Language processing in partial English-Japanese bilinguals: evidence from Stroop-test results

Possible hemispheric functional differences between adolescent partial English-Japanese bilinguals and Japanese monolinguals were examined with a reversed auditory Stroop test. Subjects were requested to press their left/right hand button when they heard the target Japanese word "Otoko (male)/Onna (female)" as fast as possible. In one condition, the word and the speaker's sex weed congruent and in the other condition they were incongruent. The results of the reaction times showed that Stroop effects appeared with both responding hands in the bilingual group. On the other hand, the results of the monolinguals revealed that the Stroop effect was shown only with the left hand and not with the right hand. These results suggest that in nonproficient bilinguals, the right hemisphere may be involved in processing word meaning.