L2 Lexical Representations of Japanese-English bilinguals: a Masked Priming Investigation

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24730630
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAYAMA Mariko 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 研究員 (40608436)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HINO Yasushi 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 教授 (00386567)
• Research Collaborator: Lupker Stephen ; Jared Debra ; Sears Christopher ; Verdonschot Rinus
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 日英バイリンガル / 単語認識 / L2語表象 / 対訳語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this research was to investigate bilingual lexicon of different-script bilinguals, focusing on the role of L2 proficiency on the organization of the mental lexicon. The research found that higher L2 proficiency aids the development of automatic connection between L2 orthography to semantics. Higher L2 proficiency also contributed to the development of the phoneme-sized phonological unit in the reading of L2 words. Nevertheless, the acquisition of the phoneme-sized unit was not directly related to higher L2 proficiency per se, but rather, was related to the length of stay in English speaking countries, which is one of the characteristics of high-proficient bilinguals.

Free Research Field

言語心理学