Word processing in cross-language translation between Japanese and English by advanced second-language learners: A test of the revised hierarchical model

Abstract

The present study examined cross-language word processing between participants' native language (L1) and second language (L2). Participants in the study were fluent speakers of English whose first language was Japanese. In Experiment 1, in which a translation task was used, the critical experimental manipulation was word concreteness. Translations from Japanese to English (forward translation) and from English to Japanese (backward translation) were compared in terms of translation latency and the number of words recalled correctly. The results showed that the latency of forward translation was longer than for backward translation, and that the latency for the translation of concrete words was longer than for abstract words. More concrete words than abstract words were recalled correctly. In Experiment 2, performance on a word-reading task was compared with that on the translation task. The results indicated that only the number of concrete words recalled correctly in forward translation was larger than that in the reading conditions. It was suggested that only forward translation of concrete words is conceptually mediated.