ABSTRACT

Very few studies exist on the role of cross-language similarities in cognate word acquisition. Here we sought to explore, for the first time, the interplay of orthography (O) and phonology (P) during the early stages of cognate word acquisition, looking at children and adults with the same level of foreign language proficiency and by using two variants of the word-association learning paradigm (auditory learning method vs. auditory + written method). Eighty participants (40 children and 40 adults, native speakers of European Portuguese [EP]), learned a set of EP-Catalan cognate words and noncognate words. Among the cognate words, the degree of orthographic and phonological similarity was manipulated. Half of the children and adult participants learned the new words via an L2 auditory and written-L1 word association method, while the other half learned the same words only through an L2 auditory-L1 word association method. Both groups were tested in an auditory recognition task and a go/no-go lexical decision task. Results revealed a disadvantage for children in comparison to adults, which was reduced in the auditory learning method. Furthermore, there was an advantage for cognates relative to noncognates regardless of the age of participants. Importantly, there were modulations in cognate word processing as a function of the degree of O and P overlap that were restricted to children. The findings are discussed in light of the most relevant bilingual models of word recognition.

摘要

关于跨语言相似性在同源词习得中的作用的研究很少。在这里，我们试图首次探索在同源词习得初期拼字法（O）和音韵学（P）的相互作用，通过使用两个变体来研究具有相同水平的外语水平的儿童和成人联想学习范式（听觉学习方法与听觉+书面方法）的比较。八十名参与者（40名儿童和40名成人，以欧洲葡萄牙语[EP]为母语的人），学习了一系列EP-加泰罗尼亚语同源词和非同源词。在同源词中，拼字和音素相似度得到了控制。一半的儿童和成人参与者通过L2听觉和书面L1单词联想法学习了新单词，而另一半仅通过L2听觉-L1单词联想法学习相同的单词。两组均在听觉识别任务和进行/不进行词汇决策任务中进行了测试。结果表明，与成人相比，儿童的不利之处在于听觉学习方法得到了减少。此外，无论参与者的年龄如何，相对于非认知者，认知者都有一个优势。重要的是，同源词处理中的调制取决于O和P重叠程度，这些调制仅限于儿童。将根据最相关的单词识别双语模型来讨论这些发现。结果表明，与成人相比，儿童的不利之处在于听觉学习方法得到了减少。此外，无论参与者的年龄如何，相对于非认知者，认知者都有一个优势。重要的是，同源词处理中的调制取决于O和P重叠程度，这些调制仅限于儿童。将根据最相关的单词识别双语模型来讨论这些发现。结果表明，与成人相比，儿童的不利之处在于听觉学习方法得到了减少。此外，无论参与者的年龄如何，相对于非认知者，认知者都有一个优势。重要的是，同源词处理中的调制取决于O和P重叠程度，这些调制仅限于儿童。将根据最相关的单词识别双语模型来讨论这些发现。