Original scientific paper
Differences in Lexical Access Effi ciency in Croatian-English Bilinguals
Irena Zovko Dinković
Tena Šojer
Abstract
Studies to date have shown that both bilingual adults and bilingual children score
lower than their monolingual peers on standardized productive and receptive vocabulary
measures. Since there is no signifi cant diff erence in the size of the conceptual
vocabulary between these groups, such results imply a more eff ortful lexical access
in bilingual speakers. Several models1 have been constructed in att empts to explain
these discrepancies, focusing on spreading activation and selection mechanisms in
lexical access. There is, however, no conclusive evidence supporting either one of
the models, and there are no studies which test for diff erences in performance of
simultaneous and sequential bilingual speakers. We therefore tested the effi ciency
of lexical access in Croatian-English simultaneous and sequential bilinguals, using a
picture vocabulary test, in order to determine whether there is a signifi cant diff erence
in receptive vocabulary performance between these two groups and in comparison
to their monolingual peers.
Keywords
bilinguals; lexical access; receptive vocabulary; Croatian; English
Hrčak ID:
112263
URI
Publication date:
9.5.2013.
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