Lexical Representation and Processing in Second Language Learners

While research on monolingual language production and processing has led to the positing of different levels of lexical representation, investigations of the bilingual lexicon have mainly focused on the relationship between the two languages. To explore whether the L2 learner develops an L2 lemma-level representation, the second experiment investigated whether L2 learners access a noun's gender automatically. Advanced L2 learners of Spanish completed a picture-naming task, with written distractors. The distractors differed in semantic relatedness and gender congruency. There was a clear indication of a gender interference effect when the pictures and the distractors were semantically related, but not when they were unrelated. This gender interference effect suggests that the L2 learner is able to process the L2 automatically during language production, having established a fully integrated L2 lexicon.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Spanish

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Neary, Louise Christine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dussias, Paola E.

• Language, General

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3023151

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/86113