Bilingual Speech Production Speech Conversion Experimental Study Of Specific And Non-specific Extraction Mechanism

Two experiments were conducted using picture naming performance of bilingual speakers in a language switching task to test the two mechanisms of lexical access in bilingual speech production: language-unspecific selection theory and language-specific selection theory. In Experiment 1, 24 English learners of Chinese and 24 proficient Chinese-English bilinguals were asked to perform a switching task between their first and dominant language (L1, Chinese) and their second language (L2, English). In Experiment 2, 12 highly proficient Chinese-English bilinguals who were learning French (L3) and 12 highly proficient Chinese-English bilinguals who were learning Japanese (L3) were asked to perform a switching task between their first and dominant language (L1, Chinese) and their third language (L3, French or Japanese).The results showed that: (l)For English learners of Chinese bilinguals group the asymmetrical switching cost was found. Switching from the weaker language (L2) to the more dominant language (L1) was harder than vice versa. The mechanism of lexical access in bilingual speech production could be explained according to IC model; (2)For proficient Chinese—Englishbilinguals group this asymmetrical switching cost was not present when highly proficient English - Chinese bilinguals performed the task . The mechanism of lexical access in bilingual speech production is consistent with language-specific selection theory; (3)For highly proficient Chinese—Englishbilinguals bilinguals group who were learning French (L3) the symmetrical switching cost was found between the dominant language L1 and much weaker language L3. It appears that there is a facilitatory effects of cognate words in bilingual speech production. The mechanism of lexical access in bilingual speech production can be explained on language-specific selection theory. For highly proficient Chinese-English bilinguals who were learning Japanese (L3) the asymmetrical switching cost was found. The mechanism of lexical access in bilingual speech production could be consistent only with IC model.