Word recognition in pre-foreign language learners: The role of form overlap

This study tests how form overlap with the L1 influences young learners’ ability to recognize L2 words from continuous speech before they receive classroom instruction in English as a foreign language (EFL). German 6- to 9-year-olds were tested on their ability to recognize words in English utterances that overlapped in form with their L1 translation equivalents (e.g. cognate words, milk-Milch /mɪlk/ - /mɪlx/) or did not (e.g. noncognate words, smoke - Rauch, /smoʊk/ - /raʊ̯x/). L1 form similarity neither influenced performance at the group level nor when differences in individual L1 skills were considered. This pattern of results remained even when, in Experiment 2, the L1 word form was pre-activated visually. Unlike adults’, pre-EFL learners’ recognition of words in continuous speech does not seem to be affected by form similarity to the L1, which we link to differences in how form-meaning mappings are relevant in FL learning across development.