Phonological activation of first language (Spanish) and second language (English) when learning third language (Slovak) novel words

Abstract

Objectives/Research Questions: This study investigates whether bilinguals activate lexical knowledge from both their dominant first language (L1; Spanish) and their less-dominant second language (L2; English) during novel third language (L3; Slovak) word learning. Moreover, it examines the extent to which L2 activation in L3 lexical learning depends on the level of L2 proficiency. Methodology: Stimuli included 120 auditory Slovak words with substantial phonological overlap with either English or Spanish (homophones) or with neither language (control words), and their written Spanish translations. Two groups of participants (with high and low-proficiency in L2 English) completed paired-associate learning, correct/incorrect translation recognition and backward translation tasks on Slovak–Spanish translation equivalents to examine the facilitation effect of homophones with either Spanish or English. Data and Analysis: Response times, accuracy scores and correct translation counts were collected from 35 Spanish–English bilinguals and analyzed by means of repeated measures analyses of variance. Findings/Conclusions: The phonological similarity of novel L3 words with participants’ L2 words showed similar facilitation effects as phonological similarity with L1 words. This implies an involuntary activation of bilinguals’ less-dominant L2, even when not overtly present in the L3 lexical learning task. Moreover, the low-proficiency group experienced a higher facilitation for L1 than for L2 homophones, but overall lower facilitation in L3 lexical learning than the high-proficiency group. These findings suggest that bilinguals can activate lexical knowledge from both of their languages during novel L3 word learning, but the activation of the less-dominant L2 depends on participants’ L2 proficiency. Originality: We investigated how Spanish–English bilinguals incorporate vocabulary from an understudied language (i.e. Slovak) into their lexical system to test the language non-selective hypothesis in a multilingual lexical context. Significance: Our research contributes to the study of the degree of language dominance and its implications for L3 lexical learning and parallel activation of multilinguals’ languages.

Novel Word Learning Among Bilinguals Can Be Better Through the (Dominant) First Language Than Through the Second Language

“…FCs were expected to entail two opposing mechanisms (Elias & Degani, under review; Fang, Perfetti, & Stafura, 2017). Form overlap may serve to facilitate learning (as found by Mulík et al., 2019), whereas meaning competition may hinder performance (as found by Rodd et al., 2012). Because FCs were learned better than control items, our findings suggest a greater role for the form facilitation mechanism, especially when learning took place through the language that shares the form similarity with the novel word.…”

“…In contrast, although FCs are typically more difficult to process than control words for proficient bilinguals (see Degani & Tokowicz, 2010b, for a review), studies that directly tested the patterns of acquiring FCs have shown contradicting evidence. Specifically, due to the similarity in lexical form across languages, facilitation may be observed compared to control items (Mulík, Carrasco‐Ortiz, & Amengual, 2019). Evidence for this suggestion comes from within‐language vocabulary learning, in which learning of a new meaning for a known word is compared to learning of novel words (e.g., Fang & Perfetti, 2017).…”

Cross-language interactions during novel word learning: The contribution of form similarity and participant characteristics

“…Therefore, participants in the current study learned Arabic false-cognates with meanings that are semantically unrelated to the original Hebrew words. Based on the results of Mulík et al (2019) and Storkel et al (2013), facilitation may be expected for false-cognates over control words due to the overlap in form. In contrast, according to the findings of Otwinowska and Szewczyk (2019) and Rodd et al (2012), we expected a challenge in learning these words in comparison to unambiguous control words due to the difficulty in mapping unrelated meanings.…”

“…False-cognate learningform facilitation vs. meaning competition In contrast, false-cognates (e.g., /sˤu:sˤ/) overlap in form but differ in meaning across languages. The form overlap may facilitate learning of the form component (Mulík, Carrasco-Ortiz & Amengual, 2019;Storkel, Maekawa & Aschenbrenner, 2013), but because the meanings do not overlap, the new mappings may impose difficulty in learning, due to the need to map a new unrelated meaning to the already existing and established word-form (Fang, Perfetti & Stafura, 2017;Maciejewski, Rodd, Mon-Williams & Klepousniotou, 2020;Rodd, Berriman, Landau, Lee, Ho, Gaskell & Davis, 2012).…”

“…Moreover, the majority of past research tested learning of new meanings to already existent forms within a given language (but see Ghazi-Saidi & Ansaldo, 2017; Mulík et al, 2019; Otwinowska, Foryś-Nogala, Kobosko & Szewcyzk, 2020), whereas our study aims to better understand the role of phonological-overlap, with and without a semantic-overlap, across the language boundary in two different languages. One relevant study conducted recently by Mulík et al (2019), examined how Spanish–English bilinguals with low and high L2 proficiency learned three types of Slovak words: overlapping in phonology but not in meaning with the L1 (Spanish false-cognates), overlapping in phonology but not in meaning with the L2 (English false-cognates) and control words, not overlapping with either of the languages. The results indicated better learning of false-cognates of both types in comparison to control words in the high proficiency group, and better learning of L1 false-cognates by the low proficiency group.…”