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Automatic processing of word meaning: intralingual and interlingual interference.
Child Development
|February 1, 1985
Summary
Bilingual children automatically process word meanings in both languages, even early in second-language acquisition. This suggests semantic processing occurs regardless of language proficiency or type of word interference.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Bilingualism involves managing two language systems.
- Understanding automatic word processing in bilinguals is crucial for language acquisition research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate automatic word meaning processing in bilingual children.
- To examine semantic interference in bilinguals at different stages of second-language acquisition.
Main Methods:
- Picture-word interference task used with bilingual children.
- Children named pictures while ignoring distractor words in the same or different languages.
Main Results:
- Proficient bilinguals showed semantic interference in both intralingual and interlingual trials.
- Early second-language learners also demonstrated automatic semantic processing of new words.
- Interlingual interference patterns matched intralingual interference in all participants.
Conclusions:
- Automatic semantic processing occurs early in second-language acquisition.
- Bilingual word processing may not rely on a simple "input switch" mechanism.
- Findings challenge existing models of bilingual language control.