On a differentplane: Cross-language effects on the conceptual representations of within-language homonyms

Context Effect on L2 Word Recognition: Visual Versus Auditory Modalities

This study tested the effect of constraining sentence context on word recognition time (RT) in the first and second language. Native (L1) and nonnative (L2) speakers of English performed self-paced reading and listening tasks to see whether a semantically-rich preceding context would lead to the activation of a probable upcoming word prior to encountering it. The pre-access prediction model (e.g., Altmann and Kamide in Cognition 73(3):247-264, 1999; McClelland and Rumelhart in Psychol Rev 88:375-407, 1981) posits that when the preceding context is semantically high-constraining, the perceptual system anticipates a probable upcoming word prior to encountering it. In contrast, the post-access model (e.g., Fodor in The modularity of mind, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1983; Forster in Q J Exp Psychol Sect A 33(4):465-495, 1981; Traxler et al. in J Psycholinguist Res 29(6):581-595, 2000; Van Petten and Luka in Int J Psychophysiol 83(2): 176-190, 2012) suggests that it is only after a word is encountered that a subsequent process integrates it into the preceding context. The integration process is easier and faster when the word is more congruent with the preceding context. In line with these two models of visual word recognition, auditory word recognition is modeled by the TRACE model (McClelland and Elman in Cogn Psychol 18(1):1-86, 1986), which suggests that a spoken word is influenced by the preceding sentence context, whereas models such as the cohort model (Marslen-Wilson in Cognition 25(1-2):71-102, 1987) support a post-access integration process. Some studies observe a facilitative effect of sentence context on L2 word recognition (e.g., Kamide et al. in J Mem Lang 49(1):133-156, 2003), while others find no effect of sentence context in L2 (e.g., Ito et al. in Lang Cogn Neurosci 32(8):954-965, 2017; Martin et al. in J Mem Lang 69(4):574-588, 2013). In the present experiments, the RTs of native English speakers (L1) and non-native English speakers (L2) were collected in both visual and auditory word recognition in semantically high-constraint sentences and semantically low-constraint sentences. A linear, mixed-effects model shows that both groups of participants are faster to recognize a word when it is preceded by a semantically high-constraining context. This result is observed in both the visual and the auditory modalities, lending some support for a mechanism facilitating the access of target words based on sentence context in both L1 and L2.

Determinants of translation ambiguity: A within and cross-language comparison

Ambiguity in translation is highly prevalent, and has consequences for second-language learning and for bilingual lexical processing. To better understand this phenomenon, the current study compared the determinants of translation ambiguity across four sets of translation norms from English to Spanish, Dutch, German and Hebrew. The number of translations an English word received was correlated across these different languages, and was also correlated with the number of senses the word has in English, demonstrating that translation ambiguity is partially determined by within-language semantic ambiguity. For semantically-ambiguous English words, the probability of the different translations in Spanish and Hebrew was predicted by the meaning-dominance structure in English, beyond the influence of other lexical and semantic factors, for bilinguals translating from their L1, and translating from their L2. These findings are consistent with models postulating direct access to meaning from L2 words for moderately-proficient bilinguals.

Introducing LexTALE: a quick and valid Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English

The increasing number of experimental studies on second language (L2) processing, frequently with English as the L2, calls for a practical and valid measure of English vocabulary knowledge and proficiency. In a large-scale study with Dutch and Korean speakers of L2 English, we tested whether LexTALE, a 5-min vocabulary test, is a valid predictor of English vocabulary knowledge and, possibly, even of general English proficiency. Furthermore, the validity of LexTALE was compared with that of self-ratings of proficiency, a measure frequently used by L2 researchers. The results showed the following in both speaker groups: (1) LexTALE was a good predictor of English vocabulary knowledge; 2) it also correlated substantially with a measure of general English proficiency; and 3) LexTALE was generally superior to self-ratings in its predictions. LexTALE, but not self-ratings, also correlated highly with previous experimental data on two word recognition paradigms. The test can be carried out on or downloaded from www.lextale.com .