Date created: | Last Updated:

Category: Project

Description: This study investigated the effect of cross-linguistic overlap in L1 and L2 auditory recognition of Spanish-English cognates. The study examined the correlation between objective and subjective measures of overlap and analyzed how these measures predict patterns in auditory recognition. 62 Spanish-speaking learners of English and 63 English-speaking learners of Spanish completed two auditory lexical decision tasks in Spanish and English and a rating task, where they rated the perceived phonological similarity of cognates and noncognates. The results reavealed moderate correlations between subjective and objective measures of overlap, but self-rated similarity was the most accurate predictor. Increased phonological overlap facilitated recognition in L1 and L2 Spanish and English but had larger effects in L2 recognition, especially in lower proficiency learners. The findings support models suggesting that cross-linguistic co-activation is modulated by the degree of similarity and previous research reporting modality dependent effects of cross-linguistic form overlap in lexical recognition.