British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
14TH BRITISH ACADEMY POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP SYMPOSIUM
Abstract
A ROWS is a ROSE, but is a ROAD a LOAD? Word Recognition in Second-Language Processing
Dr Sarah Haywood
Beginning readers have to learn to convert written word forms into semantic (meaning) representations, often via a process of 'sounding-out' the individual letters of each word. Evidence from speeded reading experiments suggests that adult readers are also aware of the sounds of words during silent reading. For example, when asked whether 'ROWS' is 'a kind of flower', people often make errors, or are slow to give a NO response. This suggests that even skilled readers cannot directly access the meaning of a word from its printed form. Instead, we seem to go through a process of 'phonological recoding', in which written words are converted to sounds en route to understanding their meanings.
With colleagues in Edinburgh and Belgium, I have investigated whether non-native speakers of English show similar effects for words that involve speech sounds not present in their native language. For example, Japanese speakers' difficulties with words involving Ls and Rs are well attested and much parodied. Does this mean that they will have difficulties deciding that no, 'ROAD' is not 'a weight or burden' (because of its similarity to LOAD)? In this paper, I'll talk about a research project that investigated visual word recognition in Japanese, Arabic, and Spanish native speakers. The results suggest that even very proficient bilinguals may have underspecified or 'shaky' lexical representations for English words that involve non-native speech sounds.
Dr Sarah Haywood studied Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, where she completed a PhD in 2004. She is interested in the psychology of language, and especially the ways in which we tailor communication to 'fit' our conversational partners. Other research interests include synaesthesia, bilingualism, issues of informed consent, and the psychology of aesthetics and artistic intention. In her spare time, Sarah is a printmaker, bookbinder and silversmith, and recently mounted an exhibition of art work for the UK Synaesthesia Association annual conference (March 29-30, Edinburgh).