The effect of L2 German on grammatical gender access in L1 Polish: proficiency matters

Abstract Previous research has shown that bilinguals process nouns have the same grammatical gender in their two languages faster than differ between L1 and L2. This finding, referred to as congruency effect, so far only been documented Hence, aim of present study was examine whether late unbalanced would also show effects L1. To end, 44 Polish/L2 German were tested a decision task Polish, which included gender-congruent gender-incongruent nouns. The results revealed robust effect L1, limited with very high L2 proficiency. indicates activate information when accessing providing they are highly proficient More broadly, demonstrates foreign language knowledge can affect native performance exclusively contexts. Finally, first attempt access this shows feminine is accessed compared masculine neuter, suggesting ending -a most reliable cue Polish.