The Inhibition Case

In this experiment the inhibition of the native tongue due to a new learned language was tested. Phonology and semantic were focused on heavily. The goal of the experiment was to test whether the inhibition varied across different levels of effortlessness in the second language, seeing that it should be somewhat preserved for similar comparisons between languages occur. Results showed that less-fluent Spanish speakers showed significant inhibition producing the English words that popped up, after repeated practicing the Spanish word. However, the more-fluent Spanish speaker showed most inhibition when trying to produce the English words. The phonology of English words were challenging to the subjects that were more experienced with Spanish, proving that absolutely engagement in one a new language results in increased struggle when attempting to produce the native-tongue.

I believe Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis on linguistic determinism can be considered here. Linguistic determinism is the hypothesis that language determines the way we think. In this experiment there were blatant signs of influenced thinking that may have caused the subject to struggle or slowed the process of reciting the word down. This could be because our ideas come first and we need our words (in which ever language) to be able to label them.