Form and Sound Activation in First Language During Second Language Word Recognition

This study examined whether Chinese-English bilinguals activated orthographic and phonological representations from their first language (L1; Chinese) lexicon during second language (L2; English) processing, and how L2 proficiency modulated this process.

The current study involved 71 Chinese-English bilinguals: 40 with low L2 proficiency and 31 with high L2 proficiency. Using the visual-world paradigm, participants listened to an L2 word (e.g., "chair," Chinese translation: "" /yi3/) while viewing three images: a target, a competitor, and a distractor. In the orthographic condition, the competitor's Chinese name shared a radical with the Chinese translation of the English word (e.g., "" /qiao2/). In the phonological condition, the competitor's pronunciation matched that of the Chinese translation (e.g., "" /yi3/). The task was to click on the target image.

Both low- and high-proficiency Chinese-English bilinguals exhibited significant competition effects in orthographic and phonological conditions, with higher fixation probability on phonological/orthographic competitors compared to distractors. The orthographic competition effect occurred earlier for low-proficiency bilinguals but later for high-proficiency bilinguals. Both groups showed an earlier phonological competition effect and high-proficiency bilinguals also exhibited a later phase of phonological activation.

The findings suggest that Chinese-English bilinguals activate both orthographic and phonological representations from their L1 lexicon during L2 word processing. Although both low- and high-proficiency bilinguals showed nonselective cross-language coactivation, the timing of orthographic and phonological activation varied with L2 proficiency.