L1 and L2 lexical form activation during L3 word processing: do beginner learners translate into Chinese or English when reading Hungarian?

Thesis

In today's globalized world, multilingualism is increasingly common, presenting unique challenges for language processing and learning. This study investigates cross-language activation in Chinese-English-Hungarian trilinguals, focusing on whether lexical forms of L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English) are activated during L3 (Hungarian) word processing. Utilizing a quantitative approach, 32 Hungarian-major Chinese students participated in a lexical decision task, followed by proficiency tests and questionnaires. The participants were unaware that some of the Hungarian word pairs had concealed repetition if translated into Chinese or English. This study utilized a combination of paired t-tests, correlation analyses, and regression models to analyze the reaction time, error rates, and proficiency test scores collected from the participants. The results indicated significant activation of both L1 and L2, reflected in higher error rates and longer reaction times when Hungarian word pairs had hidden repetitions in their Chinese or English translations compared to control pairs. L1 also seemed to interfere more with L3 processing, resulting in significantly higher error rates than L2. Additionally, higher proficiency in Hungarian showed mitigating effects of L3 proficiency on cross-language interference. The study's findings extend the Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA) model to a trilingual context, suggesting non-selective access to multilingual lexicons and emphasizing the complexity of managing multiple linguistic systems. These insights have significant theoretical implications for understanding multilingual language processing and practical applications in developing more effective language teaching strategies that account for cross-language interference.

Authors: Peng, C

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-nr97oj2xv
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: ALSLA; multilingual; Hungarian; psycholinguistics; gorilla online experiment; English; Chinese; quantitative; trilingual; L3 processing; cross-language activation; ALSLA2024
• Subjects: Hungarian language; Psycholinguistics; Applied linguistics; Chinese; English; Second language acquisition; Quantitative research; Multilingual persons