DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-857311
title: Moving from China to York: How do Changes in Language Environment Modulate Bilingual Language Control, 2023

description: Within this project, Mandarin-English bilingual participants completed a series of language production and comprehension tasks. The data provided correspond to three manuscripts, with the abstract per manuscript provided below.

1.Coumel, M., Liu, C., Trenkic, D., & de Bruin, A. (in press). Do accent and input modality modulate processing of language switches in bilingual language comprehension?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.
We examined how bilinguals process language switches between their first (L1) and second language (L2). Language switching costs (slower responses to language switch than non-switch trials) appear to arise more systematically in production than in comprehension, possibly because the latter context might sometimes elicit less language co-activation (Declerck et al., 2019). This might reduce language competition and in turn the need for bilinguals to apply language control when processing language switches. Yet even in comprehension, language co-activation may vary depending on variables such as the accent of the speaker (for example, whether the L2 words are pronounced with an L1 or L2 accent) and input modality (spoken or written). In three experiments conducted in 2021-2022, we tested how unbalanced Mandarin-English bilinguals processed language switches during comprehension and the potential influence of a speaker’s accent and input modality. Overall, across settings, participants experienced significant language switching costs. In some conditions, switching costs were larger to L1-Mandarin than to L2-English, an asymmetry consistent with the participants’ dominance in L1-Mandarin and the application of language control. However, manipulating accent and input modality did not influence language switches, suggesting they did not impact language co-activation sufficiently to modulate language control.

2. Bilingual language control during single-language production: Does relocation to a new linguistic environment change it? (submitted)
A bilingual’s two languages are simultaneously active and competing for selection, even when only one language is used. To manage this competition, bilinguals apply language control. We firstly examined how bilinguals apply control in two single-language tasks differing in their demands on lexical selection. Second, we examined how this language control might adapt to the language environment bilinguals live in. We conducted a longitudinal study with Mandarin-English bilinguals who moved from China to the UK and a control group staying in China. Participants completed a picture-naming task in which they had to retrieve one word in response to a picture and a verbal-fluency task in which they generated words belonging to a semantic category. Both tasks were completed twice, approximately seven months apart. In both tasks, bilinguals proactively applied language control over the language they were not currently using to manage the anticipated language competition. However, this language control did not change after relocation to the UK, nor did it differ between the groups. This suggests that while language control is a core part of language production, the language environment a bilingual lives in might not have a defining impact on the exact way this language control is applied. 

3. How do changes in language environment modulate bilingual language switching in production and comprehension? (submitted)
In dual-language contexts, bilinguals often switch between their languages. How they do this, and how they control their languages during switching, can depend on the nature of the interactional context and the modality (comprehension or production). Here, we examined the influence of the interactional context on language control in two ways. First, we examined how language control differs between producing language switches in response to cues, producing switches voluntarily, and comprehending switches. Second, we examined whether language control changes when the general language environment a bilingual lives in changes.
To do this, we conducted a longitudinal study with Mandarin-English bilinguals who moved from China (L1-dominant environment) to the UK (bilingual/L2-dominant environment) and with a control group staying in China. Participants completed three tasks twice (seven months apart): cued picture naming (cues indicating language choice), voluntary picture naming (free language choice), and comprehension of spoken words. 
Language control differed between the three tasks. Participants showed greater language-switching costs in cued production than during voluntary production and comprehension. Furthermore, only cued production showed that using two languages was more costly than using one (mixing costs). However, we found no evidence that a change in language environment resulted in changes in language control. This suggests a bilingual’s language control mechanisms adapt to the immediate context they are communicating in, but are perhaps not shaped as strongly by the overall language environment they live in.