This study examined whether training in translation/interpretation leads to a reliance on a ‘vertical’ translation strategy in which the source language text is comprehended before the message is reformulated. Students of translation/interpreting and untrained bilinguals were given an idiom translation judgment task with literal (form and meaning) or figurative equivalents (meaning only). Dependent measures included the time taken to comprehend the first presented sentence and the accuracy and speed of judging if the second presented sentence was a translation of the first sentence. The groups did not differ in their speed of reading the first presented sentence but translation verification times differed by group and translation type: untrained bilinguals were significantly faster at verifying literal than figurative translations while trained bilinguals were equally fast for the two types. The pattern of findings is consistent with the view that training in translation fosters a processing-for-meaning-before reformulating, or vertical, translation strategy.

Whereas most theoretical and computational models assume a continuous flow of activation from concepts to lexical items in spoken word production, one prominent model assumes that the mapping of concepts onto words happens in a discrete fashion (Bloem & La Heij, 2003). Semantic facilitation of context pictures on word translation has been taken to support the discrete-flow model. Here, we report results of computer simulations with the continuous-flow WEAVER++ model (Roelofs, 1992, 2006) demonstrating that the empirical observation taken to be in favor of discrete models is, in fact, only consistent with those models and equally compatible with more continuous models of word production by monolingual and bilingual speakers. Continuous models are specifically and independently supported by other empirical evidence on the effect of context pictures on native word production.

We evaluated the impact of exposure to a second language on infants’ emerging speech production skills. We compared speech produced by three groups of 12-month-old infants while they interacted with interlocutors who spoke to them in Spanish and English: monolingual English-learning infants who had previously received 5 hours of exposure to a second language (Spanish), English- and Spanish-learning simultaneous bilinguals, and monolingual English-learning infants without any exposure to Spanish. Our results showed that the monolingual English-learning infants with short-term exposure to Spanish and the bilingual infants, but not the monolingual English-learning infants without exposure to Spanish, flexibly matched the prosody of their babbling to that of a Spanish- or English-speaking interlocutor. Our findings demonstrate the nature and extent of benefits for language learning from early exposure to two languages. We discuss the implications of these findings for language organization in infants learning two languages.

First-generation refugee children often experience pre- and post-migration adversity and display high levels of mental health/wellbeing difficulties, but to date, research has not examined the impact of such factors on refugee children's L2 acquisition. Accordingly, this study examined the influence of externalizing and internalizing problem behaviours (wellbeing), time in refugee camps and low socioeconomic status (SES) (adversity) on the English-L2 abilities of 117 Syrian refugee children (7–14 years) in their third year of residency in Canada. Wellbeing difficulties and adversity factors accounted for variance on L2 vocabulary, morphosyntax, listening comprehension and narrative production tasks, beyond the variance accounted for by age of L2 acquisition and length of L2 exposure. Specifically, externalizing problem behaviours, time in refugee camp, maternal education and maternal employment predicted variance in L2 abilities. It is concluded that refugee children could have influences on their L2 acquisition that are different from those of bilinguals with other backgrounds.

One of the best-known claims from language acquisition research is that the capacity to learn languages is constrained by maturational changes, with particular time windows (aka ‘critical’ or ‘sensitive’ periods) better suited for language learning than others. Evidence for the critical period hypothesis (CPH) comes from a number of sources demonstrating that age is a crucial predictor for language attainment and that the capacity to learn language diminishes with age. To take just one example, a recent study by Hartshorne, Tenenbaum and Pinker (2018) identified a ‘sharply-defined critical period’ for grammar learning, and a steady decline thereafter, based on a very large dataset (of 2/3 million English Speakers) that allowed them to disentangle critical-period effects from non-age factors (e.g., amount of experience) affecting grammatical performance. Other evidence for the CPH comes from research with individuals who were deprived of linguistic input during the critical period (Curtiss, 1977) and were consequently unable to acquire language properly. Moreover, neurobiological research has shown that critical periods affect the neurological substrate for language processing, specifically for grammar (Wartenburger, Heekeren, Abutalebi, Cappa, Villringer & Perani, 2003).

In applied linguistics generally and bilingualism research in particular, psychological variables remain a much under-investigated sub-category of individual differences compared with cognitive ones. To better understand the under-researched psychological effects of bilingualism, this study investigated well-being, a psychological construct, based on a big-data survey. Drawing upon a national survey (N = 12,582), we examined the influence of bilingualism (operationalised as foreign language (FL) proficiency) and 13 sociobiographical variables (e.g., socio-economic status, SES) on well-being. Among these 14 initial independent variables, perceived social fairness, SES, and health emerged as important predictors for well-being, with FL proficiency and national language (NL) proficiency as potentially important predictors; crucially, FL proficiency was more important than NL proficiency. As the first systematic attempt to link bilingualism with well-being, our study advocates (1) a more holistic perspective towards language (including NL and FL(s)) in any bilingual context and (2) fuller use of effect sizes.

