Language switching in bilingual production: Empirical data and computational modelling

Filippi, Roberto, Karaminis, Themis and Thomas, Michael S. C. (2014) Language switching in bilingual production: Empirical data and computational modelling. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17 (2). pp. 294-315. ISSN 1469-1841

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Abstract

One key issue in bilingualism is how bilinguals control production, particularly to produce words in the less dominant language. Language switching is one method to investigate control processes. Language switching has been much studied in comprehension, e.g., in lexical decision task, but less so in production. Here we first present a study of language switching in Italian–English adult bilinguals in a naming task for visually presented words. We demonstrate an asymmetric pattern of time costs to switch language, where participants incurred a greater time cost to switch into naming in their dominant language (Italian). In addition, costs were greater where the stimuli were interlingual cognates or homographs than words existing in only one language, implicating lexical competition as a source of the cost. To clarify the operation of control processes, we then present two connectionist models of bilingual naming, based on the previous models of Seidenberg and McClelland (1989), Cohen, Dunbar and McClelland (1990), Gilbert and Shallice (2002), and Karaminis and Thomas (2010). Crucially, both models acquired their differential language dominance via an experience-dependent learning process. The models embody different assumptions about the language control processes that produce the switch cost. We consider which processing assumptions are sufficient to explain asymmetric language switch costs and word class effects on language switching in individual word reading, as well as generating novel predictions for future testing.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Keywords:	bilingualism, speech production, switching, computational modelling
Faculty:	ARCHIVED Faculty of Science & Technology (until September 2018)
Depositing User:	Repository Admin
Date Deposited:	10 Mar 2015 10:54
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2022 11:49
URI:	https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/346434

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