Trilinguals’ language switching: A strategic and flexible account

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine how trilinguals select the language they intend to use in a language switching context. Two accounts are examined: (a) a language-specific account, according to which language selection considers the activation level of words of the intended language only (i.e., language co-activation without language competition), and (b) a language non-specific account, where activated words from both the intended and non-intended languages compete for selection (i.e., language co-activation with language competition). Results showed that, in both groups, all three languages competed for selection and that selection was achieved by inhibiting the currently non-relevant languages. Moreover, extending findings from previous research, the study reveals that, in both Experiments 1 and 2, the amount of inhibition was influenced not only by language proficiency but also by the typological similarity between languages. Overall, the study shows that language switching performance can be accounted for by a strategic and flexible inhibitory account. In particular, the controlling system is “strategic” in the sense that it aims at preventing potential conflicting situations, such as typological closeness between languages, and it is “flexible” in that it adjusts languages’ activation levels, depending on the conflict to be solved.

Keywords

Language switching language selection trilingualism inhibition language typology

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abutalebi

Della Rosa

P. A.

Castro Gonzaga

A. K.

Keim

Costa

Perani

(2013). The role of the left putamen in multilingual language production. Brain and Language, 125, 307-315.

Agresti

(2002). Categorical data analysis (2nd ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Baayen

R. H.

Milin

(2010). Analyzing reaction times. International Journal of Psychological Research, 3, 12-28.

Bates

D’Amico

Jacobsen

Szekely

Andonova

Devescovi … Tzeng

(2003). Timed picture naming in seven languages. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 10, 344-380.

Bobb

S. C.

Wodniecka

(2013). Language switching in picture naming: What asymmetric switch costs (do not) tell us about inhibition in bilingual speech planning. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 568-585.

Branzi

F. M.

Della Rosa

P. A.

Canini

Costa

Abutalebi

(2016). Language control in bilinguals: Monitoring and response selection. Cerebral Cortex, 26, 2367-2680. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhv052

Branzi

F. M.

Martin

C. D.

Abutalebi

Costa

(2014). The after-effects of bilingual language production. Neuropsychologia, 52, 102-116.

Braver

T. S.

(2012). The variable nature of cognitive control: A dual mechanisms framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 106-113.

Braver

T. S.

Reynolds

J. R.

Donaldson

D. I.

(2003). Neural mechanisms of transient and sustained cognitive control during task-switching. Neuron, 39, 713-726.

10.

Cenoz

(2001). The effect of linguistic distance, L2 status and age on cross-linguistic influence in L3 acquisition. In Cenoz

Hufeisen

Jessner

(Eds.), Cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition (pp. 8-20). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

11.

Cenoz

(2003). Cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition: Implications for the organization of the multilingual mental lexicon. Bulletin VALS-ASLA (Vereinigung fürangewandte Linguistik in der Schweiz), 78, 1-11.

12.

Christoffels

I. K.

Firk

Schiller

N. O.

(2007). Bilingual language control: An event-related brain potential study. Brain Research, 1147, 192-208.

13.

Colomé

(2001). Lexical activation in bilinguals’ speech production: Language-specific or language-independent? Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 721-736.

14.

Costa

Caramazza

(1999). Is lexical selection in bilingual speech production language-specific? Further evidence from Spanish–English and English–Spanish bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2, 231-244.

15.

Costa

Miozzo

Caramazza

(1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilingual’s two lexicons compete for selection? Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 365-397.

16.

Costa

Santesteban

(2004). Lexical access in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 50, 491-511.

17.

Costa

Santesteban

Ivanova

(2006). How do highly proficient bilinguals control their lexicalization process? Inhibitory and language-specific selection mechanisms are both functional. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 1057-1074.

18.

de Bot

(1992). A bilingual production model: Levelt’s speaking model adapted. Applied Linguistics, 13, 1-24.

19.

de Bot

(2004). The multilingual lexicon: Modeling selection and control. The International Journal of Multilingualism, 1, 17-32.

20.

de Bruin

Roelofs

Dijkstra

Fitzpatrick

(2014). Domain-general inhibition areas of the brain are involved in language switching: fMRI evidence from trilingual speakers. NeuroImage, 90, 348-359.

21.

Declerck

Philipp

A. M.

(2015). The unusual suspect: Influence of phonological overlap on language control. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18, 726-736.

