Semantic native-likeness in highly proficient second-language users

KOGAN, B.; AGULLA, L.; DOTTORI, M.; AMORUSO, L.; VIVAS, L.; GARCÍA, A. M.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XIX Reunión Nacional y VIII Encuentro Internacional de la Asociación Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento; 2023

Asociación Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento

Introduction: Native-likeness (similarity between non-native and native users of thesame language) has been shown to depend on second language proficiency (L2p).However, relevant evidence comes mainly from phonological or syntactic phenomena,prompting an underexplored question: can higher L2p also entail a more native-likeorganization of semantic memory? Aims: Analyze spontaneous conceptualassociations in bilinguals varied across L2p levels and examine whether potential L2peffects on semantic native-likeness are robust at both the group and the individuallevel. Methods: We asked high and low L2p bilinguals to describe concepts in L2 andL1 via a classical feature-listing task. To capture semantic native-likeness, wecalculated the number of shared features between the L2 norms’ noun-concepts(representing the prototypical semantic structure of the language) and the participants’L2 responses (reflecting their individual semantic structure). This was done through thevalidated common element correlation (CEC) metric. In addition to L2 semantic native-likeness (L2-L2 CEC), we calculated the same metric for three control conditions,based on the overlap between L1 responses and L2 norms (L1-L2 CEC), L2 responsesand L1 norms (L2-L1 CEC), and L1 responses and L1 norms (L1-L1 CEC). Finally, weexamined whether semantic native-likeness scores discriminated between high andlow L2p levels at the group level (via inferential statistics) and at the individual level (viamachine learning analyses). Results: L2-L2 CEC was significantly higher in L2pbilinguals, revealing more native-like semantic patterns. Moreover, such an indexyielded robust subject-level classification in machine learning analysis. None of thecontrol indices differed between groups. Discussion: Our study indicates that native-likeness may be observed at the semantic level and that this phenomenon is sensitiveto L2p. Extensions of this approach could further illuminate the interplay betweenbilingual semantic memory and language-experience variables.