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When bilinguals switch between their two languages, they often alternate between words whose formation rules in one language are different from the other (e.g., a noun-verb compound in one language may be a verb-noun compound in another language). In this study, we analyze behavioral performance and electrophysiological activity to examine the effects of morphological configuration on language control during production and comprehension. Chinese–English bilinguals completed a joint naming-listening task involving cued language switching. The findings showed differential effects of morphological configuration on language production and comprehension. In production, morphological configuration was processed sequentially, suggesting that bilingual production may be a combination of sequential processing and inhibition of morphological levels and language interference. In comprehension, however, bottom-up control processes appear to mask the influence of sequential processing on language switching. Together, these findings underscore differential functionalities of language control in speaking and listening.

Aims: Cross-language interference studies of language control mainly focus on the lexical level, whereas language control may occur at the smallest unit phonemic level of language. In the present study, we examined the role of language control during cross-language phoneme processing. Design: Participants used one language to name pinyin or alphabet in the single-language blocks, and they used two languages for naming in the mixed-language blocks. Data and analysis: Using a linear mixed-effects model, we built models for mixing costs and switching costs based on reaction times (RTs) and accuracy. Findings: Switching between Chinese (L1) and English (L2) phonetic symbols revealed both mixing and switching costs. Originality: The findings suggest that switching of cross-language phonemes requires not only global control of the non-target phonemes, but also local control of the non-target phonemes. Significance: Just as cross-language interference control occurs at the lexical level, this study demonstrates that control also occurs at the phonemic level.

Objectives: Research on second language (L2) sentence comprehension often has examined reliance on semantic and syntactic information but has left aside for the most part the role of prosodic cues. In the present study, we compare less- and more-proficient L2 learners’ integration of prosody and syntax structure during auditory L2 sentence comprehension. Design: Two group Chinese learners of L2 English learners (A2 and C1 levels) participated in an auditory comprehension task, which included sentences that had artificial pauses inserted either between or within syntactic boundaries. After hearing each sentence, learners were asked to judge the translation as ‘identical’ or ‘not identical’ on the keyboard. Data Analysis: We conducted t-tests and an analysis of variance to examine prosodic effects among the two learner groups. Findings: The results showed that both A2 and C1 learners were sensitive to pauses. However, the direction and magnitude of this sensitivity was significantly different for the two groups. A2 learners were faster to respond to auditory sentences in which a brief pause was placed within syntactic phrases. Contrarily, C1 learners responded faster when the brief pause was placed between syntactic phrases. Originality: Unique to the present study is the inclusion of the pause-insertion paradigm to examine the role of prosody in L2 auditory sentence processing. Implications: The results imply that the two groups of learners do not rely on prosodic and syntactic cues in the same manner when processing L2 sentences. We argue that the processing mechanisms involved in L2 sentence comprehension evolve hand-in-hand with L2 proficiency development. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research.

Research has shown that several variables affect language control among bilingual speakers but the effect of affective processing remains unexplored. Chinese-English bilinguals participated in a novel prime-target language switching experiment in which they first judged the affective valence (i.e., positive or negative) of auditorily presented words and then named pictures with neutral emotional valence in either the same (non-switch trial) or different language (switch trial). Brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The behavioral performance showed that the typical switch cost (i.e., the calculated difference between switch and non-switch trials) emerged after processing positive words but not after negative words. Brain imaging demonstrated that processing negative words immediately before non-switch picturing naming trials (but not for switch trials) increased activation in brain areas associated with domain-general cognitive control. The opposite patterns were found after processing positive words. These findings suggest that an (emotional) negative priming effect is induced by spontaneous exposure to negative words and that these priming effects may be triggered by reactive emotional processing and that they may interact with higher level cognitive functions.

In this paper, we examine the effects of learning environment on second language (L2) gender agreement. English speakers learning L2 Spanish participated in a self-paced reading task and a picture selection task prior to and after a short-term study abroad experience. The results from the self-paced reading task showed that their reliance on the masculine article as the default (e.g., McCarthy, Corrine. 2008. Morphological variability in the comprehension of agreement: An argument for representation over computation. Second Language Research 24(4). 459–486) was reduced over time abroad. Findings from the picture selection task showed that the learners did not attend to the gender of articles unless it was their only cue, but that after the study abroad experience they began to use gender as an anticipatory cue for lexical selection. We interpret these results as support for an adapted version of the Shallow Structures Hypothesis (Clahsen, Harald & Claudia Felser. 2006a. Grammatical processing in language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics 27(1). 3–42; Clahsen, Harald & Claudia Felser. 2006b. How native-like is non-native language processing? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10(12). 564–570) and the notion that in immersion contexts L2 learners shift their parsing strategy to be more communicatively focused (Schwieter, John W. & Gabrielle Klassen. 2016. Linguistic advances and learning strategies in a short-term study abroad experience. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education 1(2). 217–247).

