Related languages, like English and Spanish, often have similar orthographies but use the same letters to represent different sounds. Learning a second language frequently involves learning additional letter-sound mappings that mismatch those in the native language. In the current study, we investigated whether L2 spoken words activate L2 orthography despite conflict with L1 orthography-to-phon...

In the Simple View of Reading proposed by Hoover and Gough (1990), reading comprehension is conceived as the product of word decoding and listening comprehension. It is claimed that listening comprehension or the linguistic processes involved in the comprehension of oral language strongly constrain the process of reading comprehension. In several studies, evidence for this theoretical framework...

Speech of late bilinguals has frequently been described in terms of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) from the native language (L1) to the second language (L2), but CLI from the L2 to the L1 has received relatively little attention. This article addresses L2 attainment and L1 attrition in voicing systems through measures of voice onset time (VOT) in two groups of Dutch-German late bilinguals in ...

Many studies in bilingual visual word recognition have demonstrated that lexical access is not language selective. However, research on bilingual word recognition in the auditory modality has been scarce, and it has yielded mixed results with regard to the degree of this language nonselectivity. In the present study, we investigated whether listening to a second language (L2) is influenced by k...

This paper investigates the claim that the native grammar of the learners is the initial state of second language acquisition, as far as the acquisition of Universal Grammar parameters is concerned. Two opposing views on L1 transfer are discussed: the first hypothesis maintains that learners start out with the L1 parameter value (Schwartz & Sprouse’s 1994, 1996 Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothe...

Research on spoken language bilinguals has shown that there is a significant relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and literacy outcomes. The mechanism of SES as a predictor of literacy success has two competing explanations. One assumes a direct impact of SES on literacy through expanded opportunities to read and better maternal mediation of literacy activities; the other assumes an ...

In this study, we show that second-language (L2) spoken-word recognition is greatly influenced by syllable-structure differences between the native language (L1) and the second language (L2), and that L2 word-recognition accuracy is a reliable predictor of L2 word-production accuracy. Spanish-speaking English learners (experimental group) completed a listening task in which they monitored /(ǝ)s...

Second Language Comprehensibility Revisited: Investigating the Effects of Learner Background Dustin Crowther The current study investigated first language (L1) effects on listener judgment of comprehensibility and accentedness in second language (L2) speech. The participants were 60 university-level adult speakers of English from four L1 backgrounds (Chinese, Romance, Hindi, Farsi), with 15 spe...

This study investigated the effect of treatment in the second language (L2) for a previously proficient French-English bilingual with aphasia, at 5 years post-stroke. Assessment on the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT) enabled objective measurement of language skills in each language, and comparison across languages, before and after treatment in L2 (English). Previous therapy had been provided excl...

Speech production research has demonstrated that the first language (L1) often interferes with production in bilinguals' second language (L2), but it has been suggested that bilinguals who are L2-dominant are the most likely to suppress this L1-interference. While prolonged contextual changes in bilinguals' language use (e.g., stays overseas) are known to result in L1 and L2 phonetic shifts, co...