Nan Jiang, University of Maryland

Several lines of research highlight some notable differences between first language (L1) and second language (L2) processing. First, L2 speakers exhibit greater sensitivity to linguistic form changes during language processing compared to L1 speakers (Bordag, Opitz, Polter, & Meng, 2021). Second, individuals demonstrate higher accuracy rates in recognition or recall tasks in L2 than in L1 (e.g., Anooshian & Hertel, 1994; Aycicegi & Harris, 2004; Francis & Strobach, 2013). Third, orthographically related word pairs lacking morphological or semantic connections (e.g., stage-age, reason-season) produce priming effects in L2 but not in L1 (e.g., Jiang & Wu, 2022; Li & Taft, 2020; Viviani & Crepaldi, 2022). Finally, L2 speakers generate a significantly higher proportion of form-related responses than L1 speakers in word association tasks (e.g., Jiang & Zhang, 2021). Collectively, these otherwise unrelated findings converge on a shared theme: linguistic form plays a more prominent role in L2 processing and the organization of the L2 lexicon compared to L1. L2 speakers exhibit stronger memory for linguistic forms, and L2 words interact more at the orthographic level than their L1 counterparts.  Theoretical frameworks that are related to these intriguing L1-L2 differences will be discussed.

Part 2 of 2 in a series of talks on Morphological Processing, organised by Henrik Gyllstad as part of the TEAM Research Program.