Bilingual writing coactivation: Lexical and sublexical processing in a word dictation task

Abstract Bilinguals’ two languages seem to be coactivated in parallel during reading, speaking, and listening. However, this coactivation writing has been scarcely studied. This study aimed assess orthographic spelling-to-dictation. We took advantage of the presence polyvalent graphemes Spanish (one phonological representation with specifications, e.g., / b /for both v b) manipulate congruency. Spanish–English bilinguals were presented cross-linguistic congruent (mo ement–mo imiento) incongruent words (go ernment–go ierno) for a dictation task. The time accuracy initiate type rest-of-word (lexical sublexical processing) recorded native language (L1) second (L2). Results revealed no differences between conditions monolinguals. Bilinguals showed congruency interaction better performance stimuli, which was evident from beginning typing L2. Language lexical–sublexical bilinguals’ are discussed.