Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-g96k6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T08:48:05.370Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Second language proficiency differences in the learning of semantically-equivalent bilingual sentences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

J. Y. Opoku
J. Y. Opoku*
Affiliation:
University of Ibadan
*
J. Y. Opoku, Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Three groups of subjects who used English as a second language and who were considered to be at different levels of proficiency in English participated in a study of transfer of learning from English to Yoruba, their native language, and from Yoruba to English. It was predicted that total transfer from one language to the other would decrease with increasing proficiency in English and that transfer from Yoruba to English would be higher than from English to Yoruba at lower levels of proficiency in English. Findings showed rather that total transfer increased with increasing proficiency in English and that transfer from English to Yoruba was higher than from Yoruba to English for all groups. It is concluded that on a verbal transfer task, bilinguals show development from independent to interdependent language systems with increasing proficiency in a second language.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 75 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, J. R. (1976). Language, memory, and thought. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. R., & Bower, G. H. (1973). Human associative memory. Washington, D.C.: V. H. Winston.Google Scholar
Kintsch, W. (1974). The representation of meaning in memory. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kolers, P. A. (1963). Interlingual word associations. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 2, 291–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolers, P. A. (1978). On the representations of experience. In Gerver, D. & Sinaiko, W. (Eds.), Language interpretation and communication. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Kolers, P. A., & Gonzalez, E. (1980). Memory for words, synonyms and translations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6, 53–65.Google Scholar
López, M., & Young, R. K. (1974). The linguistic interdependence of bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 102, 981–983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, D. A., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1975). Explorations in cognition. San Francisco, CA: Freeman.Google Scholar
Opoku, J. Y. (1982). Bilingual representational systems and interlingual transfer of learning. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 13(4), 470–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Opoku, J. Y. (1983). The learning of English as a second language and the development of the emergent bilingual representational systems. International Journal of Psychology, 18, 271–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Opoku, J. Y. (1985). Bilingual representational systems in free recall. Psychological Reports, 57, 847–855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar