Possible manifestations of shallow processing in advanced second language speakers

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonella Sorace
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Future Research ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Processing Load ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Shallow Processing ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
On Line ◽  
Divergent Behavior

The proposal by Clahsen and Felser (CF) has the potential of marking a turning point in second language (L2) acquisition research. Contrary to much L2 research to date, it suggests that some of the differences between native and (advanced) nonnative speakers may be at the level of grammatical processing, rather than grammatical representations. Accounting for L2 speakers' divergent behavior does therefore not necessarily involve positing “representational deficits”: L2 speakers can, and indeed do, attain target representations of the L2, but may compute incomplete (“shallow”) syntactic parses in comprehension. Such shallow processing is often accompanied by reliance (or overreliance) on lexical, semantic, and pragmatic information, which can lead to seemingly trouble-free comprehension in ordinary communication. It is only when speakers are faced with sentence ambiguities, which impose a greater than normal processing load, that the differences between adult L2 language acquirers and child first language (L1) acquirers become apparent: both child and adult language learners have difficulty in integrating structural and nonstructural information in on-line comprehension, but although children prioritize structural information, adult learners privilege nonstructural lexical–semantic information. CF's proposal opens up new perspectives on the nature of ultimate attainment in adult L2 acquisition; at the same time it raises some questions that, in my view, are of crucial importance for future research.

Reading-time studies of second language ambiguity resolution

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Despina Papadopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Target Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Impact

This article provides a review of studies that have examined the ambiguity resolution strategies employed when processing a second language (L2). The way second language learners parse the L2 input has not yet been thoroughly investigated, although recently there has been an increasing interest in this area. The exploration of the mechanisms L2 learners use to parse ambiguous constructions allows us to examine not only aspects of L2 acquisition that still remain obscure, but also the validity of existing theories of parsing. The studies reported in this article look at three different types of ambiguous construction in the L2, and their results are discussed in relation to the L2 performance pattern. Most of the findings show that even advanced L2 learners are slower readers than native speakers and apply processing routines that depart from those best suited for processing the target language input. In addition, although L2 learners show sensitivity to lexical cues such as verb argument structure when processing the L2 input, they are less likely to rapidly employ structural information on line. The issues of the transfer of processing mechanisms from the first language (L1) to the second as well as the impact of L2 exposure on the adoption of the L2 processing routines are still unresolved and need to be further investigated.

Case morphology and word order in second language Turkish: Evidence from Greek learners

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Despina Papadopoulou ◽  
Spyridoula Varlokosta ◽  
Vassilios Spyropoulos ◽  
Hasan Kaili ◽  
Sophia Prokou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Case Morphology ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Order Constraints ◽  
On Line

The optional use of morphology attested in second language learners has been attributed either to a representational deficit or to a ‘surface’ problem with respect to the realization of inflectional affixes. In this article we contribute to this issue by providing empirical data from the early interlanguage of Greek learners of Turkish. Three experiments have been conducted, a cloze task, a sentence picture matching task and an on-line grammaticality judgement task, in order to investigate case morphology and its interaction with word order constraints. The findings of all three experiments point towards a variable use of case morphology, which is also observed in previous studies of Turkish as a second language (L2). Moreover, they show clearly that the learners face difficulties with non-canonical word orders as well as with the interaction of word order constraints and Case. On the other hand, the learners performed well on verbal inflections. On the basis of these findings, we argue that the developmental patterns in the early stages of L2 acquisition cannot be attributed to a global lack of functional categories but rather to more localized difficulties, which seem to be related to (a) whether the features in the L2 are grammaticalized in the first language and (b) the way these features are encoded in the morphosyntax of the first language. Moreover, we claim that processing factors and the specific properties of the morphological paradigms affect L2 development.

Second language structural priming: A critical review and directions for future research

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie N. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Current State ◽  
Current Review ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
State Of Research

The last 15 years has seen a tremendous growth in research on structural priming among second language (L2) speakers. Structural priming is the phenomenon whereby speakers are more likely to repeat a structure they have recently heard or produced. Research on L2 structural priming speaks to key issues regarding the underlying linguistic and cognitive mechanisms that support L2 acquisition and use, and the extent to which lexical and grammatical information are shared across an L2 speaker’s languages. As the number of researchers investigating L2 priming and its implications for L2 learning continues to grow, it is important to assess the current state of research in this area and establish directions for continued inquiry. The goal of the current review is to provide an overview of recent research on within-language L2 structural priming, with an eye towards the open questions that remain.

scholarly journals The processing of ambiguous sentences by first and second language learners of English

2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAUDIA FELSER ◽  
LEAH ROBERTS ◽  
THEODORE MARINIS ◽  
REBECCA GROSS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

This study investigates the way adult second language (L2) learners of English resolve relative clause attachment ambiguities in sentences such as The dean liked the secretary of the professor who was reading a letter. Two groups of advanced L2 learners of English with Greek or German as their first language participated in a set of off-line and on-line tasks. The results indicate that the L2 learners do not process ambiguous sentences of this type in the same way as adult native speakers of English do. Although the learners' disambiguation preferences were influenced by lexical–semantic properties of the preposition linking the two potential antecedent noun phrases (of vs. with), there was no evidence that they applied any phrase structure–based ambiguity resolution strategies of the kind that have been claimed to influence sentence processing in monolingual adults. The L2 learners' performance also differs markedly from the results obtained from 6- to 7-year-old monolingual English children in a parallel auditory study, in that the children's attachment preferences were not affected by the type of preposition at all. We argue that children, monolingual adults, and adult L2 learners differ in the extent to which they are guided by phrase structure and lexical–semantic information during sentence processing.

