Interlocutors modulate language plan and production in high and low literate bilinguals: Evidence from eye movements

Abstract

In a socio-interactive context, bilinguals effortlessly plan their language appropriately. This study explores how high-literate and low-literate bilinguals plan their language when interacting with interlocutors with varied second language (L2) proficiency presented in an interactive context. Participants named objects in the presence of interlocutors with varying proficiency, which were presented in the background as visual-world stimuli. Results indicate that bilingual participants’ language choices and proportion of fixations were modulated by their level of literacy and the interlocutors’ language profiles. High-literate bilinguals chose to name in L2, and while doing so, they looked at high-L2-proficient interlocutors. Meanwhile, low-literate bilinguals looked at low-L2-proficient interlocutors and named in first language (L1) more often times than in L2. This indicates that bilinguals’ literacy level is not determined solely by their language choice but also by their sociolinguistic processing when interacting with interlocutors with varied L2 proficiencies.