ERP Study on the Influence of Priming Effect on Semantic Processing of Chinese-Japanese Later Bilingual Learner

The mechanism of late bilingual semantic switching is an important issue of foreign language learning. The present study discuss the effects of three types priming conditions (Japanese words, Chinese words and meaningless Symbol) on the bilingual language learners during the perceiving and processing steps by using ERP (Event-Related Potentials). ERP components of N200 and N400 show difference by priming types. In conclusion, both repetition priming and cross-language priming have priming effects, in addition, the processing of Japanese vocabulary need Chinese vocabulary as the medium to achieve semantic representation. The results indicate that creating direct connections between Japanese words and the semantic presentations while learning will be more efficient for Chinese Japanese learners. Keywords—bilingualism, semantic priming, ERP