The article “Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition” by Andrea Webera and Anne Cutler-Save provides an account of several experiments examining the lexical competition emerging in non-native listeners during the spoken-word recognition process. The results of the study showed that despite stored representations maintaining a second-language distinction, native phonemic categories still continued to capture second-language input. Additionally, it was discovered that non-native listeners experienced lexical competition at a higher rate than native ones. At the same time, it is important to understand the authors’ motivation behind the experiment and formulate the research question for the study.
The process of spoken-word recognition is a complex matter that can be explored at different levels, and one of its main features is lexical competition. When people listen to spoken language, their brains automatically search for word candidates that correspond to the sound they hear (Webera & Cutler, 2004). In order to make a certain word choice, competition ensues between several candidates. Yet, for people who listen to a foreign language, the recognition process may differ from those listening to their native language. As a result, the current study concerns the idea of lexical competition in non-native listeners. Therefore, the primary motivation for the study was to compare the aspects of the lexical competition both in native and non-native listeners and to discover the existing differences and similarities. Based on the motivation for the study, it is possible to formulate its research question: What is the degree of the lexical competition experienced by non-native and native listeners during spoken-word recognition? Such a research question summarizes the essence of the research and corresponds with the results.
Andrea Webera and Anne Cutler-Save explored the topic of lexical competition in the article “Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition.” The motivation for the research was to analyze the nature of lexical competition in non-native and native listeners and to establish the main differences. The research question for the paper can be defined as “What is the degree of the lexical competition experienced by non-native and native listeners during spoken-word recognition?”
Reference
Webera, A., & Cutler, A. (2004). Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 50, 1–25.