Bilinguals show word use patterns in each of their languages that differ from those of monolinguals. One interpretation is that, for bilinguals, the word meanings of one language are influenced by those of the other. Another is that the cross-language influence lies in on-line processes – word retrieval probabilities or word form activation levels. To discriminate between interpretations, we asked Mandarin–English bilinguals to name household objects in their L1 and L2 via forced choice instead of free production. The options given were the monolingual-preferred choices, eliminating memory retrieval demands and keeping those words at a high level of activation. For comparison, monolinguals of each language performed the same task in their native language. Differences from monolinguals in word choice were substantially reduced, especially in L1, but bilingual patterns still showed some cross-language influence in both L1 and L2. This outcome implicates cross-language influences on both bilingual processing and meaning representations.

This study uses a discontinuous-linear regression methodological approach to test the Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis (LTH). Specifically, we investigate the following hypotheses: (1) the rate of transfer of literacy skills from L1 to L2 is a function of L2 oral language ability, (2) the rate of transfer from L1 to L2 accelerates when students cross a specified threshold(s) of L2 language oral ability, and (3) discontinuous change-point regression models fit the data better than linear regression interaction models. Across literacy skills, discontinuous change-point regression models revealed levels of L2 oral language at which transfer from L1 to L2 literacy was maximized, suggesting that the relationship between L2 language and cross-linguistic transfer is not constant for the young Spanish–English bilinguals in our study. Further, discontinuous change-point regression models fit the data better than linear interaction models, suggesting the importance of using models that better match the theoretical assumptions underpinning the LTH.

An account of code-switching should be a direct consequence of an understanding of representation and processing in the individual mind, rather than a separate domain of its own. In the absence of such an account, most studies have developed hypotheses strictly within a specific research domain. This paper seeks to apply to code-switching a reasonably well-developed account of the multilingual mind, the MOGUL framework, within which more specific accounts can be developed. After briefly summarizing the framework, we describe representation and processing as realized in MOGUL, focusing on aspects having particular relevance to code-switching, including social factors involved in switching but as seen in terms of their place in a cognitive system. We then show how a promising approach to code-switching can be derived from this general framework. Some specific examples of code-switching are analyzed, though the primary goal is to show the merits of a broader perspective.

Monolingual listeners continuously predict upcoming information. Here, we tested whether predictive language processing occurs to the same extent when bilinguals listen to their native language vs. a non-native language. Additionally, we tested whether bilinguals use prediction to the same extent as monolinguals. Dutch–English bilinguals and English monolinguals listened to constraining and neutral sentences in Dutch (bilinguals only) and in English, and viewed target and distractor pictures on a display while their eye movements were measured. There was a bias of fixations towards the target object in the constraining condition, relative to the neutral condition, before information from the target word could affect fixations. This prediction effect occurred to the same extent in native processing by bilinguals and monolinguals, but also in non-native processing. This indicates that unbalanced, proficient bilinguals can quickly use semantic information during listening to predict upcoming referents to the same extent in both of their languages.

This study investigated the effects of L2 learning experience in relation to L1 background on hemispheric processing of Japanese pitch accent. Native Mandarin Chinese (tonal L1) and English (non-tonal L1) learners of Japanese were tested using dichotic listening. These listener groups were compared with those recruited in Wu, Tu & Wang (2012), including native Mandarin and English listeners without Japanese experience and native Japanese listeners. Results revealed an overall right-hemisphere preference across groups, suggesting acoustically oriented processing. Individual pitch accent patterns also revealed pattern-specific laterality differences, further reflecting acoustic-level processing. However, listener group differences indicated L1 effects, with the Chinese but not English listeners approximating the Japanese patterns. Furthermore, English learners but not naïve listeners exhibited a shift towards the native direction, revealing effects of L2 learning. These findings imply integrated effects of acoustic and linguistic aspects on Japanese pitch accent processing as a function of L1 and L2 experience.

In this study we followed the characteristics and use of code-mixing by eight KODAs – hearing children of Deaf parents – from the age of 12 to 36 months. The children's interaction was video-recorded twice a year during three different play sessions: with their Deaf parent, with the Deaf parent and a hearing adult, and with the hearing adult alone. Additionally, data were collected on the children's overall language development in both sign language and spoken language. Our results showed that the children preferred to produce code-blends – simultaneous production of semantically congruent signs and words – in a way that was in accordance with the morphosyntactic structure of both languages being acquired. A Deaf parent as the interlocutor increased the number of and affected the type of code-blended utterances. These findings suggest that code-mixing in young bimodal bilingual KODA children can be highly systematic and synchronised in nature and can indicate pragmatic development.

These studies address monolinguals' and bilinguals' processing of categories, in order to examine the relationship between concepts and linguistically encoded classes. We focus on languages that differ in their conceptual lexicalization and breadth of application, where one language has a single word (e.g., dedo in Spanish) that corresponds to two words in another language (e.g., English finger and toe). Categories differed across types of semantics-concept mappings, from ‘classical’ cases, involving members close in the conceptual space, to ‘homonyms’, involving conceptually distant items. Bilingual Catalan speakers, and English and Spanish monolinguals judged whether objects were ‘like’ an initial referent presented either with or without a label. Scores were highest in classical categories, lowest in homonyms; higher in narrow than wide categories; and better in labeled than unlabeled cases. Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in judgments that conformed with their language, especially in wide categories. We discuss implications for the semantics-cognition interface and bilingualism.

