Bilingual speech comprehension in context : Predictive sentence processing in second language listening

Abstract

The project aims to extend our understanding of the relationship between language profile, proficiency and speech comprehension in English by investigating three-sentence contexts of mixed word order, low-constraint sentence and high-constraint sentence. Our concern in this study is whether context effects will behave differently in the first language (L1) than in the second language (L2). Norwegian natives with English as a second language (Norwegian-English bilinguals) performed in a word monitoring experiment which consisted of a within-language variable (mixed word order versus low-constraint versus high-constraint sentence conditions) with a between -participants language variable to see if the preceding context would have an effect on spoken word recognition in sentences. The same experiment occurred in both English and Norwegian on separate days. An amended version of the Language Proficiency and Background questionnaire ( LEAP-Q) was also applied to unfold detailed bilingual background and self-rated L1 and L2 proficiency. In the within-language variable, the results showed that our bilinguals show efficient prediction competence in both languages.