ERIC Number: EJ1112025
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Oct
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0090-6905
EISSN: N/A
Conceptual Representation Changes in Indonesian-English Bilinguals
Hartanto, Andree; Suárez, Lidia
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, v45 n5 p1201-1217 Oct 2016
This study investigated conceptual representations changes in bilinguals. Participants were Indonesian-English bilinguals (dominant in Indonesian, with different levels of English proficiency) and a control group composed of English-dominant bilinguals. All completed a gender decision task, in which participants decided whether English words referred to a male or female person or animal. In order to explore conceptual representations, we divided the words into gender-specific and gender-ambiguous words. Gender-specific words were words in which conceptual representations contained gender as a defining feature, in both English and Indonesian (e.g., uncle). In contrast, gender-ambiguous words were words in which gender was a defining feature in English but not a necessary feature in Indonesian (e.g., "nephew" and "niece" are both subsumed under the same word, "keponakan," in Indonesian). The experiment was conducted exclusively in English. Indonesian-English bilinguals responded faster to gender-specific words than gender-ambiguous words, but the difference was smaller for the most proficient bilinguals. As expected, English-dominant speakers' response latencies were similar across these two types of words. The results suggest that English concepts are dynamic and that proficiency leads to native-like conceptual representations.
Descriptors: English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Control Groups, Bilingualism, Gender Differences, Decision Making, Indonesian, Language Proficiency, Psycholinguistics, Ambiguity (Semantics), Foreign Countries, Language Variation, Concept Formation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Indonesia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A