Grapheme coding in L2: how do L2 learners process new graphemes?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Grapheme coding in L2

T2 - how do L2 learners process new graphemes?

AU - Commissaire, Eva

AU - Duncan, Lynne G.

AU - Casalis, Séverine

PY - 2014/10/3

Y1 - 2014/10/3

N2 - Grapheme coding was examined in French Grade 6 and Grade 8 children and adults who learned English as a second language (L2). In Experiments 1 and 2, three conditions were compared in a letter detection task in L2: (1) simple grapheme (i.e., detect “a” in black); (2) complex language-shared grapheme (i.e., “a” in brain) and (3) complex L2-specific grapheme (i.e., “a” in beach). The data indicated that graphemes in L2 words were functional sub-lexical orthographic units for these L2 learners. Moreover, L2-specific graphemes took longer to process than language-shared complex graphemes. Using the same task, Experiment 3 examined phonological influences by manipulating the cross-language congruency of grapheme-to-phoneme mappings (detect “a” in have [congruent] vs. take [incongruent]). The outcome of this study offers preliminary evidence of graphemic coding during L2 word recognition both at the orthographic and the orthography-to-phonology mapping levels.

AB - Grapheme coding was examined in French Grade 6 and Grade 8 children and adults who learned English as a second language (L2). In Experiments 1 and 2, three conditions were compared in a letter detection task in L2: (1) simple grapheme (i.e., detect “a” in black); (2) complex language-shared grapheme (i.e., “a” in brain) and (3) complex L2-specific grapheme (i.e., “a” in beach). The data indicated that graphemes in L2 words were functional sub-lexical orthographic units for these L2 learners. Moreover, L2-specific graphemes took longer to process than language-shared complex graphemes. Using the same task, Experiment 3 examined phonological influences by manipulating the cross-language congruency of grapheme-to-phoneme mappings (detect “a” in have [congruent] vs. take [incongruent]). The outcome of this study offers preliminary evidence of graphemic coding during L2 word recognition both at the orthographic and the orthography-to-phonology mapping levels.

U2 - 10.1080/20445911.2014.951363

DO - 10.1080/20445911.2014.951363

M3 - Article

SN - 2044-5911

VL - 26

SP - 725

EP - 739

JO - Journal of Cognitive Psychology

JF - Journal of Cognitive Psychology

IS - 7

ER -