Abstract
How bilinguals mentally store representations of their two languages in one mind is essential for understanding the mental processes involved during linguistic and nonlinguistic experiences. Research suggests that mental representations for both languages are simultaneously activated when bilinguals read, speak, write or listen to only one language (Kroll, Bogulski, McClain, 2012). However, this research is limited because the experiments have relied upon language-based stimuli and participants have primarily been highly proficient spoken language bilinguals. To address these limitations, the current study explored simultaneous language activation in second language learners of American Sign Language (ASL) using a non-linguistic pictorial task. The purpose of the current study was to explore simultaneous language activation in individuals learning ASL. The research question was whether second language learners of ASL simultaneously activate English and ASL and if so, whether priming would have an impact on the level of activation. A sample of twenty-three hearing female college students was given a non-linguistic pictorial task. Ten of these participants received a priming treatment before taking the task. Response times were recorded for competitive stimuli (semantically unrelated but phonologically related in ASL) and non-competitive stimuli (semantically related and phonologically related in ASL) to measure simultaneous language activation. Findings revealed that second language learners of ASL do not simultaneous activate ASL and English, even when primed. Statistically insignificant findings were found between competitive and non-competitive stimuli. Furthermore, statistically insignificant findings were found between the primed and control group. These results could suggest that simultaneous language activation may spread differently for bilinguals who learn a second language later in life. Additionally, perceiving pictorials may spread activation differently than has been demonstrated for perceiving language-based stimuli.