The causal role of the right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG) in inhibitory control has previously been identified at the behavioral level using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). To further explore the underlying neural mechanisms, we combined TMS with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in bilingual language switching. Results showed reduced asymmetric switching costs in RIFG activation following continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) compared to sham stimulation, while intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) caused no improvement. These findings provide neural evidence consistent with disruption of RIFG-related control, although no corresponding behavioral impairment was observed. This work is among the first studies to integrate TMS and fMRI to shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying the causal involvement of a specific brain region in bilingual language control.

A notorious problem in L2 English production is he/she confusion in 3rd person singular pronouns. Even proficient Chinese speakers of L2 English tend to misuse he for she in production, causing communication barrier regarding who is the antecedent. The present study investigates whether this processing problem in L2 production is associated with a few factors being investigated and provides practical solutions in L2 learning and teaching. We employed a story-listening-and-retelling production task to examine the effect of internal and external gender cues to discourse to elicit production by proficient Chinese speakers of L2 English. The results show an effect of gender complexity (i.e., internal cues) but no effect of picture (i.e., external visual cues), indicating gender information in L2 was computed at the conceptual level but not accurately processed for output in production. In addition, we found Age of Acquisition (AoA) effect in producing L2 pronouns without external cues. We discuss our findings in relevant speech production models and present pedagogical implications for EFL/ESL Chinese teachers and learners.

The debate remains unresolved regarding whether identical language control mechanisms underlie production and comprehension in individuals who use two or more languages. Most previous research focused solely on switching costs aggregated at the group level, potentially overlooking a broader set of indices and individual variabilities. To address this, we integrated the n-2 repetition paradigm, language-switching paradigm, and single-language tasks to examine two modalities in Cantonese-Mandarin-English trilinguals: spoken word production (Experiment 1) and auditory word comprehension (Experiment 2). We evaluated a wider range of language control indices, including n-2 repetition, switching, and mixing costs. Group-level analyses revealed significant effects for all indices in production, whereas only mixing costs reached significance in comprehension. Individual differences analyses showed no significant correlations between production and comprehension across three types of costs, with Bayesian statistics providing supporting evidence for the absence of such relationships in most cases. Radar and permutation analyses further showed that language control in production was quantitatively greater than comprehension, and qualitatively distinct in pattern from comprehension. These findings show that language control in production is not only stronger, but also qualitatively distinct from that in comprehension, underscoring the importance of distinguishing between modalities in models of language control.

Visual word recognition is constrained by writing systems. The orthographic depth hypothesis (ODH) was proposed to account for phonological activation in various degrees depending on how transparent the grapheme-phoneme conversion rule is in a writing system. This current study extends the investigation of ODH in bilingualism to understand the cross-language cognitive processes in bi-script readers. In two cross-language masked priming experiments, we show asymmetrical cognate facilitation effects, which are typically reported as a result of shared phonology and/or orthography between languages, in addition to meaning equivalence. That is, with the same set of items, when the primes were Chinese and the targets English (Experiment 1), there was no cognate facilitation effect; however, when we switched the languages in prime-target pairs (Experiment 2), the cognate facilitation effects emerged. These results indicate that shared phonology across languages is not sufficient to induce cognate facilitation effects and that language-dependent processing mechanisms play a crucial role.

Previous studies have reported conflicting findings on children's interpretation of additive particles. One of the previous studies has reported that Mandarin-speaking children up to 7 have difficulty deriving the presupposition triggered by the additive particle ye 'also'. By contrast, another body of research has found that 3-to-4-year-olds can correctly interpret additive particles across languages. Such conflicting findings might have resulted from the different research techniques. Moreover, no study has been conducted to probe whether children are able to identify subject-versus object-associated focus in sentences with an additive particle. Against this backdrop, the current study attempts to systematically re-evaluate how Mandarin-speaking children interpret sentences with ye 'also', using an adapted research method. Two experiments were conducted with 3-to-4-year-olds and a group of adult controls. Experiment 1 probed whether children were able to identify object-associated focus in sentences with ye. Experiment 2 evaluated whether another group of children were able to identify subject-associated focus in sentences with ye. It was found that 3-year-olds already performed quite well and 4-year-olds nearly had adult-like performance in both experiments. The findings indicate that Mandarin-speaking preschoolers are able to identify subject-versus object-associated focus in sentences with ye, and such a linguistic ability develops in an incremental fashion. We discuss the methodological and theoretical implications of the findings. (c) 2025 Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Previous research has mainly explored the relationship between bilingual language control and domain-general cognitive control through behavioral correlations, often revealing epiphenomenal links rather than causality. This study utilizes transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the causal roles of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and left middle temporal gyrus (LMTG) in 33 unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals. Continuous theta burst stimulation was applied in separate sessions to decrease cortical excitability, with vertex stimulation as a control. LIFG stimulation significantly increased switching costs in nonverbal switching tasks, highlighting its role in domain-general cognitive control. LMTG stimulation did not affect switching or mixing costs in language or nonverbal switching tasks, suggesting no causal involvement, but it reduced reaction times (RTs) during language switching tasks, underscoring its specialization in language processing. These findings highlight distinctions between the neural mechanisms of bilingual language control and domain-general cognitive control, particularly in the LIFG.

