Buchumschlag

The word frequency effect in first- and second-language reading by Chinese and Dutch bilinguals

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Veröffentlicht in:Bilingualism vol. 28, no. 1 (Jan 2025), p. 232
1. Verfasser: Longjiao Sui
Weitere Verfasser: Woumans, Evy, Duyck, Wouter, Dirix, Nicolas
Veröffentlicht:
Cambridge University Press
Schlagworte:
Language
Dutch language
Writing
Word frequency
Chinese languages
Second language writing
Second language learning
Hypotheses
Second language reading
Eye movements
Bilingualism
Writing systems
Bilingual people
Languages
Tracking
Eye tracking
Chinese
Motor Reactions
Reading Skills
Addition
African Languages
Language Dominance
Word Processing
Written Language
Monolingualism
Sentences
Evidence
Experiments
Reading Research
Language Proficiency
Language Processing
Context Effect
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Abstract:High-frequency words are processed faster than low-frequency words, known as the word frequency effect (FE). Although the FE has been studied in various writing systems as well as in first- (L1) and second-language (L2) reading, existing theoretical hypotheses are mainly based on findings in alphabetic languages. To date, no study has investigated theoretical explanations of the FE such as the learning hypothesis, the lexical entrenchment hypothesis and the rank hypothesis apply to Chinese–English bilinguals. The present study, therefore, compared the FEs in Chinese– and Dutch–English bilinguals during natural paragraph reading in their L1 and L2, using eye-tracking measures. Chinese bilinguals exhibited a larger FE in L2 than in L1. They displayed smaller L1 FEs and much steeper L2 FE curves than Dutch bilinguals. These findings are not entirely consistent with the existing FE hypotheses, and the present study discusses theoretical accounts in light of the observed results.
ISSN:1366-7289
1469-1841
DOI:10.1017/S136672892400035X
Quelle:Arts & Humanities Database