A bilingual’s language system is highly interactive. When hearing a second language (L2), bilinguals access native-language (L1) words that share sounds across languages. In the present study, we examine whether input modality and L2 proficiency moderate the extent to which bilinguals activate L1 phonotactic constraints (i.e., rules for combining speech sounds) during L2 processing. Eye movements of English monolinguals and Spanish–English bilinguals were tracked as they searched for a target English word in a visual display. On critical trials, displays included a target that conflicted with the Spanish vowel-onset rule (e.g., spa), as well as a competitor containing the potentially activated “e” onset (e.g., egg). The rule violation was processed either in the visual modality (Experiment 1) or audio-visually (Experiment 2). In both experiments, bilinguals with lower L2 proficiency made more eye movements to competitors than fillers. Findings suggest that bilinguals who have lower L2 proficiency access L1 phonotactic constraints during L2 visual word processing with and without auditory input of the constraint-conflicting structure (e.g., spa). We conclude that the interactivity between a bilingual’s two languages is not limited to words that share form across languages, but also extends to sublexical, rule-based structures.

双语者的语言系统是高度互动的。当听到第二语言 (L2) 时，双语者会使用母语 (L1) 单词，这些单词在不同语言之间共享声音。在本研究中，我们检查输入方式和 L2 熟练程度是否会调节双语者在 L2 处理过程中激活 L1 语音约束（即组合语音的规则）的程度。跟踪英语单语者和西班牙语-英语双语者在视觉显示中搜索目标英语单词时的眼球运动。在关键试验中，显示包括与西班牙元音开头规则相冲突的目标（例如sp a），以及包含可能激活的“e”开头的竞争对手（例如e gg）。违规行为以视觉方式（实验 1）或视听方式（实验 2）进行处理。在这两个实验中，L2 熟练度较低的双语者对竞争对手的眼球运动比填充物更多。研究结果表明，L2 熟练度较低的双语者在 L2 视觉文字处理过程中使用和不使用约束冲突结构（例如spa）的听觉输入时会访问 L1 语音约束。我们得出结论，双语者的两种语言之间的交互性不仅限于跨语言共享形式的单词，而且还扩展到基于规则的亚词汇结构。