Natalie Lewandowski & Antje Schweitzer (University of Stuttgart, Institute for Natural)

Phonetic convergence in an L2 – automaticity and control

We present data from a study on phonetic convergence, the increase in similarity of two dialog partners‘ pronunciations. The nonnative participants (German L1, English L2) have been rated on their phonetic talent, mental flexibility and personality. Acoustic measurements revealed that the talented speakers adapted their pronunciation toward the native partners significantly more than the less talented learners. Higher mental flexibility, as measured by shorter RTs in an attention-redirection task, openness and agreeableness were also positively correlated with more convergence. Comparisons of several within-speaker productions from throughout the dialogs, however, showed that these “self-consistency“ measures were comparable for both talent groups. This might indicate at least an attempt to converge for all subjects, which was not successful for the less talented speakers. We propose a model of phonetic convergence, were automatic and more controllable factors influence the final success of phonetic adaptation, and possibly pronunciation learning in general.

Xavier Aparicio (University of Picardie Jules Verne – CRP-CPO)

Multilingualism and cognitive control: the language switching hypothesis

Most of the studies focusing on the access of multilingual lexicon are in line with the hypothesis of an integrated lexicon, containing all the information on words from different languages, as well as their characteristics. It seems widely accepted that during word recognition, lexical candidates from all the known languages are activated (Aparicio & Lavaur, 2013). A central question of research is to understand how multilinguals manage to control the activation of several languages, and keep the interferences between them very low. Therefore, language control implies to manage the interplay between activation and inhibition of lexical candidates (Abutalebi & Green, 2007). In addition, several studies have brought to light that bilinguals are more efficient in comparison with monolinguals in tasks involving cognitive control (e.g. Heidlmayr et al., 2013; Kroll & Bialystok, 2013).

A possible explanation accounting for better cognitive control in bilinguals in comparison with monolinguals is their ability to switch, with a relative ease, from one language to another (Aparicio & Lavaur, 2013; Green & Abutalebi, 2013). Indeed, switching from one language to another necessitates an inhibition of the irrelevant language, in order to limit interferences, and this increase in language control abilities are somehow shared with domain-general processes (Green & Abutalebi, 2013). In addition, an asymmetry in language switching was largely demonstrated (larger switch cost when switching from L2 to L1 than from L1 to L2), because of the greater automaticity of L1. However, inhibition efficiency could be modulated by proficiency, as well as the age of acquisition of the additional languages. Consequently, the impact of inhibition during language switching remains controversial (Bobb & Wodniecka, 2013) and requires studies taking into account several components of inhibition, as well as different populations of multilinguals. With this aim in view, we developed two sets of studies.

In the first one, we focused on language switching mechanisms in successive French-English-Spanish trilingual participants (native speakers of French, with a late acquisition of English (10 years old) and Spanish (12 years old). In Experiment 1, participants had to perform several lexical decisions (decide if the presented letterstring was a word or not) involving words from one, two or three languages. The results showed that reaction times and error rates increase as a function of the number of languages involved in the experimental list, due to an increase of language switches in different directions. In Experiment 2, we used masked translation priming, with targets in English or Spanish. Targets were primed by a translation or a non-related word in one of the two other languages. Interestingly, switch costs are larger when the target is preceded by an unrelated prime, in comparison with translation priming. Switching also requires more cognitive resources when switching from the two non-native languages. These results showed that language switching relies on inhibition, and is widely influenced by language proficiency.

In a second set of studies, we investigate the role of inhibition in tasks involving language control, cognitive control and motor control. In Experiment 1, we compared performances of bilinguals and simultaneous interpreters, differing in terms of expertise in task switching, but with similar performances in terms of proficiency in L2. They had to perform two tasks (language decision and Stroop), each one involving a component of active inhibition, but language decision also involves overcoming of inhibition, which requires more cognitive resources. Results showed similar performances for both groups in the Stroop task (similar performance in active inhibition), but interpreters performed better in language decision task (overcoming of inhibition). In Experiment 2, bilinguals and monolinguals had to perform a motor task of antisaccades. The hypothesis was that bilinguals, used to switch from one language to another (language control), would be better than monolinguals to exert a motor control in a non-linguistic task. Results revealed better performances for bilinguals in trials involving overcoming of inhibition, corroborating the hypothesis of a link between linguistic and motor components of inhibition.

PPT

Joan C. Mora (Universitat de Barcelona)

Inhibitory control in L2 phonological processing

Recent research shows that after long-term immersion L2 learners with better inhibitory control are more successful at avoiding L2 effects when speaking the L1 [1]. This talk will discuss recent research on the role of inhibitory control in L2 phonological development for instructed L2 learners with limited L2 experience living in an L1 monolingual environment and will explore the contribution of life-long bilingualism to inhibitory control and L3 phonological processing. We assessed inhibitory control through a retrieval-induced inhibition task [2] in monolingual (L1-Spanish and L1-English) and early bilingual (Spanish-Catalan) L2 learners and tested their L2 phonology through a speeded ABX categorization task (perception) and a delayed sentence repetition task (production). These data provide support for the role of inhibitory control in developing more accurate L2 phonological representations in monolingual (but not in bilingual) L2 learners. The findings underscore the interaction between cognitive skills and learning context and are discussed from an individual differences perspective.

 References:

[1] Lev-Ari, S., & Peperkamp, S. (2013). Low inhibitory skill leads to non-native perception and production in bilinguals’ native language. Journal of Phonetics, 41, 320-331.

[2] Veling, H. & van Knippenberg, A. (2004) Remembering can cause inhibition: Retrieval-induced inhibition as cue independent process. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 30, 2, 315-318.

PPT