Orthographic Effects in Word Recognition among Spanish-Speaking Learners of English

While speech perception has been found to influence word recognition, what specific aspects of the L1-L2 mapping play the most important role is not well understood. This study explores whether, and if so how, visual-orthographic information influences the mapping of phonemic information in an L2 in both perception and word-recognition. Spanish-speaking English learners completed an AXB and a word monitoring task in English manipulating the presence of the labiodental /v/ and the bilabial /b/ phonemes, which are allophonic in Spanish, but phonemic in English (e.g., best vs. vest). The results show a clear effect of L1 on L2 learners’ perception and word recognition, partly modulated by the orthographic information seen. These results support models that predict the mapping of L1-L2 phonemes, emphasizing how orthographic information may be an important variable to take into consideration.