Producing words in a foreign language: Can speakers prevent interference from their first language?

Abstract

Two picture-word interference experiments were conducted to investigate whether or not words from a first and more dominant language are activated during lexical access in a foreign and less dominant language. Native speakers of Dutch were instructed to name pictures in their foreign language English. Our experiments show that the Dutch name of a picture is activated during initial stages of the process of lexical in English as a foreign language. We conclude that bilingual speakers cannot suppress activation from their first language while naming pictures in a foreign language. The implications for bilingual speech production theories are discussed.

The second language interferes with picture naming in the first language: evidence for L2 activation during L1 production

“…In their seminal study, Hermans et al (1998) showed that when speakers have to name pictures in their L2 (in their case English), the L1 (in their case Dutch) translation of the target word is also activated up to the phonological level. In two picture-word interference experiments, participants were asked to name pictures of simple objects in their L2 (e.g.…”

“…both languages are activated and spread information to the lexical nodes regardless of the target language (e.g. Costa, 2004;De Bot, 1992;Green, 1998;Hermans, Bongaerts, De Bot, & Schreuder, 1998). However, it is still debated whether lexical selection, too, is non-specific with respect to language.…”

“…However, it is still debated whether lexical selection, too, is non-specific with respect to language. Some studies suggest that lexical entries / representations from both languages compete for selection, and that to resolve this competition, the non-target language is actively inhibited (Abutalebi & Green, 2007;Costa, Colomé, Gómez, & Sebastián-Gallés, 2003;Green, 1998;Hermans et al, 1998;Jacobs, Fricke, & Kroll, 2016;Kroll, Bobb, Misra, & Guo, 2008;Misra, Guo, Bobb, & Kroll, 2012;Spalek, Hoshino, Wu, Damian, & Thierry, 2014), while others advocate language-specific lexical selection in which no competition for selection arises between two languages (Colomé, 2001;Costa, Miozzo, & Caramazza, 1999). More recently, it has been proposed that lexical selection in bilingual language production may be thought of as a dynamic process, in which language-selectivity can be achieved temporarily depending on a number of variables both specific to the speakers involved (e.g.…”

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

“…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.…”

Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals.

“…W. Green, 1998;Hermans, Bongaerts, De Bot, & Schreuder, 1998;Jared & Kroll, 2001;Rodriguez-Fornells et al, 2005;Van Hell & Dijkstra, 2002). More recent evidence for this joint interaction has isolated specific effects on phonological production in the target language (Costa, Roelstraete, & Hartsuiker, 2006) and shown the persistence of such influences even for two languages that are written in different types of writing systems (Hoshino & Kroll, 2008).…”