This study examined how beginners benefit from 'salience' in learning two types of visually similar Chinese characters: those with identical strokes (e.g., (sic) and (sic)) and those differing by an additional stroke (e.g., (sic) and (sic)), while identifying the role of color coding and presentation style. A total of 183 non-tonal native speakers with no prior experience of Chinese characters participated in the study. In a 2 x 2 x 2 experimental design, the study assessed the influence of color coding (with vs. without), presentation style (single vs. paired characters), and stroke similarity (identical vs. different) on learning. Results showed (1) Characters with stroke differences were learned more easily than identical-stroke characters; (2) Simultaneous character presentation enhanced discrimination of subtle stroke differences, but (3) Color coding slowed down reaction times, suggesting visual overload. These findings demonstrate that perceptual similarity-not just complexity-impacts character learning difficulty. Pedagogically, the results support using paired character presentation while cautioning against excessive visual enhancements. The study provides empirical evidence for optimizing Chinese character instruction by balancing discriminability and cognitive load in beginning learners.

This study investigates the immediate and delayed effects of processing instruction (PI), which is an input-based pedagogical intervention, and its key component, structured input (SI), which aims to foster making correct form-meaning connections, on the acquisition of the English passive structure. Thirty-four ESL learners, who had not received any formal instruction on the target structure, were randomly assigned to either a PI group (n = 12), SI group (n = 12), or Control group (n = 10). Both the PI and SI groups received 1 hour of computer-based instruction, while the control group did not receive any instruction. A self-paced reading test was used to measure the accuracy of response and response time in selecting the correct pictures. The test was administered before instruction, immediately after instruction, and 3 weeks later. The results indicated that both the PI and SI groups improved significantly in accuracy on both posttests, while the control group did not. No significant gains, however, were found in response time for any of the groups on any of the posttests, although the PI group was comparatively faster than the SI group on the immediate posttest.

The present study employed a masked translation prime paradigm to investigate the nature of the trilingual mental lexicon. It was found that L3 (English) was primed only by L2 (Mandarin) and not by L1 (Korean), which further analysis showed to not be the result of L2 being dominant over L1. It was suggested that a formally learned L3 can be associated with only one of L1 or L2, and this association is influenced by the language in which L3 instruction was conducted. The further finding that L2 primed L1 but not vice versa, indicated that the former was more strongly represented than the latter and, again, it was apparent that the standard measure of dominance could not explain this. Two explanations were entertained, one centreing on the possibility that it is the language of formal education in general that determines the relative strength of the language representation, and the other on the possibility that dominance is modality-specific.

Language production in bilinguals relies on the collaborative interaction between two neural systems: the language control system (e.g. the right inferior frontal gyrus) and the language processing system (e.g. the left superior temporal gyrus). However, the causal mapping between these brain systems and their cognitive functions, as well as the temporal dynamics between these two systems during bilingual language production, remain unclear. To investigate this, our study applied online transcranial magnetic stimulation to the right inferior frontal gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus in Chinese-English bilinguals performing a language-switching task. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was administered within seven 100 ms time windows (TW1 to TW7) following the picture onset. We observed time window-specific enhancements of language control, as shown by a significant reduction in switching costs upon the stimulations on both sites relative to the sham stimulation: specifically, the right inferior frontal gyrus at TW1, TW2, TW4, and TW5 and the left superior temporal gyrus at TW2 and TW5. These findings indicate a double-strike top-down control mechanism underpinned by the pathway from the right inferior frontal gyrus to the right inferior frontal gyrus, potentially during both stages during production: the language task schema and the lemma selection. Our study provides the first evidence of the dynamic interactions between language control and processing systems causally underpinning bilingual language production.

