No abstract

Second language (L2) learners need to continually learn new L2 words as well as additional meanings of previously learned L2 words. The present study investigated the influence of semantic similarity on the growth curve of learning of artificially paired new meanings of previously known L2 words in Chinese–English bilinguals. The results of a translation recognition task showed that related meanings are learned faster and more accurately than unrelated meanings. The advantage of learning related new meaning persisted and increased for a week after learning the new meanings. These results suggest that semantic similarities impact the learning of new meanings for known L2 words, and that the shared features between previously known and new meanings of a word facilitate the process of incorporating the related new meaning into the lexical semantic network. Our results are discussed under the framework of the connectionist model.

Aims: The present study aimed at investigating whether cognitive flexibility plays the same role in language switching as in task switching. Design: Cognitive flexibility (CF) of 52 low proficiency Chinese (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals was assessed by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. These bilinguals were then subdivided in 26 high- and 26 low-CF participants. Both groups performed a task-switching (Simon switch task) and a language-switching task (picture-naming task). The former task required participants to press a button congruent or incongruent to the pointing direction of an arrow, while in the latter participants had to name pictures in their L1 and L2. Data and analysis: Both response latencies and accuracy scores were obtained. Afterwards switch costs (i.e. longer latencies or reduced accuracy for switch in contrast to repeat trials) were calculated. Findings: Results of the Simon switch task showed that switch costs for congruent and incongruent trials were symmetrical in the high-CF group, whereas the low-CF group showed larger switch costs for congruent than incongruent trials. Similarly, results of the language-switch task showed symmetrical switch costs for naming pictures in their L1 and L2 for the high-CF group, but L1 switch costs were larger than L2 ones in the low-CF group. These findings indicate that cognitive flexibility can modulate switch costs of two different switching tasks. This is in line with the inhibitory control model and the task-set inertia theory which assume that cognitive flexibility might modulate the symmetry of different types of switch costs via inhibition. This study provides first direct evidence that cognitive flexibility plays a comparably important role in language switching as well as in task switching. Thus, cognitive flexibility can be beneficial for low proficiency bilinguals’ inhibitory control during task switching and language switching

Aims: The present study aimed to explore how varied cross-linguistic differences affect late Chinese-English learners' on-line processing of tense and aspect in English. Methodology: We used the self-paced reading task (Experiment 1) and the eye-tracking technique (Experiment 2) to test the above question. Data and analysis: Reading times in Experiment 1 and first-fixation duration, and gaze time in Experiment 2 in four interested positions were analysed in R by ANOVAs and t-tests. Findings: Both high-and low-proficiency participants showed their sensitivity to the violation of progressive, which is nearly congruent between English and Chinese. Only high-proficiency participants were sensitive to the violation of past tense, which is similar but not congruent between Chinese and English. With regard to present third person singular, which is incongruent between Chinese and English, high-proficiency participants also showed their sensitivity to its violation; however, this sensitivity is only detected by the eye-tracking method (Experiment 2). These results suggested that cross-linguistic differences affect late second language learners' online processing of English tense and aspect. Originality: To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first one exploring varied crosslinguistic differences' influence on late Chinese-English learners' on-line processing of tense and aspect in English. Significance: Our results provide new evidence to support the Performance Deficit Account.