Producing words in a foreign language: Can speakers prevent interference from their first language?

✍ Scribed by HERMANS, DAAN; BONGAERTS, THEO; DE BOT, KEES; SCHREUDER, ROBERT

• Book ID: 115482399
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 542 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1366-7289
• DOI: 10.1017/s1366728998000364

✦ Synopsis

Two picture-word interference experiments were conducted to investigate whether or not words from a first and more dominant language are activated during lexical access in a foreign and less dominant language. Native speakers of Dutch were instructed to name pictures in their foreign language English. Our experiments show that the Dutch name of a picture is activated during initial stages of the process of lexical in English as a foreign language. We conclude that bilingual speakers cannot suppress activation from their first language while naming pictures in a foreign language. The implications for bilingual speech production theories are discussed.