TY - JOUR

T1 - Top-down and bottom-up bilingual speech production

T2 - The effects of language context on inhibitory control

AU - Lee, Yun-Wei

AU - Rebuschat, Patrick

AU - Casaponsa, Aina

PY - 2025/8/6

Y1 - 2025/8/6

N2 - Language-switching sometimes causes delayed responses, especially when switching from the later-acquired languages (here, L2) to the dominant native language (L1). It is well-established that language proficiency plays a role in production, but what about language context (i.e., the ratio of L1 and L2)? We investigated language context within two language production processes: “top-down” (naming pictures) and “bottom-up” (reading words aloud). We suggest that switch cost asymmetry was not only affected by language context, but also by production modality. In picture naming, the degree of inhibition relies largely on the activation level of the predominant language in the language context, whereby affects the asymmetry. However, the asymmetry disappears when language processing only requires reading aloud words with orthographically unique and constrained to one language. We provide evidence with dynamics of inhibition in different language contexts, suggesting that future study should continue to explore the flexibility of production processes in bilingual speakers.

AB - Language-switching sometimes causes delayed responses, especially when switching from the later-acquired languages (here, L2) to the dominant native language (L1). It is well-established that language proficiency plays a role in production, but what about language context (i.e., the ratio of L1 and L2)? We investigated language context within two language production processes: “top-down” (naming pictures) and “bottom-up” (reading words aloud). We suggest that switch cost asymmetry was not only affected by language context, but also by production modality. In picture naming, the degree of inhibition relies largely on the activation level of the predominant language in the language context, whereby affects the asymmetry. However, the asymmetry disappears when language processing only requires reading aloud words with orthographically unique and constrained to one language. We provide evidence with dynamics of inhibition in different language contexts, suggesting that future study should continue to explore the flexibility of production processes in bilingual speakers.

KW - inhibition

KW - switch cost asymmetry

KW - bilingual speech production

KW - language context

KW - production modality

U2 - 10.1017/s1366728925100357

DO - 10.1017/s1366728925100357

M3 - Journal article

SP - 1

EP - 13

JO - Bilingualism: Language and Cognition

JF - Bilingualism: Language and Cognition

SN - 1366-7289

ER -