The study examines whether L2 reading proficiency exerts influence upon cognitive control among young-adult Chinese-English bilinguals. A low L2 reading proficiency group and a high L2 reading proficiency group were compared on two cognitive control tasks measuring inhibition, monitoring, and mental set shifting, i.e. Number Stroop task and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), with other confounding variables strictly matched. The results showed that the high L2 reading proficiency group had bilingual effects on conflict monitoring in the Stroop task and mental set shifting in the WCST. Further regression analyses results confirmed the significant role of L2 reading in cognitive control. The overall results suggest that L2 reading experience has a significant influence on cognitive control on the aspects of conflict monitoring and mental set shifting, but not on inhibition, revealing the specific relationship between particular linguistic context demand (L2 reading) and its potential impact on cognitive control.

The study investigates whether learners' demographics (e.g., age, education, and intelligence-IQ), language learning experience, and cognitive control predict Chinese (L2) reading comprehension in young adults. Thirty-four international students who studied mandarin Chinese in mainland China (10 females, 24 males) from Bangladesh, Burundi, Congo, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe were tested on a series of measures including demographic questionnaires, IQ test, two cognitive control tasks [Flanker Task measuring inhibition and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) measuring mental set shifting], and a Chinese reading comprehension test (HSK level 4). The results of correlation analyses showed that education, L2 learning history, L2 proficiency, and previous category errors of the WCST were significantly correlated with Chinese reading comprehension. Further multiple regression analyses indicated that Chinese learning history, IQ, and previous category errors of the WCST significantly predicted Chinese reading comprehension. These findings reveal that aside from IQ and the time spent on L2 learning, the component mental set shifting of cognitive control also predicts reading outcomes, which suggests that cognitive control has a place in reading comprehension models over and above traditional predictors of language learning experience.