Form priming across dialects: L1 and L2 effects

Research shows that cross-dialect lexical recognition can be asymmetrical, favouring non-dominant dialect speakers and prejudicing dominant-dialect speakers [10]. We ask if non-dominant dialect speakers exhibit similar perceptual effects when exposed to modified L2 input that aligns with their particular L1 dialect. The dialect feature examined is Spanish coda [-s]-aspiration. Participants were from Bogotá (non-[-s]-aspirating) and Barranquilla ([-s]aspirating), Colombia. Participants carried out an auditory form-priming task with lexical decision. Critical Spanish trials consisted of word-pairs matched across dialects (basta ‘enough’ [bahta][bahta]) or unmatched ([bahta]-[basta]). In the English version, critical trials included similar items, modified to reflect the s-aspiration pattern of Barranquilla Spanish (‘display’ [dɪhpleɪ]-[dɪspleɪ]), also in matched or unmatched pairs. Results show that speakers of [-s]-aspirating dialects were equally fast at recognizing native-dialect targets and nonnative dialect targets. English form-priming results followed a similar pattern, with the modulating effect of English proficiency, as measured by a standardized vocabulary test.