hide
Free keywords:
-
Abstract:
The current study investigated the availability of first language (L1) semantic features in second language (L2) speech processing. We recorded EEG from 30 Dutch-English bilinguals who listened to spoken sentences in their L2 (English). Experiment 1 used sentences in which the critical word was a: (a) semantially congruent L2 word, (b) semantically incongruent L2 word, (c) congruent L1 word, or (d) an incongruent L1 word . In Experiment 2 the critical word in the sentence was an L1-L2 interlingual homophone. In separate conditions: (a) the L2 meaning, (b) the L1 meaning, or (c) neither meaning was congruent with the sentence context. Whenever the L1 meaning was congruent with the sentence context we observed an N400 with an earlier offest than the N400 to incongruent homophones. When the L2 meaning of the
homophone was congruent a negativity emerged, but substantially later than the N400 to incongruent homophones.
