Keeping two languages apart: Connective processing in both languages of Russian–German bilinguals

Abstract

Multilingual children are faced with the task of selectively using the linguistic systems of their languages. Previous research has shown that although bilinguals may make more errors in production and comprehension than their monolingual peers, less cognitively demanding processing experiments may reveal target-like performance. This has been attributed to several factors, among which language transfer and processing limitations. In this study we investigate the processing of additive connectives in both languages of German–Russian bilingual children using the Visual World Paradigm. Previous research has shown that bilingual children make many errors in the production of these connectives in Russian. The results show that the processing behaviour in both languages of the bilingual children does not differ from that of their monolingual peers. This finding is compatible with the view that errors in production and in more demanding comprehension tasks are due to processing limitations.

How Robust Is Discourse Processing for Native Readers? The Role of Connectives and the Coherence Relations They Convey

“…So far, research on the online processing of discourse connectives has done so using connectives that are frequently used in both spoken and written language (e.g., Cain and Nash, 2011 ; Canestrelli et al, 2013 ; Asr and Demberg, 2020 ; Crible and Pickering, 2020 ; Mak et al, 2020 ). Yet, there are reasons to believe that different connectives might elicit different reading patterns.…”

Acquisition of Russian nominal derivation in monolingualism and bilingualism

“…However, this gap is gradually being closed (e.g. Gagarina et al 2017Gagarina et al , 2018Mak et al 2019;Protassova 2007;Stadtmiller et al 2022;Tribushinina et al 2017).…”