‘You need help as usual, do you?’: Joking and swearing for collegiality in a Swedish workplace

Multilingua ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Work Team ◽  
Interactional Sociolinguistics ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
And Performance

AbstractThis paper draws on the KINSA project (The Communicative Situation of Immigrants at Swedish Workplaces), which aimed to identify communicative factors that have a positive impact on the integration of second language speakers in the workplace and in their immediate work team. The focus here is on humour and swearing as strategies for doing collegiality and for building and maintaining good relations between co-workers. The article presents data from five second language speakers, permanently employed industrial or office workers in a major Swedish company. Theoretically and methodologically, the paper has its basis in discourse analysis, interactional sociolinguistics and the ethnography of communication. By means of fieldwork, a large body of empirical data was collected, comprising detailed field notes, audio and video recordings of naturally occurring talk, and texts processed and produced by participants. The analysis of the data shows that metalinguistic and metacultural awareness and performance of relational communicative acts among the participants appear to have helped to facilitate and consolidate integration in the workplace and the immediate work team. To foster good relations at work, the five participants make strategic use of jokes, compliments, narratives, swearing and greetings. In this article the use of jokes and swearing is highlighted. It closes by making a case for future research in the area of integration in the workplace through relational communication, especially among second language speakers.

scholarly journals Speed, breakdown, and repair: An investigation of fluency in long-term second-language speakers of English

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Lahmann ◽  
Rasmus Steinkrauss ◽  
Monika S Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
First Language ◽  
Aging Effect ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Syllable Duration ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
The Mean

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The present study investigated which factors would best predict second-language (L2) fluency in a group of long-term L2 speakers of different English varieties with German as their first language. Design/methodology/approach: L2 fluency was conceptualized in terms of utterance fluency for which speed, breakdown and repair fluency were distinguished. Data and analysis: Multiple measures of utterance fluency were applied to four-minute speech fragments originating from 102 spontaneous oral interviews. Interviewees’ ages of onset ranged from 7 to 17, whereas their ages at interview ranged from 57 to 87. Multifactorial analyses yielded significant effects of age at interview. Findings/conclusions: Whereas the mean number of silent pauses and repairs increases, syllable duration decreases. This leaves room for interpretation as to why we find an aging effect. Overall, the evidence suggests that the usual, L2 acquisition-specific factors, such as age of onset or length of residence, are no longer at play to predict L2 fluency. Originality and significance/implications: To this point L2 fluency in very advanced, highly proficient L2 speakers has received little attention. The results point to the need for more research into highly proficient L2 users.

scholarly journals Can agreement be suppressed in second-language acquisition? Data from the Palenquero–Spanish interface

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M Lipski
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Indirect Measure ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Cost Differential ◽  
On Line ◽  
Line Construction ◽  
Carry Over

The present study examines the tradeoff between the on-line construction of modifier–noun gender agreement and verb–subject person/number agreement vs. the automatization and entrenchment of agreement, through the study of bilingual speakers of Spanish and the Afro-Colombian creole language Palenquero, whose lexicon is highly cognate with Spanish, but which lacks morphological agreement. The study focuses on first language (L1) Spanish speakers who are acquiring Palenquero as a second language (L2), since when switching from the modifier- and verb-agreeing L1 to the agreement-less L2, the persistence or absence of agreement in cognate items can be taken as an indirect measure of the cost differential between producing morphosyntactic agreement and suppressing the carryover of obligatory agreement to the L2. The results of experiments, which was conducted with bilingual Spanish–Palenquero speakers in San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, reveal the tenacity of Spanish gender agreement among L2 Palenquero speakers; heritage Palenquero speakers’ retention of gender agreement falls between traditional speakers and L2 speakers. Spanish verb agreement, on the other hand, shows relatively little carry-over to Palenquero, suggesting that the suppression of L1 agreement during L2 acquisition is not a simple all-or-nothing matter.

List composition effect on cognate and non-cognate word acquisition in children

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montserrat Comesaña ◽  
Ana J. Moreira ◽  
Daniela Valente ◽  
Juan A. Hernández-Cabrera ◽  
Ana Paula Soares
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Learning Method ◽  
Composition Effect ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Composition Effects ◽  
Bilingual Memory ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Word Acquisition ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

Abstract Previous studies on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition with children showed that the use of a picture learning method favours the creation of direct links between the semantic system and new lexical representations at early stages of L2 acquisition (Comesaña et al., 2009). However, recent studies found that this influence seems to vary according to the cognate status of the words being learned (Comesaña et al., 2012), raising the question of how the type of words involved can modulate the lexical-semantic connections between the words of both languages in the bilingual memory. The main goal of the present study was to explore list composition effects in the establishment of L2 word-to-concept connections in Portuguese children by using a picture-based method. Results showed no influence of list composition in the establishment of L2 lexical-semantic connections when cognates have to be learned. Findings are discussed in light of relevant models of bilingual memory.

How dynamic is second language acquisition?

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-95
Author(s):  
Karsten Steinhauer
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
On Line ◽  
Developmental Psycholinguistics

Clahsen and Felser (CF) present a thought-provoking article that is likely to have a strong impact on the field, in particular, on developmental psycholinguistics and second language (L2) acquisition research. Unlike the majority of previous work on language acquisition that focused on “competence,” that is, the knowledge basis underlying grammar, CF emphasize the need to approach language acquisition with psycholinguistic measures of processing. Based primarily on behavioral and electrophysiological on-line data, they argue that language acquisition in early first language (L1) and late L2 follows different patterns.

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