Lexical access in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners

Neural bases of asymmetric language switching in second-language learners: An ER-fMRI study

“…They evidently need to separate their two languages (Costa and Santesteban, 2004) and select the right lexical candidates from the right language for effective communication (e.g., Costa et al, 1999). In that process, bilingual individuals must have effective neural mechanisms to prevent interference or competition between the two languages, especially considering that first and second languages have overlapping neuro-anatomical bases as revealed by recent neuroimaging studies (e.g., Illes et al, 1999;Rodriguez-Fornells et al, 2002;Xue et al, 2004a,b).…”

“…One type of models assumes that only words in a given language are activated (i.e., Costa et al, 1999;Costa and Santesteban, 2004;Roelofs, 1998). Thus, a language switch is required to turn on and off the entire language system.…”

“…In contrast, the other type of models assumes that the lexical selection mechanism is not specific to a given language (e.g., Green, 1986Green, , 1998Hermans et al, 1998;Poulisse and Bongaerts, 1994; also see Costa and Santesteban, 2004). According to these models, words in both languages are activated and the individual has to consider all activated lexical nodes, irrespective of the language to which they belong.…”

“…According to the Inhibitory Control (IC) model (Green, 1986(Green, , 1998, differential levels of activation in the two lexicons are achieved by the involvement of an inhibitory control mechanism. Specifically, the IC model assumes that lexical selection in bilingual speakers entails the reactive inhibition of lexical items belonging to the unintended or non-response language (Green, 1986(Green, , 1998; also see Santesteban, 2004 andPrice et al, 1999). That is, in order to produce words in one language, bilingual speakers must inhibit the schema for word production in the other language.…”

“…The amount of inhibition would depend on two factors: the level of activation of the words that need to be suppressed, and the speakersT proficiency level in the non-response language (Green, 1986(Green, , 1998; also see Costa and Santesteban, 2004).…”