The effect of representational preference on second language lexical access in late bilinguals

TL;DR

This study explores how late bilinguals' preference for certain types of mental representations affects their ability to access vocabulary in their second language.

Contribution

The study introduces representational preference as a novel and effective factor influencing second language lexical access in late bilinguals.

Findings

Representational preference was found to be a more effective variable for classifying subjects than L2 proficiency or cognitive style.

Participants with different representational preferences showed differences in lexical access efficiency during translation tasks.

Imagistic preference was associated with shifts in access pathways for familiar versus unfamiliar words.

Abstract

L2 vocabulary learning of late bilinguals is characterized by the mediation of their L1, which may lead to differences in access efficiency and activation pathway among learners with different representational preferences. In the experiment, we used statistical methods to compare the importance of representational preferences with the well-investigated factors, i.e., L2 proficiency and cognitive style, on late bilinguals’ L2 lexical access. The results showed that representational preference was a more effective variable for subject classification. Furthermore, participants with different representational preferences were compared in response time to word translation judgment tasks. The results showed that participants with different representational preferences showed differences in lexical access efficiency, and those with imagistic preference also implied shifts in the access pathway between unfamiliar and familiar words.

Figures