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The effects of language proficiency on memory for input language1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Rochele Berkovits,
Joan Abarbanel and
David Sitman
Rochele Berkovits*
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
Joan Abarbanel
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
David Sitman
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
*
Dr. Rochele Berkovits, Department of Linguistics, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
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Abstract

The tendency to translate from a weaker to a stronger language was investigated as a function of proficiency in the nondominant language. Three groups of native Hebrew speakers with varying degrees of proficiency in English read passages of alternating English and Hebrew sentences. Subjects identified a following recognition sentence as either “identical” to a sentence read in the passage, a “translation” of a sentence read in the passage, or “new,” and then rated their confidence. The results showed no evidence for translation processes; with respect to “identical” and “translation” pairs, none of the groups was more accurate in recognizing sentences originally presented in their dominant language. These findings, which parallel those of an earlier study in which nonfluent bilinguals were tested auditorally, reflect similar psycholinguistic mechanisms underlying nondominant language processing in speakers of different levels of proficiency. The results were related to the distinction between automatic and controlled processes involved in dominant versus nondominant language processing.

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Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , September 1984, pp. 209 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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Footnotes

1

Article processed by the former editor, Sheldon Rosenberg.

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