This study investigates second language (L2) phonetic categorization and phonological encoding of L2 words (hereafter, phonolexical encoding1) with phonemic and allophonic cross-linguistic mismatches. We focus on the acquisition of Spanish /ɾ/-/l/ and /ɾ/-/t/ contrasts among Spanish learners with American English (AE) and Mandarin Chinese (hereafter, Chinese) as first languages (L1s). [ɾ] and [t] are positional allophones in AE but separate phonemes in Spanish. The phoneme /ɾ/ is absent in Chinese. AE learners showed nativelike phonetic categorization and little between-contrast difference in phonolexical encoding, suggesting that L1 positional allophony does not necessarily impede L2 contrast acquisition. Chinese learners showed persistent perceptual difficulties with both contrasts due to perceptual similarity. Phonetic categorization significantly predicted phonolexical encoding for /ɾ/-/t/ contrasts for Chinese learners bidirectionally, while AE learners showed this relationship only when /t/ was incorrectly replaced by /ɾ/ in Spanish words. This asymmetry can be driven by the fact that [t] is the dominant allophone of /t/ in AE, while [ɾ] is a positional allophone. It suggests L1 allophonic knowledge heightens perceptual monitoring when evaluating substitutions that conflict with L1 phonological expectations. This study calls for more nuanced treatment of L1 influence in L2 phonological acquisition models, especially at the allophonic level.

The present study compares the use of morphological case for argument interpretation between German L1 speakers in Norway and Germany to investigate whether and how processing may be affected by attrition. Participants were presented with a spoken sentence and pictures of two scenes, one showing an event as described by a transitive or ditransitive sentence and another showing the same event, with the roles of agent and patient (transitives) or recipient and theme (ditransitives) reversed. Their task was to select the scene that matched the sentence. End-of-sentence responses show no between-group differences in comprehension. Moreover, eye movements show that both groups exploit case marking on the first noun phrase in transitive sentences in the same way. However, differences in processing between groups emerge for the use of case marking on the first object following a ditransitive verb. While the home country group shows a higher likelihood of looks to the target after a dative-marked article than after an accusative-marked article prior to the second object, the reverse holds for the expat group, at least temporarily. Altogether, the results indicate subtle changes in the processing of alternating argument orders in ditransitive sentences in L1 German, potentially as a result of the bi-/multilingual experience.

To examine cross-linguistic influences during bilingual lexical processing, a word type frequently used is cognates (i.e., translation equivalents with an overlap in form and meaning, such as English-German tomato-Tomate). Cognates have been found to be processed faster and more accurately than translation equivalents without such overlap (i.e., noncognates, such as English-German potato-Kartoffel). This cognate facilitation effect (CFE) is considered evidence for language co-activation in bilinguals and has been studied mostly in children and adults. The aim of the current study was to examine this effect in a more heterogeneous group of adolescent L2 learners and explore its potential modulation by L2 proficiency and stimulus frequency. For this purpose, 68 L1 German low-intermediate learners of L2 English participated in an English lexical decision task on cognate and noncognate words. Notably, CFEs could not be replicated in this group of learners. However, further analysis revealed that word recognition was modulated by both participants’ L2 English proficiency and target word frequency. The results of the present study add to the literature on modulating factors of the CFE, expand them to a population of early second language learners, and underline the need for future research on factors influencing cross-linguistic activation.

Variability in the second language (L2) referential choice could be due to lower language proficiency in the L2 or cross-linguistic influence. We compare the L2 English referential choices of bilinguals of typologically different languages (Spanish and English, null subject and non-null subject) to those of bilinguals of typologically similar languages (Dutch and English, both non-null subject and both using pronouns similarly in the target context). Bilinguals’ performance was further compared to that of a group of functional monolingual English speakers. Both bilingual groups were highly proficient, to explore whether high proficiency would attenuate differences with monolinguals. Participants completed a picture-description task eliciting references to antecedents in two-character contexts. Performance was comparable among all three groups in all conditions—evidence that cross-linguistic influence did not play a role for bilingual referential choices. These results thus show that highly proficient bilinguals of both typologically different and similar languages can perform comparably to monolinguals.

This longitudinal study examined the impact of L2 acquisition on the narrative development of L1-Turkish dominant children who were exposed to L2-English immersion compared to their peers who were not exposed to L2-English immersion but to L1-Turkish. The study involved 155 children, aged 5, 7, and 9 at Time 1, assessing their narrative production, linguistic complexity, and narrative comprehension over a one-year period. Children who were exposed to L2-English immersion received intensive L2-English instruction from a young age while living in an L1-Turkish dominant society. For both time points, L2-English immersion children performed better than L1-Turkish dominant children for L1 narrative production. While no overall group differences emerged in linguistic complexity, L2-English immersion children exhibited higher complexity in L1 relative to their L2 for both time points, suggesting a facilitative effect of early L2 exposure on L1 narrative structure. These findings support the idea that bilingualism may foster narrative skills. These results highlight the importance of early bilingual education, especially when both languages are equally supported, contributing to children’s overall language development.