Effect Of Audio-visual Cues On Language Switching In Chinese-English Bilinguals

Bilinguals are the individuals who master two or more languages. Bilinguals switchbetween different languages or dialects called language switching. When bilinguals switchfrom the current using language to another language than no switch language, reaction timeand accuracy loss, which is called language switching cost. At present, there are a lot ofresearches about language switching. The researchers put forward language non-specificselection model and the specific selection model. There are a lot of researchers focused on thesource of the language switching cost. The main issue is language switching cost result from asystem that is outside the word-recognition system or a system that is inside theword-recognition system in the mental lexicon. Most previous researches investigate thesource of the language switching cost from the language proficiency of individuals and tasktype. But little researchers study the effect of audio-visual cues on language switching. Forthe role of audio and visual cues in language switching, there are visual and auditoryadvantages at present. The aim of investigate the role of audio and visual cues in languageswitching, one is to provide evidence for the source of the language switching cost, another isto provide education enlightenment for English learners. Lead teachers and students to useaudio and visual cues in learning English, to promote English learning. This study selectedcollege students who are non-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals as subjects using the taskswitching paradigm to investigate the effect of audio and visual cues on language switchingand its cost.This study includes four experiments. Experiment1selected30college students who arenon-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals as subjects using the task switching paradigm toinvestigate the effect of visual cue on language switching and its cost. Experiment2selected30college students who are non-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals as subjects using thetask switching paradigm to investigate the effect of audio cue on language switching and itscost. Experiment3selected28college students who are non-proficient Chinese-Englishbilinguals as subjects using the task switching paradigm to investigate the effect of audio and visual cue on language switching and its cost. Experiment4selected27college students whoare non-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals as subjects using the task switching paradigm toinvestigate the effect of audio-visual cue on language switching and its cost.The results showed that:(1) Under the condition of visual cues, English switching cost isless than Chinese switching cost.(2) Under the condition of auditory cues, English switchingcost is greater than Chinese switching cost.(3) When the audio and visual cues are present atthe same time, and the participants focused on visual cues, the English switching costs underthe condition of audio-visual cues are consistent is larger than the English switching costsunder the condition of audio-visual clues are inconsistent.(4)The research shows that theaudio and visual cues influence language switching and its cost. Audio cue contributes toreduce the reaction time and switching cost of Chinese task. The effect of the cues’consistency to the reaction time and switching cost of English task is larger than the responsetime and switching cost of Chinese task.The findings support non-specific selection model and the language switching cost resultfrom the outside of language system. The enlightenment for English teaching is teachers andlearners must make good use of audio-visual cues and combined with the use of visual andaudio cues in learning English, to improve English learning.