published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Continuous control of two languages during speech production may result in a ‘bilingual advantage’, where highly proficient bilinguals outperform monolinguals on nonverbal cognitive tasks. Greater linguistic distance between two bilingual languages is expected to influence this relationship, where bilinguals who engage with similar languages develop enhanced inhibitory control. To address this issue, this study examined reaction times and correct response rates on the attentional network task (ANT) and the Simon Task, where three different attentional networks (alerting, orienting and executive control) were examined. Two bilingual groups (English-German and English-Chinese) and one monolingual group (English) completed these attentional tasks as well as a Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q). Results did not provide unequivocal support for the ‘bilingual advantage’ hypothesis, which was only demonstrated by superior performance of bilinguals on the congruent and incongruent trials of the Simon Task. The Simon effect did not differ significantly between bilingual and monolingual participants, and no significant differences were revealed by performance on the ANT. The findings of this study also suggest that the effects of linguistic distance on cognitive functioning may not be quantitative in nature and should be investigated using neuroimaging techniques.

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The purpose of this study was to compare first- and second-language text comprehension across passage types. / Results indicate that there was no main effect for language when the total texts were compared. In contrast, a large difference was found for the type of passage read. Significantly higher recall and inferencing were found on the passages for which subjects had prior knowledge, regardless of the language of presentation. Although global comprehension measures did not reveal differences in text processing, more detailed paragraph-level analyses indicated that text processing differences were present. / Total reading times indicated that there was a large effect for the language in which the passage was read, with significantly longer reading times recorded for passages read in the second language. / These findings were interpreted as an indication that second-language reading comprehension capacity is underestimated. The findings also suggest that the type of passage read influences text comprehension more than the language in which it is read.

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