22.

Declerck

Philipp

A. M.

(2017). Is there lemma-based language control? The influence of language practice and language-specific item practice on asymmetrical switch costs. Language Cognition and Neuroscience, 32, 488-493.

23.

Declerck

Thoma

A. M.

Koch

Philipp

A. M.

(2015). Highly proficient bilinguals implement inhibition: Evidence from n-2 language repetition costs when switching between three languages. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 41, 1911-1916.

24.

de Groot

A. M. B.

(1998). Retroactive or proactive control of the bilingual system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 86-87.

25.

Dijkstra

van Hell

J. G.

(2003). Testing the language mode hypothesis using trilinguals. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 6, 2-16.

26.

Festman

(2008). Cross-language interference during trilingual picture naming in single and mixed language conditions. In Gibson

Hufeisen

Personne

(Eds.), Mehrsprachigkeit: lernen und lehren, Multilingualism: Learning and Instruction, Le Plurilinguisme: apprendre et enseigner, O Plurilinguismo: aprender e ensinar (Selected papers from the L3-Conference in Freiburg, Switzerland, 2005, pp. 109-119). Baltmannsweiler, Germany: Schneider Hohengehren.

27.

Festman

Mosca

(2016). Influence of preparation time on language control: A trilingual digit-naming study. In Schwieter

J. W.

(Ed.), Cognitive control and consequences of multilingualism (pp. 147-172). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.

28.

Festman

Schwieter

J. W.

(2015). Behavioural measures of language control: Production and comprehension. In Schwieter

J. W.

(Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingual language processing (pp. 527-547). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

29.

Fink

Goldrick

(2015). Pervasive benefits of preparation in language switching. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 3, 808-841.

30.

Finkbeiner

Gollan

T. H.

Caramazza

(2006). Lexical access in bilingual speakers: What’s the (hard) problem? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9, 153-166.

31.

Forster

K. I.

Forster

J. C.

(2003). DMDX: A windows display program with millisecond accuracy. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 35, 116-124.

32.

Gollan

Goldrick

(2018). A Switch is Not a Switch: Syntactically-Driven Bilingual Language Control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44, 143-156.

33.

Gollan

T. H.

Montoya

R. I.

Werner

G. A.

(2002). Semantic and letter fluency in Spanish–English bilinguals. Neuropsychology, 16, 562-576.

34.

Gollan

T. H.

Schotter

E. R.

Gomez

Murillo

Rayner

(2014). Multiple levels of bilingual language control: Evidence from language intrusions in reading aloud. Psychological Science, 25, 585-595.

35.

Green

D. W.

(1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 67-81.

36.

Green

D. W.

Abutalebi

(2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 515-530.

37.

Grosjean

(1998). Transfer and language mode. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 175-176.

38.

Grosjean

(2001). The bilingual’s language modes. In Nicol

J. L.

(Ed.), One mind, two languages: Bilingual language processing (pp. 1-22). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

39.

Guo

Liu

Chen

(2013). Inhibition of non-target languages in multilingual word production: Evidence from Uighur-Chinese-English trilinguals. Acta Psychologica, 143, 277-283.

40.

Hammarberg

(2001). Roles of L1 and L2 in L3 production and acquisition. In Cenoz

Hufeisen

Jessner

(Eds.), Cross-linguistic Influence in third language acquisition (pp. 21-41). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

41.

Hernandez

A. E.

Dapretto

Mazziotta

Bookheimer

(2001). Language switching and language representation in Spanish–English bilinguals: An fMRI study. NeuroImage, 14, 510-520.

42.

Howard

Nickels

Coltheart

Cole-Virtue

(2006). Cumulative semantic inhibition in picture naming: Experimental and computational studies. Cognition, 100, 464-482.

43.

Jaeger

T. F.

(2008). Categorical data analysis: Away from ANOVAs (transformation or not) and towards logit mixed models. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 434-446.

44.

Kellerman

(1983). Now you see it, now you don’t. In Gass

Selinker

(Eds.), Language transfer in language learning (pp. 112-134). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

45.

Koch

Gade

Schuch

Philipp

A. M.

(2010). The role of inhibition in task switching: A review. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 17, 1-14.

46.

Kroll

J. F.

Bobb

S. C.

Misra

M. M.

Guo

(2008). Language selection in bilingual speech: Evidence for inhibitory processes. Acta Psychologica, 128, 416-430.

47.

La Heij

(2005). Selection processes in monolingual and bilingual lexical access. In Kroll

J. F.

de Groot

A. M. B.

(Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 289-307). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

48.

Linck

J. A.

Schwieter

J. W.

Sunderman

(2012). Inhibitory control predicts language switching performance in trilingual speech production. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 651-662.

49.

Los

S. A.

(1996). On the origin of mixing costs: Exploring information processing in pure and mixed blocks of trials. Acta Psychologica, 94, 145-188.

50.

Luce

(1986). Response times. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

51.

Guo

(2016). Reactive and proactive control in bilingual word production: An investigation of influential factors. Journal of Memory and Language, 8 6, 35-59.

52.

Mayr

Keele

S. W.

(2000). Changing internal constraints on action: The role of backward inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 4-26.

53.

Meuter

Allport

(1999). Bilingual language switching in naming: Asymmetrical costs of language selection. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 25-40.

54.

Mosca

Clahsen

(2016). Examining language switching in bilinguals: The role of preparation time. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19, 415-424.

55.

Mosca

de Bot

(2017). Bilingual language switching: Production vs. Recognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 934.

56.

Olson

D. J.

(2013). Bilingual language switching and selection at the phonetic level: Asymmetrical transfer in VOT production. Journal of Phonetics, 41, 407-420.

57.

Philipp

A. M.

Gade

Koch

(2007). Inhibitory processes in language switching? Evidence from switching language-defined response sets. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19, 395-416.

58.

Philipp

A. M.

Koch

(2009). Inhibition in language switching: What is inhibited when switching among languages in naming tasks? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 1187-1195.

59.

Poulisse

Bongaerts

(1994). First language use in second language production. Applied Linguistics, 15, 36-57.

60.

Prior

Gollan

(2011). Good language-switchers are good task-switchers: Evidence from Spanish–English and Mandarin–English bilinguals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17, 682-691.

61.

Protopapas

(2007). CheckVocal: A program to facilitate checking the accuracy and response time of vocal responses from DMDX. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 859-862.

62.

Ringbom

(1987). The role of the first language in foreign language learning. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

63.

Rogers

R. D.

Monsell

(1995). Costs of a predictable switch between simple cognitive tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, 207-231.

64.

Rossion

Pourtois

(2004). Revisiting Snodgrass and Vanderwart’s object set: The role of surface detail in basic-level object recognition. Perception, 33, 217-236.

65.

Rothman

(2015). Linguistic and cognitive motivations for the Typological Primacy Model (TPM) of third language (L3) transfer: Timing of acquisition and proficiency considered. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18, 179-190.

66.

Schepens

Dijkstra

Grootjen

van Heuven

W. J. B.

(2013). Cross-language distributions of high frequency and phonetically similar cognates. PLoS ONE, 8(5), e63006.

67.

Schwieter

J. W.

(2013). Lexical inhibition in trilingual speakers. In Tirkkonen

Anttikoski

(Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Conference of Scandinavian Linguistics (Reports and Studies in Education, Humanities, and Theology, pp. 249-260). Joensuu: University of Eastern Finland Press.

68.

Schwieter

J. W.

Sunderman

G. L.

(2008). Language switching in bilingual speech production: In search of the language-specific selection mechanism. The Mental Lexicon, 3, 214-238.

69.

Schwieter

J. W.

Sunderman

G. L.

(2011). Inhibitory control processes and lexical access in trilingual speech production. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 4, 391-412.

70.

Singleton

(1987). Mother and other tongue influence on learner French. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 9, 327-346.

71.

Venables

W. N.

Ripley

B. D.

(2002). Modern applied statistics with S. New York, NY: Springer. Retrieved from http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/MASS4

72.

Verhoef

K. M. W.

Roelofs

Chwilla

D. J.

(2009). Electrophysiological evidence for endogenous control of attention in switching between languages in overt picture naming. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 1832-1843.

73.

Wang

Xue

Chen

Xue

Dong

(2007). Neural bases of asymmetric language switching in second-language learners: An ER-fMRI study. NeuroImage, 35, 862-870.

74.

Williams

Hammarberg

(1998). Language switches in L3 production: Implications for a polyglot speaking model. Applied Linguistics, 19, 295-333.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.06 MB