Revisiting bilingual processing: insights from L1 transfer in L2 acquisition

MacWhinney’s (1992) Competition Model proposes that L2 learners do not start from scratch but instead build on pre-existing L1 phonological, lexical, and syntactic representations. This approach eases the learning process yet leaves enduring traces from L1 transfer in the bilinguals’ L2 lexicon, which may influence adult language processing. In this paper, we review psycholinguistic findings on bilingual comprehension and production and propose that many effects traditionally seen as evidence of on-line cross-language activation might instead reflect the long-term impact of L1 transfer during L2 learning. This perspective helps bridge the gap between research on bilingual processing at different time scales.