Self-positivity bias is a common psychological phenomenon in which individuals often associate positive information with themselves. However, little is known about how self-positivity bias is modulated by different language contexts (e.g., a first vs. second language). To this end, we analyzed behavioral and electrophysiological data to examine whether first or second languages play differential roles in the self-positivity bias effect. We used a modified self-positivity bias task which required Chinese-English bilinguals to judge strings of letters or characters as realwords or not and match associations between identity (self, other) and a geometric shape (circle, triangle). The target words in the experiment consisted of positive, negative, and neutral emotional words. The results showed that in the L2 context, the self-positivity condition elicited a smaller N400 effect relative to the self-negativity condition and a larger late positive component effect relative to the self-negativity and self-neutrality conditions. Furthermore, the other-positivity condition elicited a stronger N400 effect than the other-neutrality condition. These patterns did not emerge in the L1 context. We discuss the implications and contributions of these findings to better understand the interaction between emotion and self-concept in different language contexts.

Human communication not only involves the need to switch between the modalities of speaking and listening, but for bilinguals, it can also involve switching between languages. It is unknown as to whether modality and language switching share underlying control mechanisms or whether one type of switching affects control processes involved in the other. The present study uses behavioral and fMRI measures to examine neural circuits of control during communicative situations that required Chinese-English bilinguals to switch between modalities and their two languages according to associated color cues. The results showed that for both language and modality control, similar brain regions were recruited during speech production and comprehension. For modality control, the specific control processes partly depended on the corresponding modality. Finally, switching between modalities appears to exert more influence on language control in production compared to comprehension. These findings offer a first detailed characterization of the neural bases involved in control mechanisms in bilingual communication.

A growing body of research suggests that the language in which bilinguals make decisions affects the rationality of such decisions. Furthermore, bilinguals constantly confront cross-language interference that requires complex language control processes to resolve this competition. However, the relationship between language control and decision-making is unclear. In the current study, we analyze electrophysiological and behavior data elicited from two groups of Chinese-English bilinguals. One group was trained in intensive language switching and then completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the other group completed the two tasks in the reverse order. We found that bilinguals who first received language switching training significantly scored higher on the IGT, with the score positively correlating with L1 and L2 switch costs. More importantly, training with language switching first led to an N2 component for L1 switching costs that negatively correlated with both loss feedback-related negativity and the P3 component. These effects did not emerge among the group of bilinguals who performed the IGT first. Taken together, the findings suggest that bilinguals are assisted in making rational decisions by language control on feedback evaluation.

Given these obvious gaps in the research literature, we thus set out to compile this comprehensive handbook, with the goal in mind to fill up all these lacunae from previous research. Furthermore, we also aim for theoretical ingenuity and empirical robustness in our individual chapter reviews and devote independent sections to key areas of foundational theories, including working memory models and measures in cognitive psychology, as well as incorporating working memory within well-established linguistic theories and processing frameworks. As far as we know, much of these have not been done before. As such, we are hoping that the comprehensive coverage of key topics in all these essential areas in our handbook will benefit researchers and students not just from psychology and linguistics, but also readers from all other related fields of cognitive sciences to draw insights and inspirations from the chapters herein.

For second language learners, an international experience can have positive effects on language learning and intercultural development even when participating in a program of relatively sho...

For bilinguals, speaking and listening are assisted by complex control processes including conflict monitoring and inhibition. However, the extent to which these processes adapt to linguistic and situational needs has been examined separately for language production and comprehension. In the present study, we use a dual-EEG to record the carry-over effects of language control on general cognitive control in three language contexts (single-first language [L1], single-second language [L2], and mixed). Chinese learners of English were placed in dyads in which one participant was asked to name pictures while the other listened. Interleaved after each naming/listening trial were flanker trials. The results from picture naming and listening revealed higher delta and theta synchronization in the single-L2 and mixed contexts compared with the single-L1 context and higher theta synchronization in the mixed context compared with the single-L2 and single-L1 contexts. The results from the interleaved flanker trials demonstrated that inhibition was adaptively generalized in the single-L2 and mixed contexts. Altogether, the findings support the natural adaptation of language control to cognitive control and underscore the importance of linguistic context. We argue that these adaptive patterns have the potential to affect corresponding control processes across language and cognitive control tasks.

