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Foreign languages : a journal of applied linguistics, Vol. 52 No. 1, 2023.

Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/52-1/3

Phonological awareness of bilinguals in visual word recognition

Petra Ihász orcid id orcid.org/0000-0003-3515-8230 ; University of Pannonia, Hungary
András Benyhe ; University of Szeged, Hungary
Gyula Sáry ; University of Szeged, Hungary
Zoltán Juhász orcid id orcid.org/0000-0003-0677-8588 ; University of Pannonia, Hungary
Judit Navracsics orcid id orcid.org/0000-0002-8147-3023 ; University of Pannonia, Hungary

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Abstract

The present study, in which the phonological awareness of bilinguals and the temporal characteristics
of written word recognition are studied with mixed language lexical decision tests,
is a part of a larger-scale research. The study aims to collect information about the temporal
characteristics of word recognition at the orthographic, phonological, and semantic levels of
processing. The current research explores the ERP-patterns during the recognition of Hungarian
(L1) and English (L2) words, pseudo-words, and non-words. Twenty-three Hungarian–English
bilingual participants were tested in an EEG laboratory. All of them have C1 level
English proficiency and use English at work and in their everyday lives on a daily basis. In the
lexical decision task, the N170 (left temporal electrodes) and N400 (central electrodes) components
were more pronounced in word trials than in non-word trials. This activity probably
reflects the integrational and meaning-matching processes during word recognition. In the
language decision task on pseudo-words, the Hungarian-like strings elicited a late (300-600)
negative component at the left frontal electrode sites, missing from the ERP of the English-like
strings. Note that the task is different in the two experiments, which probably influences the
stimulus processing and the elicited ERP waveforms as well. In the language decision task,
phonological awareness has a crucial role, attributing to the observed differences.

Keywords

EEG; ERP; bilingual lexical decision; visual word recognition; phonological awareness

Hrčak ID:

309150

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/309150

Publication date:

23.10.2023.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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