The effect of cognate words on lexical access of English as a third language

Authors

  • Pâmela Freitas Pereira Toassi Universidade Federal do Ceará
  • Mailce Borges Mota Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
  • Elisângela Nogueira Teixeira Universidade Federal do Ceará

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7968.2020v40nesp2p74

Abstract

In this paper, the results of an experimental study carried out in order to investigate the effect of triple cognates in the lexical access of speakers of English (L3), German (L2), and Brazilian Portuguese (L1) is presented. Participants performed a reading task, containing 60 experimental sentences with the following critical words: triple cognates, double cognates between Brazilian Portuguese and English, and double cognates between German and English. Participants’ eye movements were recorded while they performed the task. The measures of first fixation and first reading pass times were analyzed. The results suggested that triple cognates were processed faster than their respective controls in first fixation (M: 264/311ms (cognate/control); p=0,03) and first pass (M: 407/448ms (cognate/control); p=0,05), which was interpreted as evidence of a nonselective lexical access and an integrated lexicon for the multilinguals’ languages. In addition, these results contribute to the literature of lexical access of multilinguals, favoring the view that all the languages of a multilingual are active even when the speaker intends to use only one language. 

Author Biographies

Pâmela Freitas Pereira Toassi, Universidade Federal do Ceará

Professora Adjunta do Departamento de Estudos da Língua Inglesa, suas Literaturas e Tradução e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos da Tradução da Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) e membro do Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa desta mesma universidade. Possui doutorado em Letras-Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2016). É coordenadora do grupo de pesquisa Processamento da Linguagem de Bilíngues e Multilíngues (plibimult.ufc.br). Tem como interesse de pesquisa o acesso lexical, a aquisição de vocabulário, o ensino-aprendizagem de língua estrangeira, a formação de professores, o multilinguismo, as influências translinguísticas, a leitura e a tradução. Possui mestrado (2012) e graduação (2013) em Letras - Inglês pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina e graduação em Química pela Universidade Regional de Blumenau (2008).

Mailce Borges Mota, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

Possui doutorado em Letras /Inglês e Literatura Correspondente (UFSC, 2000). Professora Titular do Departamento de Língua e Literatura Estrangeiras da UFSC. É também docente permanente do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística, na mesma instituição. Realizou estágio de doutorado sanduíche no Departamento de Linguística da Universidade de Minnesota (1998-1999), sob supervisão de Andrew Cohen. Realizou estágio pós-doutoral no Brain & Language Lab, Departamento de Neurociência, Georgetown University (2008-2009), sob supervisão de Michael Ullman. Realizou estágio sênior no Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, em Nijmegen (2017-2018), sob a supervisão de Peter Hagoort, com bolsa da CAPES. Foi professora visitante na Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais da Universidade do Algarve (2010/1), com apoio financeiro do Programa Erasmus Mundus. Coordenou o GT de Psicolinguística da ANPOLL no biênio 2016-2018. É membro fundador da Rede Nacional de Ciência para Educação (Rede CpE). Coordena o Laboratório da Linguagem e Processos Cognitivos (LabLing), onde conduz estudos sobre a interface entre processamento da linguagem, sistemas de memória e processos atencionais com o uso de métodos eletrofisiológicos e comportamentais, incluindo o rastreamento ocular.

Elisângela Nogueira Teixeira, Universidade Federal do Ceará

É orientadora de mestrado e doutorado do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística da Universidade Federal do Ceará, onde é professora adjunta do Departamento de Letras Vernáculas desde 2013. Criou e coordena o Laboratório de Ciências Cognitivas e Psicolinguística, especializado em rastreamento ocular. É graduada em Letras pela Universidade Federal do Ceará (2000), mestre em Estudos da Linguagem pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (2003) e doutora em Linguística pela Universidade Federal do Ceará (2013). Em 2008, fez estágio na França, no Departamento de Estudos Cognitivos da École Normale Supérieure de Paris e no Laboratoire de Neuropsychologie Interventionnelle, na Universidade Paris-Est Créteil. Tem experiência na área de Psicolinguística e Psicologia Experimental, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: movimentação ocular, processamento anafórico e leitura.

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Published

2020-12-07

How to Cite

Freitas Pereira Toassi, P., Borges Mota, M., & Nogueira Teixeira, E. (2020). The effect of cognate words on lexical access of English as a third language. Cadernos De Tradução, 40(esp. 2), 74–96. https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7968.2020v40nesp2p74

Issue

Vol. 40 No. esp. 2 (2020): Reading, Translation and Cognition

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