Sentence Processing in Late Bilinguals: Comprehension of Form and Meaning

Abstract

Research in sentence comprehension has shown that monolingual speakers are able to accurately detect meaning changes but less able to detect structural changes in sentences. In this study we ask whether this monolingual pattern holds for bilingual speakers in reading comprehension in a second language. English-Spanish bilinguals at different proficiency levels participated in a task in which sentences from native and second languages were presented. Recognition was tested on sentences that were either identical to the original sentences, or were changed in meaning or form from the originals. Results confirm a significant main effect of change type and the effects of interaction between language, change type, and proficiency. The results are discussed in light of models of bilingual lexical processing and sentence comprehension.