English possessive gender agreement in production and comprehension: Similarities and differences between young monolingual English learners and adult Mandarin–English second language learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 985-1017 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUCIA POZZAN ◽  
INÉS ANTÓN-MÉNDEZ
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Study Support ◽  
English Speaking

ABSTRACTSecond language learners of English occasionally establish gender agreement between a possessive determiner and the local noun that follows it, rather than with its target antecedent (*“Maryi loves hisi brother”). The production and comprehension profiles of adult Mandarin second language learners of English and monolingual English-speaking children were examined to establish (a) if such errors result from an inherent tendency to establish agreement locally within the noun phrase or rather from transfer of first language agreement procedures, and (b) if these errors are production specific or rather reflect nontarget grammatical representations, thus also affecting comprehension. The results of the elicited production portion of the study support the hypothesis that gender agreement errors in learners’ production of possessives result from a generalized tendency to establish local agreement. The results of the comprehension portion of the study suggest that the observed tendency for local agreement within the noun phrase is production specific and does not characterize learners’ grammatical representations as a whole.

scholarly journals Understanding the influence of a second language on the academic performance of learners in information technology : a case study of isiZulu-speaking English second language learners in KwaZulu-Natal

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mandisa Purity Njobe
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Information Technology Education ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Kwazulu Natal

Over the years, computers have been introduced to many South African classrooms in an attempt to improve education, and this is true for Previously Technologically Disadvantaged (PTD) schools in Kwazulu-Natal with learners whose first language is isiZulu. However, frameworks of computer learning vary widely and there is a crucial need to understand how specific situational conditions either facilitate or constrain the implementation of computer-supported learning in these schools. This thesis discusses research undertaken to document the process of introducing localised OpenOffice.org.za software with an isiZulu interface into Information Technology education at PTD schools in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The thesis also documents the process of introducing a dual language medium in Information Technology at the Durban University of Technology. The study investigates the English language as one of the possible causes of the lack of understanding of computers by English second language learners.

scholarly journals Morphosyntactic Processing in Late Second-Language Learners

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1870-1887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Gillon Dowens ◽  
Marta Vergara ◽  
Horacio A. Barber ◽  
Manuel Carreiras
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
First Language ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Sentence Position ◽  
And Gender

The goal of the present study was to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of second-language (L2) morphosyntactic processing in highly proficient late learners of an L2 with long exposure to the L2 environment. ERPs were collected from 22 English–Spanish late learners while they read sentences in which morphosyntactic features of the L2 present or not present in the first language (number and gender agreement, respectively) were manipulated at two different sentence positions—within and across phrases. The results for a control group of age-matched native-speaker Spanish participants included an ERP pattern of LAN-type early negativity followed by P600 effect in response to both agreement violations and for both sentence positions. The late L2 learner results included a similar pattern, consisting of early negativity followed by P600, in the first sentence position (within-phrase agreement violations) but only P600 effects in the second sentence position (across-phrase agreement violation), as well as significant amplitude and onset latency differences between the gender and the number violation effects in both sentence positions. These results reveal that highly proficient learners can show electrophysiological correlates during L2 processing that are qualitatively similar to those of native speakers, but the results also indicate the contribution of factors such as age of acquisition and transfer processes from first language to L2.

Why is ‘is’ easier than ‘-s’?: acquisition of tense/agreement morphology by child second language learners of English

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Ionin ◽  
Kenneth Wexler
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
Verb Raising

This study of first-language (L1) Russian children acquiring English as a second language (L2) investigates the reasons behind omission of verbal inflection in L2 acquisition and argues for presence of functional categories in L2 grammar. Analyses of spontaneous production data show that the child L2 learners ( n = 20), while omitting inflection, almost never produce incorrect tense/agreement morphology. Furthermore, the L2 learners use suppletive inflection at a significantly higher rate than affixal inflection, and overgenerate be auxiliary forms in utterances lacking progressive participles (e.g., they are help people). A grammaticality judgement task of English tense/agreement morphology similarly shows that the child L2 English learners are significantly more sensitive to the be paradigm than to inflection on thematic verbs. These findings suggest that Tense is present in the learners’ L2 grammar, and that it is instantiated through forms of the be auxiliary. It is argued that omission of inflection is due to problems with the realization of surface morphology, rather than to feature impairment, in accordance with the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis of Prévost and White (2000). It is furthermore suggested that L2 learners initially associate morphological agreement with verb-raising and, thus, acquire forms of be before inflectional morphology on in situ thematic verbs.

The neural timecourse of American English vowel discrimination by Japanese, Russian and Spanish second-language learners of English

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Valerie L. Shafer ◽  
Sarah Kresh ◽  
Kikuyo Ito ◽  
Miwako Hisagi ◽  
Nancy Vidal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Temporal Contrast ◽  
Asymmetrical Pattern ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) phoneme features and phonetic salience on discrimination of second language (L2) American English (AE) vowels. On a perceptual task, L2 adult learners of English with Spanish, Japanese or Russian as an L1 showed poorer discrimination of the spectral-only difference between /æ:/ as the oddball (deviant) among frequent /ɑ:/ stimuli compared to AE controls. The Spanish listeners showed a significant difference from the controls for the spectral-temporal contrast between /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ for both perception and the neural Mismatch Negativity (MMN), but only for deviant /ɑ:/ versus /ʌ/ (duration decrement). For deviant /ʌ/ versus /ɑ:/, and for deviant /æ:/ versus /ʌ/ or /ɑ:/, all participants showed equivalent MMN amplitude. The asymmetrical pattern for /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ suggested that L2 phonetic detail was maintained only for the deviant. These findings indicated that discrimination was more strongly influenced by L1 phonology than phonetic salience.