In the literature, we encounter papers reporting manipulating pitch contours in speech tokens for a specific problem to be addressed in experiments (e.g., learning pitch patterns superimposed onto a pseudo-syllable), usually in the field of Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition. This type of research often tests listeners’ perceptual and processing skills in tonal languages (e.g., Mandarin, Thai, etc.), and requires superimposing a pitch contour onto a spoken syllable. However, very few studies reported in detail how this critical manipulation was done to meet specific experimental needs. In addition, there was neither specific guideline or description of the techniques being used, nor how ‘natural’ these manipulated tokens sounded in a particular language upon speech synthesis. Because this technique is crucial in establishing the conclusions in various studies, here, we will demonstrate our method of establishing this technique of tone superimposition (i.e., lexical tones in Mandarin) onto English syllables. In line with the open science model, we will also show our stimuli and procedures via OSF for readers to evaluate the validity of this technique. Manipulating the pitch contour in a spoken syllable can be complicated and change the perception of the spoken syllable in a significant way. Thus, we will also show the important factors to be considered in this process for doing research in Speech Sciences.

Visual Word Recognition is constrained by writing systems. The Orthographic Depth Hypothesis was proposed to account for phonological activation in various degrees depending on how transparent the grapheme-phoneme-conversion rule is in a writing system. This current study extends the investigation of ODH in Bilingualism to understand the cross-language cognitive processes in bi-script readers. In two cross-language masked priming experiments, we show asymmetrical cognate facilitation effects, which are typically reported as a result of shared phonology or/and orthography between languages, in addition to meaning equivalence. That is, with the same set of items, when the primes were Chinese and the targets English (Experiment 1), there was no cognate facilitation effect; however, when we switched the languages in prime-target pairs (Experiment 2), the cognate facilitation effects emerged. These results indicate that shared phonology across languages is not sufficient to induce cognate facilitation effects and that language-dependent processing mechanisms play a crucial role.

The present study examined within - and cross-language priming patterns among German-English-French trilinguals in order to explore the lexico-semantic representation of L3 in relation to L1 and L2. The trilinguals participated in three lexical decision tasks within the masked translation priming paradigm. The results showed significant within-language repetition priming effects in all three languages, significant translation priming effects for L2-L1, L1-L3, and L2-L3, but no significant priming for L1-L2, L3-L1 or L3-L2. Our findings demonstrate that translation priming asymmetry persists in trilinguals and that the weakest L3 is integrated into both L1 and L2 conceptually (i.e. three languages have a commonly shared conceptual representation). In addition, our results showed a language dominance shift over lexical development between L1 and L2. We argue for a modified Sense Model as the best fit to explain the cognitive architecture of the trilingual lexicon.

This study reports evidence of Mandarin–English bilinguals activating the L1-Mandarin lexicon during L2-English spoken word recognition in an auditory written naming task. In this task, English spoken words were manipulated such that the supra-segmental information resembles the lexical tones in their counterparts in Mandarin (i.e., interlingual homophones, IH). Participants were asked to type the word they had heard onto a computer. Results show that the bilinguals responded slower to IHs than to non-IHs. It is argued that this effect was due to the Mandarin lexical activation driven by the toned English input, sharing both segments and tones with its Mandarin counterparts. Importantly, these results show that lexical tones are critical in bilingual lexical access even when processing a target language (e.g., English) that does not use tones in word recognition.

Learning attitude is thought to impact students' academic achievement and success, but the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms of learning attitudes remain unclear. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the neural markers linked to attitudes toward foreign languages and how they contribute to foreign-language performance. Forty-one Chinese speakers who hold differentiated foreign language (English) attitudes were asked to complete an English semantic judgment task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Multimethod brain imaging analyses showed that, compared with the positive attitude group (PAG), the negative attitude group (NAG) showed increased brain activation in the left STG and functional connectivity between the left STG and the right precentral gyrus (PCG), as well as changed functional segregation and integration of brain networks under the English reading task, after controlling for English reading scores. Mediation analysis further revealed that left STG activity and STG-PCG connectivity mediated the relationships between English attitudes and English reading performance. Taken together, these findings suggest that objective neural markers related to subjective foreign language attitudes (FLAs) exist and that attitude-related neural pathways play important roles in determining students' academic performance. Our findings provide new insights into the neurobiological mechanisms by which attitudes regulate academic performance.

In order to reveal the cultural differences and similarities of compliments between Chinese and Japanese, this study shows how compliments are generated and received in natural discourse from native speakers, and how the conversation develops through the contrastive conversation analysis method. We found that both Chinese and Japanese speakers attach great importance to their relationship with each other. Additionally, the importance is represented structurally, making that a distinct feature of this discourse context. It seems that native Chinese speakers tend to quickly grasp the initiative and show their consideration by expressing solidarity and friendship to each other. In contrast, native Japanese speakers complete the conversation by repeating their speech events and cooperating with the other party.

Tone acquisition has always been a difficulty and focus of second language acquisition. Many studies have used the way of tone production or perception to reveal the influence of mother tongue experience on tone acquisition. Based on the review, this article discusses some experiments on tone production and perception, reveals the significance of these studies and explores possible future research directions.