Eye fixation measures were used to examine English relative clause processing by adult ASL–English bilingual deaf readers. Participants processed subject relative clauses faster than object relative clauses, but expected animacy cues eliminated processing difficulty in object relative clauses. This brings into question previous claims that deaf readers’ sentence processing strategies are qualitatively different from those of hearing English native speakers. Measures of English comprehension predicted reading speed, but not differences in syntactic processing. However, a trend for ASL self-ratings to predict the ability to handle syntactic complexity approached significance. Results suggest a need to explore how objective ASL proficiency measures might provide insights into deaf readers’ ability to exploit syntactic cues in English.

Previous research has suggested that the advantages for cognitive control abilities in bilinguals are attenuated when socio-economic status (SES) is controlled (e.g., Morton & Harper, 2007). This study examined the effect of SES on cognitive control in illiterate monolingual and bilingual individuals who lived in adverse social conditions. We tested monolinguals and bilinguals using Simon and Attentional Network task while controlling for two potential confounding factors: SES and literacy. Bilinguals were faster for both trials with and without conflict demonstrating overall faster response times (global advantage) compared to monolinguals on both tasks. However, no bilingual advantage was found for conflict resolution on the Simon task and attentional networks on the Attentional Network task. The overall bilingual effects provide evidence for a bilingual advantage even among individuals without literacy skills and of very low SES. This indicates a strong link between bilingualism and cognitive control over and above effects of SES.

In the current study, we investigated bilingual error detection by measuring the repair rate of language intrusions (i.e., involuntary production of nontarget language words) that arose while bilinguals produced sentences in a language switching context. This allowed us to compare two prominent accounts of error detection in a bilingual setting. According to the conflict monitoring account, error detection is initiated by interference. Since language switching increases bilingual language interference, error detection should be better in switch relative to repetition trials. According to the perceptual loop theory, error detection is based on language comprehension. Since language switching is known to impair language comprehension, it follows that error detection should be worse in switch relative to repetition trials. The results showed that the repair rate of language intrusions was higher in switch than repetition trials, thus providing evidence that bilingual language interference instigates error detection, in line with the conflict monitoring account.

This study investigates how beginner and advanced Dutch learners of Mandarin process tonal information. An ABX task was adopted to investigate phonological discrimination of Mandarin tones and segment-tone integration in Dutch learners of Mandarin, with both native Mandarin and Dutch speakers (without tonal learning experience) as control groups. Results showed a developmental path in lexical tone processing. The beginner learners could not process tonal contrast adequately at the phonological level, and they processed segmental and tonal information separately, like native Dutch listeners without Mandarin experience. The advanced learners showed a good phonological discrimination of tonal contrasts. They showed a more native-like pattern in distributing their attention between segmental and tonal information, and they processed the two dimensions in an integrated manner, similar to native Mandarin listeners. This suggests that the acquisition of new tonal categories in L2 involves a redistribution of attention along perceptual dimensions and the development of segment-tone integration.

The effects of exposure to non-English heritage languages versus exposure to foreign-accented English during early childhood on language performances later in life were investigated. Three groups of young adult participants who differed in their early home language environment were examined on a series of linguistic tasks. Results showed that people who were mostly exposed to accented English in the early home environment are more native-like in various aspects of English language performance than those who were mostly exposed to their non-English heritage language, including vocabulary, pronunciation, and processing of certain types of speech stimuli. Early and extended exposure to accented speech, however, does not appear to enhance the ability to perceive foreign accents in general, and may in fact produce a disadvantage when listening to unfamiliar accents. These findings provide some initial insight into the consequences of migrant parents choosing to speak one language over the other with their children.

In this research, 5- and 6-year-old monolingual (English) and heritage language (English–Spanish, English–Urdu) children completed a grammaticality judgment test to assess their awareness of grammatically correct and incorrect morphosyntactic structures in English. Results demonstrated that language group differences were minimized when heritage language children exhibited average receptive vocabulary proficiency for the sample, and when more difficult morphosyntactic structures were assessed. In this middle range, only two group differences were found. Our findings highlight the need to consider factors such as receptive vocabulary when assessing morphosyntactic awareness and language group differences.

Contrastive pitch accents benefit native English speakers’ memory for discourse by enhancing a representation of a specific relevant contrast item (Fraundorf et al., 2010). This study examines whether and how second language (L2) listeners differ in how contrastive accents affect their encoding and representation of a discourse, as compared to native speakers. Using the same materials as Fraundorf et al. (2010), we found that low and mid proficiency L2 learners showed no memory benefit from contrastive accents. High proficiency L2 learners revealed some sensitivity to contrastive accents, but failed to fully integrate information conveyed by contrastive accents into their discourse representation. The results suggest that L2 listeners’ non-native performance in processing contrastive accents, observed in this and other prior studies, may be attributed at least in part to a difference in the depth of processing of the information conveyed by contrastive accents.

Behavioral and neural correlates of cross-linguistic transfer (CLT) effects were studied at the word level, in a pair of linguistically distant languages. Twelve adult Persian speakers were tested on an overt picture-naming task in L2, during event-related fMRI scanning after an intensive computerized French lexical-learning program including cognates, clangs and non-cognate-non-clangs.

In distant language pairs, naming in L2 is effortful and demanding. Thus, it is less automatic, and must recruit more neural resources for lexical retrieval, and articulatory processing; it also requires more attention and cognitive control, even in cases where there is phonological overlap. Activation observed with different word types reflects the interaction of language and other cognitive systems including executive control and working memory circuits, even with phonologically similar and highly consolidated words. Moreover, phonologically similar words (cognates and clangs) seem to involve the implicit memory processing, whereas phonologically distant words (non-cognate-non-clangs) seem to require explicit memory.