The goal of the present study was to identify the cognitive processes that underlie lexical ambiguity resolution in a second language (L2). We examined which cognitive factors predict the efficiency in accessing subordinate meanings of L2 homonyms in a sample of highly-proficient, Spanish–English bilinguals. The predictive ability of individual differences in (1) homonym processing in the L1, (2) working memory capacity and (3) sensitivity to cross-language form overlap were examined. In two experiments, participants were presented with cognate and noncognate homonyms as either a prime in a lexical decision task (Experiment 1) or embedded in a sentence (Experiment 2). In both experiments speed and accuracy in accessing subordinate meanings in the L1 was the strongest predictor of speed and accuracy in accessing subordinate meanings in the L2. Sensitivity to cross-language form overlap predicted performance in lexical decision while working memory capacity predicted processing in sentence comprehension.

In the present study, the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) was tested on its applicability in child L2 lexical tone acquisition. The possible effect of L1 (Cantonese) lexical tones on L2 (Mandarin) lexical tone learning was explored. Accuracy rate and error patterns were examined with an AX discrimination task and a forced-choice identification task. Forty-nine native Cantonese-speaking students aged 8 years participated in the study. Results revealed that these children exhibited nearly perfect performance in the discrimination of Mandarin tones. However, significant tone differences were detected in the identification task. Tone 4 (T4) was identified with the lowest accuracy, and T1 with the highest. Error analysis revealed that Mandarin T2-T3 was the most confusing pair, followed by the T1-T4 pair. The inherent phonetic similarity between lexical tones in a language and the tone similarities across languages may also have contributed to perception difficulties, which could help to refine and supplement the PAM in the tonal/suprasegmental domain.

A cross-linguistic structural priming experiment explores the issue of whether parallel syntactic constructions of the two languages in bilinguals share a representation when the surface word orders of the constructions differ. The target population was early balanced bilinguals of Korean and English; the tested constructions were structures relevant to the subject-to-object raising (STOR) operation, which until this study have not been used for structural priming research in cross-linguistic contexts (e.g., STOR: Mary believes Jerry to be trustworthy; non-STOR: Mary believes that Jerry is trustworthy). These syntactic structures exist in both English and Korean, but with different surface word orders. The results show that cross-linguistic priming of the STOR construction occurred, suggesting that parallel syntactic constructions of the languages in bilinguals can share a representation independent of surface word order.

The present study investigated the foreign language effect within an altruistic decision making process. Chinese–English bilinguals made altruistic decisions in their native (L1: Chinese) and second language (L2: English). The decisions were framed in two ways: either as “not to harm” (harm frame) or as “to help” the other person (help frame) at one's economic cost. Behavioral results suggest that bilinguals might behave more altruistically in the harm frame than the help frame (i.e., framing effect) in their native language but not in their foreign language. Electrophysiological results show that the modulation of the framing effect in the native versus foreign language originated in the early ERP components (N1 and N2) and did not present in the late positive potential (LPP). These findings suggest the foreign language effect most likely results from the reduced emotional reaction in a foreign compared to the native language.

Language control in bilinguals is often investigated with the language switching paradigm. Switch costs reflect the ease/difficulty of applying this control mechanism. The type of stimuli employed in the experiments may influence switch costs. To date, only one study has compared digit vs picture processing, reporting reduced switch costs for digits (Declerck, Koch & Philipp, 2012). This result was adjudicated to phonological overlap between the languages used. Crucially, it remains an open question whether this digit effect generalises to language combinations without phonological relation. We fill this gap by investigating language switching with two language pairs differing in relative proficiency (L1 Chinese–L2 English, L1 Chinese–L3 French), where cross-language phonological activation is not expected. Overall, a digit effect is observed in the Chinese–English pair. Contrary to Declerck et al.'s (2012) finding, digits increased switch costs. Phonological mediation cannot explain this effect; instead, we suggest its origin lies in within-language word association links.

Like the BIA model (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 1998; van Heuven, Dijkstra & Grainger, 1998) and the BIA+ model (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002), the Multilink model is a symbolic, localist-connectionist, interactive model for lexical processing in the visual domain. In our view, the symbolic nature of Multilink makes it attractive and easily interpretable, even in relation to brain activity (Page, 2000, p. 501; 2017). Symbolic localist-connectionist models have a long tradition and have been applied to many different areas of cognitive research (e.g., Grainger & Jacobs, 1998). As a consequence, a lot is known about their properties and limitations (e.g., Bowers, 2009). These models can also easily be organized hierarchically in a cognitive functional way, and they have a reasonable degree of flexibility while still being falsifiable. Thus, despite the availability of other sophisticated frameworks for modeling language processes, a lot can still be gained from localist models.

