The purpose of the proposed research is to investigate the effects of language context and language proficiency and language proficiency on lexical retrieval and semantic representation in bilingual speakers with aphasia. The lexical knowledge and retrieval skills of five bilingual speakers with aphasia will be measured using spoken work matching and picture naming tasks in monolingual (English and Spanish) and bilingual contexts. Performance on tasks of this type can be used to infer the level of breakdown with the lexical retrieval process by bilingual speakers by lexical knowledge variability within and between speakers of two or more languages. Determining and characterizing the linguistic impairment of bilingual speakers with aphasia requires knowledge of normal bilingual language processing disruptions and the language knowledge and use patterns in the languages spoken. To provide a normative framework for interpreting performance in bilingual aphasia, 25 normal speakers from the same speech community will be assessed. The error patterns produced by the aphasic speakers will be contrasted with the performance of the normal bilinguals. Results will be used to evaluate naming error loci for the speakers with aphasia independent of expected normal variability in language knowledge as measured by language use questionnaires and the performance of neurologically normal speakers from the same speech community.
