When More is Less

The Effect of a Third Language on a Second Language

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9865189
AutoresJamile Forcelini (0000-0001-7054-1839), Gretchen Sunderman
Año2020
Volumen103
Número4
Páginas489-500
Fecha de publicación2020-01-01
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHispania (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-2133 • E-ISSN: 2153-6414
EditorialProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/hpn.2020.0110
OpenAlexW48433575
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas8

When bilinguals read in either their first language (L1) or their second language (L2), words from both languages are unconsciously and automatically activated in their mind (e.g., Kroll et al. 2006; Van Heuven and Dijkstra 2002). Many bilinguals, particularly in Florida, choose to learn Portuguese in college as a third language (L3), thus increasing lexical activation of two related languages and potentially complicating lexical retrieval. The present study investigates the effect of learning L3 Portuguese on the typologically similar L2 Spanish. Fifty-four English-Spanish bilinguals and 66 English-Spanish-Portuguese trilinguals completed a lexical decision task in their L2 Spanish. Participants were exposed to real and pseudowords that varied in similarity to words in either Spanish, Portuguese, or unrelated languages. The results indicate that the unintended activation of Portuguese negatively affected the speed at which trilinguals judged words in Spanish, suggesting increased lexical competition. The trilinguals did, however, process the words as correctly as the bilinguals, except when lexical structures were overwhelmingly similar as in the case of Portuguese cognates. The present findings of this study are analyzed in terms of inhibitory control (Green 1998)

Brazilian Portuguese · Cognition · Lexical decision task · Linguistics · Neuroscience of multilingualism · Portuguese · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development · Second Language Acquisition and Learning

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