficiency matters most, as it correlates with frequency of language use.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Approaches to studying lexical access in bilinguals
- 3.The effect of language proficiency on lexical access
- 4.The effect of age of acquisition on lexical access
- 5.Study justification and predictions
- 6.Method
- 6.1Participants
- 6.2Materials
- 6.3Procedure
- 6.4Data analysis
- Accuracy
- Reaction times
- 7.Results
- 7.1Accuracy
- 7.2Reaction times
- 8.Discussion
- Early informal acquisition and picture-naming performance
- Late formal acquisition and translation performance
- The translation task practice effect
- 9.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
References
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