THE ROLE OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE IN WORD RECOGNITION AND READING EFFICIENCY AMONG BILINGUALS

The purpose of this study was: (1) to discover if there are different speeds in processing words of a bilingual's first language and second language, (2) to discover if different bilingual groups process English words as a second language differently from native English speakers, and (3) to discover if there is a relationship between the speed of word recognition and reading efficiency.;All the subjects were tested in a small group on Michigan English Proficiency Test, and were tested individually on reading efficiency and word recognition in the first and second languages, and filled out the questionnaire on language background.;The findings were: (1) Only the native English group processed the words of the first language faster than those of the second language and only the English and the Chinese groups still read in the first language significantly more efficiently than in the second language. (2) There were significant correlations between reading efficiency and word recognition thresholds in English for the whole sample. (3) All the groups could process words as a whole up to six letters long in both languages. (4) All the non-native English groups followed the native speakers in a similar pattern in processing the levels of English words, though with a little slower speeds across all the levels. They all could process words as a whole, instead of syllables or letters. Only the Chinese group processed the English words significantly slower than the native English group. The deficiency started from the level of letters. (5) All the non-native English groups read in English significantly less efficiently than the native English group. The Chinese group read least efficiently.;It was concluded that rapid word recognition was related to efficient reading, and the first language had an effect on reading the second language. It was suggested that a reading instruction for the second language should consider the effect of the first language.;The subjects were four bilingual groups, Spanish-English, Vietnamese-English, Chinese-English, and English-Spanish, who were undergraduate or graduate students at Kansas State University. Each group consisted of 16 subjects.