Cross-linguistic influence in Japanese-English spoken word recognition: Bidirectional phonological, semantic, and cognate frequency effects

Abstract

This study investigated cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in spoken word recognition in a typologically distinct language pair. Japanese–English bilinguals performed auditory lexical decision tasks in both L1 (Japanese) and L2 (English), presented in counterbalanced order, responding to cognates varying in cross-linguistic overlap and to matched nonwords. This design allowed direct comparison of L1 and L2 processing within the same individuals. Response times measured from stimulus onset and offset were compared to capture changes in effects across the time course of processing. In both languages, phonological and semantic similarities significantly facilitated responses, though phonological similarity effects varied slightly over time. Cognate frequency inhibited responses later in time, varying by language, and L2 proficiency further modulated performance. Importantly, these effects emerged spontaneously, without priming, demonstrating bidirectional cognate facilitation even across linguistically distant languages. The results support the applicability of the BIA+ model to auditory processing, even for different-script bilinguals.