Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-08T08:21:26.682Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual reading is item specific

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2021

Marie Lallier Open the ORCID record for Marie Lallier [Opens in a new window] ,
Clara D. Martin ,
Joana Acha  and
Manuel Carreiras
Marie Lallier*
Affiliation:
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastián, Spain
Clara D. Martin
Affiliation:
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastián, Spain Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
Joana Acha
Affiliation:
Departamento Psicología básica, UPV/EHU, San Sebastián, Spain Biodonostia. Health Research Institute.San Sebastián, Spain
Manuel Carreiras
Affiliation:
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastián, Spain Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain Departamento de Lengua Vasca y Comunicación, UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain
*
Address for correspondence: Marie Lallier, E-mail: m.lallier@bcbl.eu, Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language, Paseo Mikeletegi 69, 20009 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The grain size of orthographic representations prompted by a consistent orthography (like Spanish or Basque) increases if reading is simultaneously learned in another language with an inconsistent orthography (like French). Here, we aimed to identify item properties that trigger this grain-size accommodation in bilingual reading. Twenty-five French–Basque and 25 Spanish–Basque bilingual children attending Grade 3 read Basque words and pseudowords containing “complex” letter clusters mapping to one sound in French but several sounds in Basque or Spanish, and “simple” letter clusters mapping to the same sound structure in all three languages. Only French speaking children read “complex” Basque words faster than “simple” ones, suggesting that they accessed multi-letter “French” units to boost lexical processing. A negative complexity effect was found for pseudowords across groups. We discuss the existence of flexible cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual reading, proposing that the grain size of orthographic representations adjusts to item-specific characteristics during reading.

