Is lexical selection in bilingual speech production language-specific? Further evidence from Spanish–English and English–Spanish bilinguals

In this study we address the question of how lexical selection is achieved by bilingual speakers during speech production. Specifically, we test whether there is competition between the two lexicons of a bilingual during lexical access. In two picture–word interference experiments we explore the performance of two groups of bilinguals, English–Spanish and Spanish–English proficient bilinguals while naming pictures either in their L1 (Spanish) or in their L2 (Spanish). Picture naming was facilitated when the name of the picture and the distracter word were the “same”, regardless of the language in which the distracter was printed: same-language (e.g., mesa–mesa [table in Spanish]) or different-language pairs (e.g., mesa–table). The magnitude of this facilitatory effect was similar when naming in L1 (Experiment 1) and in L2 (Experiment 2). We also found that naming latencies were slower when the distracter word was semantically related to the picture's name (e.g., mesa–chair), regardless of the language in which the distracter was printed. The results suggest that there is no competition between the two lexicons of a bilingual during lexical access for production. This interpretation favors a model of lexical access in which lexical selection is language-specific both when speaking in L1 and in L2.