The effect of study-abroad experience on lexical translation among interpreting students

This study investigates the impact of study-abroad experience (SAE) on lexical translation among 50 Chinese (L1)-English (L2) interpreting students. Participants were divided into two groups based their abroad. Both consisted 25 unbalanced L2 learners who matched in age, working memory, length training, and proficiency. Bidirectional word recognition tasks, from L1 to L1, highlighted several key findings: (1) both significantly more accurate faster than reverse direction; (2) abroad (SA) group was inclined respond quickly at risk making errors, whereas non-study (NSA) tended be cautious, prioritising accuracy over speed; (3) SA balanced consistent performance across translations directions NSA group. These results emphasise potent effect SAE resolving bilinguals’ language competition, especially streamlining switching, a cognitive process critical for students engaging daily with dual languages.