The influence of second language proficiency on bilingual parallel language activation in Hindi–English bilinguals

Abstract

We investigated the spontaneous activation of phonologically related words in high and low proficient Hindi–English bilinguals during spoken word processing in an eye-tracking study. Participants listened to spoken words in L1/L2 and looked at a display (consisting of line drawings of phonological cohort of the translation equivalent of the spoken word and unrelated distractors). Both the groups were quick in orienting their attention towards the competitor with the onset of the spoken word. Furthermore, high proficient bilinguals showed higher and earlier activation of the competitor compared to low proficient bilinguals. Cross-language activations were higher in the L2–L1 direction for both the groups. The results strongly suggest language non-selective access of translation in Hindi–English bilinguals in both language directions. We discuss the results with regard to the predictions of the bilingual language processing models and the effect of language proficiency on conceptual access during listening in bilinguals.