Keywords

bilingualismreadingcross-linguistic transfergrain size
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 24 , Issue 5 , November 2021 , pp. 891 - 901
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ans, B, Carbonnel, S and Valdois, S (1998) A connectionist multiple-trace memory model for polysyllabic word reading. Psychological review, 105(4), 678–723.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Antzaka, A, Acha, J, Carreiras, M and Lallier, M (2018a) Does the visual attention span play a role in the morphological processing of orthographic stimuli? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1747021818806470.Google Scholar
Antzaka, A, Martin, C, Caffarra, S, Schlöffel, S, Carreiras, M and Lallier, M (2018b) The effect of orthographic depth on letter string processing: the case of visual attention span and rapid automatized naming. Reading and Writing, 31(3), 583–605CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Awadh, FH, Phénix, T, Antzaka, A, Lallier, M, Carreiras, M and Valdois, S (2016) Cross-language modulation of visual attention span: an Arabic-Spanish-Basque comparison in skilled adult readers. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bosse, ML, Tainturier, MJ and Valdois, S (2007) Developmental dyslexia: The visual attention span deficit hypothesis. Cognition, 104(2), 198–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bosse, ML and Valdois, S (2009) Influence of the visual attention span on child reading performance: a cross-sectional study. Journal of Research in Reading, 32(2), 230–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buetler, KA, de León Rodríguez, D, Laganaro, M, Müri, R, Spierer, L and Annoni, JM (2014) Language context modulates reading route: An electrical neuroimaging study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 83. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00083CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C (2010) Word morphology enhances reading fluency in children with developmental dyslexia. Lingue e Linguaggio. 9, 177–198. doi:10.1418/33326Google Scholar
Burani, C (2009) Reading fluency and morpho-lexical processing: developmental studies in Italian. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 29(2), 97–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaves, N, Ginestet, E and Bosse, ML (2020) Lexical orthographic knowledge acquisition in adults: The whole-word visual processing impact. European Review of Applied Psychology, 70(1), Article 100520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de León Rodríguez, D, Buetler, KA, Eggenberger, N, Laganaro, M, Nyffeler, T, Annoni, JM and Müri, RM (2016) The impact of language opacity and proficiency on reading strategies in bilinguals: An eye movement study. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 649. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00649CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de León Rodriguez, D, Buetler, KA, Eggenberger, N, Preisig, BC, Schumacher, R, Laganaro, M, & Müri, R M, . (2015) The modulation of reading strategies by language opacity in early bilinguals: An eye movement study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19, 567–577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duñabeitia, JA, Casaponsa, A, Dimitropoulou, M, Martí, A, Larraza, S and Carreiras, M (2017) BaSp: A Basque–Spanish database of translation equivalents. Manuscript in preparation.Google Scholar
Egan, C, Oppenheim, GM, Saville, C, Moll, K and Jones, MW (2019) Bilinguals apply language-specific grain sizes during sentence reading. Cognition 193, 104018.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis, NC and Hooper, AM (2001) Why learning to read is easier in Welsh than in English: Orthographic transparency effects evinced with frequency-matched tests. Applied Psycholinguistics 22(4), 571–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García-Pentón, L, Fernández, AP, Iturria-Medina, Y, Gillon-Dowens, M and Carreiras, M (2014) Anatomical connectivity changes in the bilingual brain. Neuroimage 84, 495–504.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Genesee, F, Geva, E, Dressler, C and Kamil, M (2006) Synthesis: Cross-linguistic relationships. In August, D & Shanahan, T (eds), Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on language-minority children and youth. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 153–174.Google Scholar
Goswami, U, Gombert, JE and de Barrera, LF (1998) Children's orthographic representations and linguistic transparency: Nonsense word reading in English, French, and Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics 19(1), 19–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U, Ziegler, JC, Dalton, L and Schneider, W (2001) Pseudohomophone effects and phonological recoding procedures in reading development in English and German. Journal of Memory and Language 45(4), 648–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, DM and Swets, J.A. (1966) Signal detection theory and psychophysics Vol. 1. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F (2010) Bilingualism, biculturalism, and deafness. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 13(2), 133–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasenäcker, J, Schröter, P and Schroeder, S (2017) Investigating developmental trajectories of morphemes as reading units in German. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 43(7), 1093.Google ScholarPubMed
Hull, R and Vaid, J (2007) Bilingual language lateralization: A meta-analytic tale of two hemispheres. Neuropsychologia 45(9), 1987–2008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacquier-Roux, M, Valdois, S and Zorman, M (2002) ODEDYS: un outil de dépistage des dyslexies Grenoble: Laboratoire cogni-sciences, IUFM de Grenoble.Google Scholar
Lallier, M, Acha, J and Carreiras, M (2016) Cross-linguistic interactions influence reading development in bilinguals: a comparison between early balanced French-Basque and Spanish-Basque bilingual children. Developmental Science 19(1), 76–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lallier, M and Carreiras, M (2018) Cross-linguistic transfer in bilinguals reading in two alphabetic orthographies: The grain size accommodation hypothesis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 25(1), 386–401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lallier, M, Carreiras, M, Tainturier, MJ, Savill, N and Thierry, G (2013) Orthographic transparency modulates the grain size of orthographic processing: behavioral and ERP evidence from bilingualism. Brain Research 1505, 47–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lallier, M, Thierry, G, Barr, P, Carreiras, M and Tainturier, MJ (2018) Learning to read bilingually modulates the manifestations of dyslexia in adults. Scientific Studies of Reading 22(4), 335–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, MD and Danileiko, I (2014) Using cognitive models to combine probability estimates. Judgment and Decision Making 9(3), 259.Google Scholar
Lobier, M, Zoubrinetzky, R and Valdois, S (2012) The visual attention span deficit in dyslexia is visual and not verbal. Cortex 48(6), 768–773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paradis, J (2001) Do bilingual two-year-olds have separate phonological systems?. International journal of bilingualism 5(1), 19–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peereman, R, Sprenger-Charolles, L and Messaoud-Galusi, S (2013) The contribution of morphology to the consistency of spelling-to-sound relations: A quantitative analysis based on French elementary school readers. L‘Année PsychologiqueCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peyrin, C, Lallier, M, Demonet, JF, Pernet, C, Baciu, M, Le Bas, JF and Valdois, S (2012) Neural dissociation of phonological and visual attention span disorders in developmental dyslexia: FMRI evidence from two case reports. Brain and Language 120(3), 381–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rau, AK, Moll, K, Snowling, MJ and Landerl, K (2015) Effects of orthographic consistency on eye movement behavior: German and English children and adults process the same words differently. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 130, 92–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saiegh-Haddad, E and Geva, E (2010) Acquiring reading in two languages: An introduction to the special issue. Reading and Writing 23, 263–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmalz, X, Beyersmann, E, Cavalli, E and Marinus, E (2016) Unpredictability and complexity of print-to-speech correspondences increase reliance on lexical processes: More evidence for the orthographic depth hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 28(6), 658–672.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmalz, X, Marinus, E, Coltheart, M and Castles, A (2015) Getting to the bottom of orthographic depth. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 22(6), 1614–1629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seymour, PH, Aro, M, Erskine, JM, & collaboration with COST Action A8 network. (2003) Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology 94(2), 143–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Theeuwes, J (2018) Visual selection: usually fast and automatic; seldom slow and volitional. Journal of Cognition. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.13Google ScholarPubMed
Valdois, S, Bosse, ML, Ans, B, Carbonnel, S, Zorman, M, David, D and Pellat, J (2003) Phonological and visual processing deficits can dissociate in developmental dyslexia: Evidence from two case studies. Reading and Writing 16(6), 541–572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wechsler, D (2005) Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fourth Edition—Spanish. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment.Google Scholar
Wimmer, H and Goswami, U (1994) The influence of orthographic consistency on reading development: Word recognition in English and German children. Cognition 51(1), 91–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ziegler, JC and Goswami, U (2005) Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory. Psychological Bulletin 131(1), 3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zoubrinetzky, R, Bielle, F and Valdois, S (2014) New insights on developmental dyslexia subtypes: heterogeneity of mixed reading profiles. PLOS One 9(6), e99337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed