This study investigated how interlocutors’ linguistic competence affected L2 speakers’ lexical alignment and how the interlocutor effect was modulated by speakers’ proficiency. Chinese English as a Foreign Language speakers performed an online text-based picture-naming and -matching task with interlocutors of different perceived linguistic competences: an L1 interlocutor, an L2 interlocutor of higher proficiency or an L2 interlocutor of lower proficiency. We compared the magnitudes of L2 speakers’ lexical alignment across interlocutor conditions and examined whether the interlocutor effect varied with speakers’ L2 proficiency. Results showed that L2 speakers aligned more with the L1 interlocutor than the L2 interlocutor, indicating an effect of interlocutors’ language status (native vs. non-native). Moreover, L2 speakers’ lexical alignment with interlocutors of varying proficiency was differentially affected by their own proficiency levels. This study adds to the existing work by revealing the joint influence of the interlocutors’ competence and the speakers’ L2 proficiency on lexical alignment in L2 communication.

This study examined the influence of letter transpositions on morphological facilitation in L1 English and L1 Chinese-L2 English speakers. Morphological priming effects were investigated by comparing morphologically complex primes that either contained transposed-letters (TL) within the stem or across the morpheme boundary, relative to a substituted-letter (SL) control. Within two masked primed lexical decision experiments, the same stem targets were preceded by morphologically related, TL-within, SL-within, TL-across, SL-across, or unrelated primes. Reaction time analyses with morphologically intact primes revealed facilitation in both L1 and L2 English. In L1, TL-within priming was significant, while the magnitude of TL-across priming varied as a function of positional specific bigram frequency and spelling proficiency. In L2, TL-priming was entirely absent. These findings support models of complex word recognition that accommodate relative flexibility in letter position encoding.

The language of heritage speakers is characterized by variability and structural innovations compared to the baseline grammar of first-generation immigrants. Although many factors contribute to these differences, this study considers structural priming with structures that do not exist in the majority language as a potential mechanism for language change. The linguistic focus is accusative clitic doubling, which exists in some Spanish varieties, but which is unacceptable in others. Our research examined how flexible heritage speakers’ grammars are compared to baseline speakers, and to what extent heritage speakers adopt structures attested in the diachronic development and in other varieties of their heritage language. In two studies, we tested the acceptability of accusative clitic doubling and primed accusative clitic doubling in oral production. Results showed that heritage speakers of Spanish are somewhat accepting of innovative structures and more sensitive to structural priming compared to baseline speakers, who are generally not.

Previous research suggests that emotion words elicit lower emotional reactivity in languages acquired later in life (LX), prompting bilinguals to make less emotional decisions when responding to emotionally charged moral dilemmas in the LX compared to their first language (L1). This study investigated the influence of word emotionality on bilinguals’ moral judgements by manipulating the degree of emotiveness of the moral questions (i.e., emotive versus neutral conditions) accompanying different types of moral dilemmas (i.e., personal/sacrificial versus impersonal/realistic). Mixed effects logistic regression models revealed that the use of the LX increased the number of utilitarian decisions in both the emotive and the neutral conditions but only in the sacrificial moral dilemmas. Moreover, the emotive questions led to more deontological moral judgements than the neutral questions but only in the L1. Taken together, these findings provide further insight into the impact of emotion on bilinguals’ moral decision-making.

This study examines how word characteristics like frequency, concreteness, part of speech and length predict Dutch vocabulary knowledge in 763 adult migrant L2 learners who vary widely in their educational levels in their L1, from minimal to extensive formal education. While the impact of these features on vocabulary learning is well-documented among tertiary-educated adult and adolescent L2 learners in the academic track of secondary education, its effect on low-educated adult L2 learners has hardly been explored. Findings confirm that word frequency, concreteness and length significantly predict receptive vocabulary knowledge, aligning with prior research. However, the study also reveals variations in the predictive power of word frequency and length among adults with different educational backgrounds. These results highlight the necessity to reassess the applicability of findings from current research on L2 receptive vocabulary, particularly concerning adult learners with reduced educational backgrounds.

Individuals differ greatly in their ability to learn the sounds of second languages, even when learning starts early in life. Recent research has suggested that the ability to identify the idiosyncratic acoustic variations introduced into the speech stream by the speaker might be relevant for second-language (L2) phoneme learning. However, only a positive correlation between voice recognition and phoneme learning has been shown. In the present study, we investigated whether voice processing ability predicts L2 phoneme learning. We employed a battery of behavioral cognitive ability measures to assess voice processing ability and L2 phoneme learning in 57 early bilingual adults. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that voice processing ability predicts L2 phoneme learning. Our findings align with theories of speech perception that attribute a fundamental role to the analysis of voice cues and suggest that the accurate identification of speaker-specific variation is also relevant for phoneme learning.

Previous studies have reported fewer social biases in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, it is unclear whether the expression of social biases varies across the bilingualism spectrum. This article investigates the connections between different dimensions of bilingual experience and the expression of explicit bias. We analyzed the responses of 389 bilinguals to a battery of questionnaires on bilingual and multicultural experiences, explicit bias, internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice and executive control. The results show that more diverse language-use and language-learning experiences were associated with lower explicit bias among bilinguals who had lower internal motivation to respond without prejudice (i.e., motivation driven by personal values). This study presents novel evidence on the relationships between bilingual experiences and the expression of social biases.

Recent research has uncovered relation-based conceptual combination in L1 English speakers’ processing of noun–noun compounds. However, it remains unclear whether Chinese EFL learners undergo a similar relation-based conceptual combination when processing English noun–noun compounds, particularly given the similarities in compounding between English and Chinese. To address this inquiry, a cohort of 120 Chinese EFL learners with advanced and intermediate English proficiency were requested to interpret English noun–noun compounds online in contexts with modifier-based relational information only, or both modifier- and head noun-based relational information. Results showed that Chinese EFL learners’ processing relied heavily on available relational information. Moreover, both modifier- and head noun-based relational information contributed to this process but played distinct roles at different phases, modulated by task demands. While English proficiency affected processing speed, both proficiency groups exhibited a similar pattern across experiments. These findings shed light on the nuances of L2 learners’ conceptual combination of English noun–noun compounds.

Embodiment theories postulate that language processing inherently engages the sensorimotor system. This study explores the embodiment of action verbs in the second language (L2) and the effects of various L2 experiences (L2 age of acquisition, exposure, dominance, and proficiency) on L2 embodiment. Sixty-one Chinese–English bilinguals participated in two experiments judging semantic relatedness: Experiment 1 involved verb–picture pairs, while Experiment 2 focused on verb–verb pairs. Both experiments were conducted in the participants’ first language (Chinese) and second language (English), with the stimuli depicting actions performed by specific effectors (e.g., mouth, hand, and foot). Results showed that participants took longer to reject mismatched verb–picture pairs and semantic-unrelated verb–verb pairs when the actions shared the same effector (e.g., walk–run) than those involving different effectors (e.g., eat–touch). Moreover, L2 age of acquisition, exposure, and dominance correlated with the L2 embodiment effect, with L2 age of acquisition and exposure modulating this effect. This study enhances our understanding of L2 embodied semantics and illuminates the impact of multidimensional L2 experiences on embodiment.

The proactive gain control hypothesis suggests that the global language context regulates lexical access to the bilinguals’ languages during reading. Specifically, with increasing exposure to non-target language cues, bilinguals adjust the lexical activation to allow non-target language access from the earliest word recognition stages. Using the invisible boundary paradigm, we examined the flow of lexical activation in 50 proficient Russian-English bilinguals reading in their native Russian while the language context shifted from a monolingual to a bilingual environment. We gradually introduced non-target language cues (the language of experimenter and fillers) while also manipulating the type of word previews (identical, code-switches, unrelated code-switches, pseudowords). The results revealed the facilitatory reading effects of code-switches but only in the later lexical processing stages and these effects were independent of the global language context manipulation. The results are discussed from the perspective of limitations imposed by script differences on bilingual language control flexibility.

Prior work has yielded mixed findings regarding the relationship between language control and domain-general inhibitory control. Here, we tested the possibility that omnibus language ability would moderate the relationship between language control and inhibitory control in bilingual children. We tested 43 Spanish-English bilingual children (ages 4–5.92 years; 25 females). Children engaged in play-based interactions with their parent, and rates of cross-speaker switches (using a language different from one used by parent) indexed language control. Inhibitory control was measured via a non-verbal flanker task. Analyses revealed that higher frequency of cross-speaker code-switches was associated with better inhibitory control only for children with higher levels of language ability. For children with lower language skills, there was no association between switches and inhibitory control. These findings align with the literature linking cognitive control and language control in bilinguals and extend it to indicate that the strength of the language system constrains this link.