Language Dominance, Verbal Fluency, and Language Control in two Groups of Russian–English Bilinguals

Abstract

This study explored language dominance, verbal fluency, and language control abilities of two groups of younger and older Russian-English bilinguals who had spent similar amounts of time as immigrants in the U.S. Verbal fluency tasks (based on letter and semantic cues, including a new method to elicit parallel letter-fluency data for Russian and English) were used to measure the bilinguals' current lexical retrieval skills in addition to self-assessments of language proficiencies at time of study and time of arrival. Stroop tasks (naming colors with incongruent cues) were used to measure younger and older bilinguals' ability to control interference during color-naming. Findings demonstrate that the older immigrants were less fluent in L2 naming tasks and that they remained dominant (more proficient) in their L1 whereas the younger immigrants had become relatively balanced bilinguals in terms of proficiency, fluent in both the L1 and L2. Younger and older bilinguals were equally capable of controlling interference across and within the two languages. We propose that it is not balance in bilingual proficiency that positively affects language control abilities, but balance as stability of language systems. Stability of language systems can be achieved if bilingual usage patterns remain relatively constant over several years and if no radical changes in language learning and maintenance efforts are required.

Neuropsychological Test Performance Among Native and Non-Native Swedes: Second Language Effects

“…The cognitive effects of bilingualism have been investigated from the 1920s’ and onward, with early research often neglecting to account for factors that have later been shown to be relevant, such as rural–urban differences, gender, socioeconomics and proficiency ( Adesope et al., 2010 ; Peal & Lambert, 1962 ). Several methods to measure the balance between L1 and L2 have been suggested; for example dividing word flow in L1 by word flow in L2 ( Erdodi et al., 2017 ; Peal & Lambert, 1962 ; Shishkin & Ecke, 2018 ; Suarez, Gollan, Heaton, Grant, & Cherner, 2014 ). However, when dividing word flow between L1 and L2, current L1 capacity should be considered, as first language (L1) maintenance has been shown to be a factor ( Shishkin & Ecke, 2018 ).…”

“…Several methods to measure the balance between L1 and L2 have been suggested; for example dividing word flow in L1 by word flow in L2 ( Erdodi et al., 2017 ; Peal & Lambert, 1962 ; Shishkin & Ecke, 2018 ; Suarez, Gollan, Heaton, Grant, & Cherner, 2014 ). However, when dividing word flow between L1 and L2, current L1 capacity should be considered, as first language (L1) maintenance has been shown to be a factor ( Shishkin & Ecke, 2018 ). Several bilingual varieties have been suggested (balanced, early, late, etc.…”

Measuring language dominance in bilinguals with two sign languages

“…Bahrick et al, 1994;Dunn & Fox Tree, 2009;Gertken et al, 2014). Phonological fluency as a measure of language dominance in the spoken modality has been reported at least in Shishkin & Ecke (2018). Whether these recent advances in research on language dominance in spoken languages, albeit mainly in European and North American contexts (Treffers-Daller, 2019), are distinctive to the spoken modality is a question that has not been addressed.…”

Setting Up A Complex Model Of Speech Analysis: Pilot Study Of Late Bilingual Speech

“…However, these people do not fit the quite tight category of natural or balanced bilinguals and for decades stayed unnoticed by the scholars studying bilingualism [7]. More recent studies though have examined the subject matter in more detail [3,5,6,9]. The research at large aims to continue closing the gap and study late Russian English bilinguals once it goes full-scale.…”