Previous research has explored the relationship between language control and executive control based on performance in bilinguals' skilled languages. However, this relationship between bilingualism and executive control has not been examined at the very initial stage of language learning. In the present study, we trained Chinese speakers to learn words in German and Japanese, two languages with which they had no prior experience. In pre- and post-training, we measured participants' electrophysiological data to investigate how switching between these two newly learned languages affected executive control. We observed that, while lacking the language switching effect in the behavioral data, a flanker task elicited larger N2 and P3 amplitudes in the post-training session when participants were required to switch between German and Japanese compared to when they responded to only German or Japanese. These results provided evidence of language control of newly learned languages on domain-general executive control, specifically at the (very) initial period of language learning. Our findings support the adaptive nature of the relationship between bilingual language control and executive control.

The extent to which bilingual language control (BLC) is related to domain-general executive control (EC) remains unclear. The present study applied activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses to identify commonalities and distinctions in the brain regions across domains reported in neuroimaging studies. We specifically compare results from two experimental tasks: language switching, a typical measure of BLC, and task switching, an experiment that measures EC. Conjunction analyses showed a domain-general pattern between language switching and task switching, with convergent activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), pre-SMA/dACC complex (pre-supplementary motor area/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex), and left precuneus. Regarding domain-specificity, contrast analyses revealed stronger convergence of activation in the left fusiform gyrus and occipital gyrus in language switching compared to task switching, and conversely, stronger convergence of activation in the left DLPFC in task switching. Overall, these findings illustrate the partially overlapping nature of the neural circuits involved in BLC and EC.

Recently in translation studies, important advances have been made with respect to directionality (i.e., whether translation is done into one's native or non-native language). What was once considered the "elephant in the room," directionality now has a growing number of empirical studies that analyze factors which contribute differentially to translation. In this chapter, we review variables that have been previously identified as related to a higher or a lower degree of cognitive activity in direct and inverse translation (DT and IT, respectively). Against this backdrop, we present a study conducted among professional translators of English and Spanish who completed two translation tasks: one in which they translated a text from English into Spanish and another in which they translated another text from Spanish into English. We use behavioral and eye-tracking measures to analyze time, mouse events, keypresses, saccade index, and gaze index data. We also explore the effects of age and sex/gender. The results suggest that in terms of length, although translators spent longer in IT compared to DT, this difference was not statistically significant. However, there was a correlation between translation direction and fixation index such that participants showed a higher gaze event duration in IT. Age was correlated to fixation index (lower fixation index among older translators) and sex/gender was also related to fixation index (females presented lower values in IT in comparison to DT). Results also suggested a higher gaze point index in IT and a higher keypress index for English-dominant translators, and a higher gaze point index in DT for Spanish-dominant translators. Overall, our study suggests that although some of the variability in the results is likely due to individual differences, the observed patterns help us better understand differences between DT and IT.

This article discusses research in the field of bilingualism that has the potential to inform the related, albeit disconnected, field of Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies (CTIS). It reviews issues such as lexical access and the multilingual mental lexicon, inhibitory control and the “bilingual advantage debate”. This debate refers to the question whether bilingualism leads to cognitive advantages that monolinguals do not develop. Although these claims have not been fully tested in translators and interpreters – both novice and advanced professionals – it is plausible that if there are indeed cognitive advantages that arise from managing “two languages in one mind”, such benefits may correlate with neural and cognitive changes due to the training, accumulated experience and expertise of translators and interpreters. These topics merit inclusion in the expanding set of prominent research themes in CTIS. Future research in CTIS can use findings from bilingualism and the bilingual advantage debate to account for the peculiarities of translational cognition.

Key Questions in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction by B. VanPatten, M. Smith and A. Benati (2020) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xvi + 212pp.

This chapter presents developments in the field that have enriched our understanding of language learning in education abroad contexts. It discusses centres on individual and external or environmental factors that have been found to influence the language development of student education abroad participants. The chapter concludes by identifying gaps in language learning research in education abroad and offers suggestions for future studies. Education abroad researchers have identified a myriad of individual elements or characteristics that can lead to profound differences in the language and intercultural learning of participants. Education abroad scholars have also discovered that external or environmental elements can bring about variations in the language learning trajectories of education abroad participants and, ultimately, result in different outcomes. Many institutions of higher education are still sending students abroad with limited preparation and scant awareness of language and culture-learning strategies that could enhance education abroad learning.