Lexical insertion in second language learners and Spanish heritage speakers: The role of vocabulary threshold

摘要

The phenomenon of lexical access along with the different lexical selection mechanisms called upon for bilingual speech production have been investigated within the fields of bilingualism, second language acquisition (SLA), and language contact among different types of bilinguals (Costa and Santesteban, 2004; De Bot, 1992; Green, 1986, 1998; Levelt, 1989, 2001; Myers-Scotton and Jake, 1995; Poulisse and Bongaerts, 1994; Roelofs, 1998; among others). However, a gap exists in relation to how two languages compete in the bilingual mind of a select group of bilinguals considered to have reached a certain threshold of vocabulary knowledge and how the competition for language selection evidences lexical retrieval and timing costs.;This dissertation focuses on the lexical insertion of English lexical items in oral narratives of second language (L2) learners of Spanish and Spanish heritage speakers who have reached a certain threshold of vocabulary knowledge; the main objective lies in the assessment of lexical retrieval and timing costs involved in the completion of a picture naming task. This study shows that both groups insert more English lexical items when trying to access low frequency words in Spanish, regardless of having reached a certain threshold of vocabulary knowledge. The study employs a quantitative approach to analyze the data. Fifty participants (16 Intermediate learners, 11 Advanced learners and 23 Spanish heritage speakers) took part in the study, which employed several protocols: a vocabulary test, two story retelling tasks, and a picture naming task.;The results show that L2 learners and Spanish heritage speakers tend to insert more English lexical items when trying to access low frequency vocabulary regardless of having prior knowledge of the vocabulary. This suggests that once bilingual speakers have reached a certain threshold of vocabulary knowledge, their lexical insertion practices are similar. A one-way between subjects ANOVA reveals no significant difference for the lexical insertion of a noun, F (2, 47) = .525, p = .595. The study also indicates the insertion of English nouns as the most frequent type of lexical insertion. Furthermore, in terms of timing the study finds that lexical retrieval is more costly for L2 learners in comparison to the Spanish heritage speakers.