Blog Archives
Vocabulary size and depth of word knowledge in adult-onset second language acquisition
This study investigated whether adult-onset second language (L2) learners achieve native level vocabulary after decades of immersion. Vocabulary tests were given to three groups of participants: highly successful adult-onset learners of English, monolingual English speakers, and bilingual native speakers of English. Overall, the native speakers outperformed the non-native speakers; however, the rate of native like achievement was remarkably high among the successful adult-onset learners, which indicated that native level L2 vocabulary size and depth of word knowledge were attainable in adulthood. Factors that correlated with native level L2 vocabulary were: childhood caregivers’ education, verbal ability and literacy in the native language, and interest in word learning and daily reading. The findings suggest that the lexicon may be the potentially most successful area of adult-onset L2 learning.
Constraints on Implicit Learning of Grammatical Form-Meaning Connections
Although there is good evidence for implicit learning of associations between forms, little work has investigated implicit learning of form-meaning connections, and the findings are somewhat contradictory. Two experiments were carried out using a novel reaction time methodology to investigate implicit learning of grammatical form-meaning connections. Participants learned four novel articles but were not told about a critical semantic factor that determines agreement with the accompanying noun. Their task was to indicate as quickly as possible which of two pictures was being referred to by an article-noun combination. The measure of learning was whether response times would slow down when the agreement rule was violated (i.e., when the wrong article was used for the picture being referred to). Experiment 1 revealed such an effect when articles correlated with noun animacy, even for participants with no reported awareness of this regularity. In Experiment 2 no such effect was obtained when the regularity concerned the relative size of two objects. It is concluded that grammatical form-meaning connections may be learned implicitly, but learning is constrained by the nature of the meaning involved. It is argued that concepts are differentially available to implicit language learning processes.
from Language Learning
Exploring dyslexics’ phonological deficit III: foreign speech perception and production
This study investigates French dyslexic and control adult participants’ ability to perceive and produce two different non-native contrasts (one segmental and one prosodic), across several conditions varying short-term memory load. For this purpose, we selected Korean plosive voicing (whose categories conflict with French ones) as the segmental contrast and lexical stress as the prosodic contrast (French does not use contrastive lexical stress). We also used a French (native) segmental contrast as a control. Tasks were either auditory discrimination or repetition of CVCV nonsense words. Short-term memory load was varied by presenting the stimuli either in isolation, in sequences of two, or in sequences of three. Our results show overall few differences between dyslexic and control participants. In particular, dyslexic participants performed similarly to controls in all tasks involving Korean plosives, whether in discrimination or in production, and regardless of short-term memory load. However, some group differences emerged with respect to lexical stress, in the discrimination task at greater short-term memory load. Various analyses suggest that dyslexic participants’ difficulties are due to the meta-phonological nature of the task and to short-term memory load. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
from Dyslexia
Phonological and visual similarity effects in Chinese and English language users: Implications for the use of cognitive resources in short-term memory
This study investigated the encoding strategies employed by Chinese and English language users when recalling sequences of pictured objects. The working memory performance of native English participants (n = 14) and Chinese speakers of English as a second language (Chinese ESL; n = 14) was compared using serial recall of visually-presented pictures of familiar objects with three conditions: (i) phonologically and visually distinct, (ii) phonologically similar and visually distinct, and (iii) phonologically distinct and visually similar. Digit span, visual pattern span and articulation rate were also measured. Results indicated that whilst English participants were affected by the phonological but not the visual similarity of items, the performance of Chinese ESL participants was comparable across all three conditions. No significant differences in digit span, visual memory or articulation rate were found between groups. These results are discussed in the light of our understanding of the use of cognitive resources in short-term memory in users of diverse orthographies.
Changes in encoding of path of motion in a first language during acquisition of a second language
Languages vary typologically in their lexicalization of path of motion (Talmy, path to realization: A typology of event conflation: 480–519, 1991). Furthermore, lexicalization patterns are argued to affect syntactic packaging at the level of the clause (e.g., Slobin, Two ways to travel: Verbs of motion in English and Spanish, Oxford University Press, 1996b) and tend to transfer from a first (L1) to a second language (L2) in second language acquisition (e.g., Cadierno and Ruiz, Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 4: 183–216, 2006). Crosslinguistic and developmental evidence suggests, then, that typological preferences for path expression are highly robust features of a first language.