Phonological awareness in young second language learners

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Bruck ◽  
Fred Genesee
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Phoneme Awareness ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Bilingual Group ◽  
English Speaking

ABSTRACTEnglish-speaking children (N = 91) who were attending French schools (bilingual group) were given a battery of phonological awareness tests in kindergarten and in grade 1. At the time of kindergarten testing the mean age of the children was 5:9. Their performance was compared to age-matched English-speaking children (N = 72) attending English schools (monolingual group). The bilingual children showed heightened levels of phonological awareness skills in kindergarten in the area of onset-rime awareness. By grade 1, the pattern of group differences was more complex. The monolingual and bilingual children performed similarly on onset-rime segmentation tasks. The monolingual children had higher phoneme awareness scores than their French-schooled peers; this result is interpreted to reflect the role of literacy instruction on phoneme awareness development. In comparison, the bilingual children had higher syllable segmentation scores than their monolingual peers. This result is interpreted to reflect the role of second language input on phonological awareness.

scholarly journals Voicing up in Debate Competition: Oral Development of Two Malaysian ESL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Farzaneh Amiri ◽  
Moomala Othman ◽  
Maryam Jahedi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Oral Development ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
The Impact

This research used a qualitative approach to focus on the classroom debate between Malaysian English second language learners (ESL). Since debate has been often perceived as not a suitable activity for low proficiency students due to their limited linguistic resources, there has not been much emphasis on the impact of debate on incompetent ESL learners; however, this study was an attempt to concentrate on two students who were not competent in English to investigate their oral development via debate. The study observed the communicative strategies employed in this challenging task during the five debate rounds. Although the progress made was quite limited, the study showed that debate competition can be a relevant and meaningful practice for speaking activity among low proficiency students. Moreover, it showed that debate can be used to scaffold students’ practice in speaking.

SECOND LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC DEVELOPMENT

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patti Spinner
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Multiple Choice Questions ◽  
Grammatical Development ◽  
Assessment Measure ◽  
Morphosyntactic Development ◽  
The One

The purpose of this study is to begin work toward a grammatical assessment measure that could bridge the gap between theoretical work on grammatical development, on the one hand, and tools such as the Michigan Test (which uses multiple-choice questions on vocabulary and grammar) or the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages scale (which uses holistic descriptions of grammar use), on the other hand. Such a measure would need to be practical to administer with large groups. Two proposals of grammatical development (processability theory, Pienemann, 1998, 2005; and organic grammar, Vainikka & Young-Scholten, 2006) were applied to short samples of spontaneous production data from 48 adult second-language learners of English from mixed first-language backgrounds. The rapid profile scale successfully accounted for the learners’ development but is of somewhat limited use with short samples of data. The organic grammar placement scale may need to be further refined, but it includes important indicators of grammatical development. A preliminary proposal for using a combined measure with a rubric is presented.

scholarly journals Politeness in Business Communication: Investigating English Modal Sequences in Chinese Learners’ Letter Writing

RELC Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Qian ◽  
Mingwei Pan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Esl Learners

Politeness has been a source of inspiration for research in pragmatics and inter- and intra-cultural communication. However, the existing literature focusses more on how politeness is realized in the context of first language use. Few studies have investigated the issue related to the use of English by second language learners from varying subcultures within the same cultural tradition. The present study examines how Hong Kong and Shanghai tertiary-level learners of English convey politeness in their business letter writing, as reflected in the use of modal sequences. Three hundred business letters were collected from students in Hong Kong and another 300 from students in Shanghai. Majoring in various disciplines, these students were all in their final year of study, and their English proficiency level was generally scored at B2, as compared with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Following a mixed-methods approach, the study tracked a rather complex distribution of politeness realizations by different modal sequences. The findings were that Hong Kong ESL learners appeared to be more strategic users of modal sequences as evidenced by a variety of usage examples from the two purpose-built learner corpora, which were developed to monitor and compare English learners’ business writing at the tertiary level. Another finding was that epistemic modality tended to better preserve politeness in the writing.

Reading strategy training in second language contexts

1993 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Cotterall
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Learning Difficulties ◽  
Reading Strategy ◽  
Strategy Training ◽  
Learning Context

Strategy training appears to be a promising means of assisting second language learners. However, strategy training operates within a context. If factors in that context are not considered, the training will not be successful. This paper discusses a number of insights highlighted by a reading strategy training study conducted in a second language (L2) setting. It cautions against the uncritical adoption of strategy training as a panacea for learning difficulties, and stresses the importance of recognising and taking account of factors in the second language learning context which may suggest modifications to procedures carried out successfully in first language (L1) settings.

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