New theories are a constant of the now vast literature on code-mixing (CM). The Gradient Symbolic Computation model proposed by Goldrick, Putnam and Schwartz (Goldrick, Putnam & Schwartz) will appeal to many, especially those who already espouse constraint-based approaches to grammar. As variationist sociolinguists, we particularly welcome the model's incorporation of “relative probabilities of certain structures”, a feature we believe can enhance our chances of capturing actual CM behavior. We also applaud Goldrick et al.’s efforts to integrate experimental findings on co-activation with grammatical principles. Our questions concern the utility of “doubling constructions” to showcase the model, and by extension, the degree to which it can account for bilinguals’ spontaneous production of CM. A historical perspective on the field shows that none of the myriad theories of CM, often inspired by competing sets of grammatical principles, has yet achieved broad acceptance. In the absence of any widely endorsed evaluation metric – still sadly lacking -– how are we to decide amongst them?

Interest in third language (L3) acquisition has increased exponentially in recent years, due to its potential to inform long-lasting debates in theoretical linguistics, language acquisition and psycholinguistics. From the very beginning, researchers investigating child and adult L3 acquisition have considered the many diverse cognitive factors that constrain and condition the initial state and development of newly acquired languages, and their models have duly evolved to incorporate insights from the most recent findings in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics and cognitive psychology. The articles in this Special Issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, in dealing with issues such as age of acquisition, attrition, relearning, cognitive economy or the reliance on different memory systems – to name but a few – provide an accurate portrayal of current inquiry in the field, and are a particularly fine example of how instrumental research in language acquisition and other cognitive domains can be to each other.

Juggling with structurally and semantically different language systems leads to constructions that differ from the typical patterns in a language. Typical patterns in the domain of motion are characterized by more verbs encoding path in French; and more verbs encoding the manner of motion in German. An increase of manner verbs in French, for instance, can be ascribed to an influence from German. The extent of typical or reversed patterns depends on interrelated factors such as speaker-related idiosyncrasies, language dominance configurations, and – arguably – the degree of language activation. Drawing on data from 154 French–German bilinguals who described motion events in different language modes, this paper combines interrelated questions on the role of language dominance, language mode manipulation and how these factors interact. Quantitative analyses on the use of motion verbs do not show the expected effects. The null results are discussed by comparing preceding studies showing contradictory findings.

This paper introduces the generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) and the quantile generalized additive mixed model (QGAMM) through reanalyses of bilinguals’ lexical decision data from Dijkstra et al. (2010) and Miwa et al. (2014). We illustrate how regression splines can be used to test for nonlinear effects of cross-language similarity in form as well as for controlling experimental trial effects. We further illustrate the tensor product smooth for a nonlinear interaction between cross-language semantic similarity and word frequency. Finally, we show how the QGAMM helps clarify whether the effect of a particular predictor is constant across distributions of RTs.

This study investigated the structure of the bimodal bilingual lexicon. In the cross-modal priming task nonnative sign language learners heard an English word (e.g., keys) and responded to the lexicality of a signed target: an underlying rhyme (e.g., cheese) or a sign neighbor of that word (e.g., paper). The results indicated that rhyme words were retrieved more quickly and the L2 neighbors were faster for beginner learners. An item analysis also indicated that semantics did not facilitate neighbor retrieval and high frequency signs were retrieved more quickly. The AX discrimination task showed that learners focus on handshape and movement parameters and discriminate equally. The interlanguage dynamics play an important role in which phonological parameters are used and the spread of activation over time. A nonselective, integrated model of the bimodal bilingual lexicon is proposed such that lateral connections are weakened over time and handshape parameter feeds most of the activation to neighboring signs as a function of system dynamics.

Previous research examining whether bilinguals exhibit enhanced working memory (WM) compared to monolinguals has yielded mixed results. This inconsistency may be due to lack of sensitivity in behavioral and neuropsychological measures. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of bilingualism on WM by focusing on brain activity patterns (event-related potentials) in monolinguals and bilinguals during a WM task. We recorded brain activity while participants (26 monolingual English speakers and 28 English–French bilinguals) performed a delayed matching-to-sample task. Although performance measures were similar, electrophysiological differences were present across groups. Bilinguals exhibited larger P3b amplitudes than monolinguals, and smaller negative slow wave and N2b amplitudes during retrieval. These results suggest that bilinguals may have more cognitive resources available in WM to allocate to task completion, and that task completion may be less effortful for bilinguals than for monolinguals.