The current study examines the robustness of preferences for path encoding by investigating (1) whether Japanese follows patterns identified for other verb-framed languages like Spanish, and (2) whether patterns established in an L1 can change after acquisition of an L2. L1 performance of native speakers of Japanese with intermediate-level knowledge of English was compared to that of monolingual speakers of Japanese and English. Results showed that monolingual Japanese speakers followed basic lexicalization patterns typical of other verb-framed languages, but with different realizations of path packaging within the clause. Moreover, native Japanese speakers with knowledge of English displayed mixed patterns for lexicalization and expressed significantly more path information per clause than either group of monolinguals. Implications for typology and second language acquisition are discussed.
A Corpus-Based Analysis of the Discourse Functions of Ser/Estar + Adjective in Three Levels of Spanish as FL Learners
Research on the acquisition of Spanish’s two copulas, ser and estar, provides an understanding of the interaction among syntax, semantics, pragmatics, morphology, and vocabulary during development (e.g., Geeslin, 2003a, 2003b; Gunterman, 1992; Ryan & Lafford, 1992). Recent research suggests that linguistic features in the surrounding discourse influence learners’ copula choice. We present a corpus-based analysis of the lexico-grammatical features co-occurring with copula + adjective usage among foreign-language learners of Spanish at three levels of instruction. Findings revealed the following: (a) both ser + adjective and estar + adjective occur at all levels where little linguistic complexity typically occurs; (b) ser + adjective appears in descriptive and evaluative discourse; and (c) estar + adjective is present in narrations, descriptions, and hypothetical discourse.
from Language Learning
Sociolinguistic Variation in the Speech of Learners of Chinese as a Second Language
With Chinese native-speaker data as the baseline, this study investigates the use of the morphosyntactic particle DE (的) by learners of Chinese as a second language. The general patterns are as follows: (a) DE tends to be deleted more in informal speech than in formal settings; (b) higher proficiency and longer residence in China—more interactions with native speakers—promote DE deletion; and (c) females tend to adopt more formal language style and use DE more than males. The study also found that teachers and textbooks use DE much more often than native speakers. Learners’ patterns of DE use closely follow those of their teachers and textbooks, suggesting the necessity of explicit instruction in sociolinguistic variants in L2 classrooms.
from Language Learning
Reconstructing verb meaning in a second language How English speakers of L2 Dutch talk and gesture about placement
This study examines to what extent English speakers of L2 Dutch reconstruct the meanings of placement verbs when moving from a general L1 verb of caused motion (put) to two specific caused posture verbs (zetten/leggen ‘set/lay’) in the L2 and whether the existence of low-frequency cognate forms in the L1 (set/lay) alleviates the reconstruction problem. Evidence from speech and gesture indicates that English speakers have difficulties with the specific verbs in L2 Dutch, initially looking for means to express general caused motion in L1-like fashion through over-generalisation. The gesture data further show that target-like forms are often used to convey L1-like meaning. However, the differentiated use of zetten for vertical placement and dummy verbs (gaan ‘go’ and doen ‘do’) and intransitive posture verbs (zitten/staan/liggen ‘sit, stand, lie’) for horizontal placement, and a positive correlation between appropriate verb use and target-like gesturing suggest a beginning sensitivity to the semantic parameters of the L2 verbs and possible reconstruction.
Maturational Constraints and First Language Attrition
ABSTRACT
The aim of the article is to examine how first language attrition research on maturational constraints interprets and links its findings to current views on maturation in the field of second language acquisition. It is argued that attrition research exhibits certain inconsistencies in the interpretation of the structural characteristics of the critical period and the interplay between maturation and nonmaturational factors in attrition. In view of findings from first language relearning/reactivation and theoretical-methodological advances in second language research on maturation, the article proposes a reinterpretation of maturational constraints in language attrition that, first, emphasizes the gradual decline of susceptibility to attrition and, second, puts forth the conditioning function that the maturational constraints have on nonmaturational factors.
from Language Learning
Perception of Paralinguistic Intonational Meaning in a Second Language
Recent studies of paralinguistic intonational meaning show that languages differ systematically in how pitch range is used to signal meaning differences, contra previous claims. This poses an additional challenge to second language learners, who generally receive little tutoring on intonation. This study investigates learners’ competence and strategies in the perception of paralinguistic intonational meaning by examining the perception of “emphatic” and “surprised” as signaled by pitch range and related variables in two learner groups (L1-Dutch/L2-English, L1-English/L2-Dutch). Results show that transfer plays a considerably larger role in L2 English learners than in L2 Dutch learners. Both learner groups also operate on their knowledge of L2 intonation but in different form-meaning relations. These differences are explained by differences in L2 proficiency, the nature of L2 input, and the salience of form-meaning relations in L2.
from Language Learning
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