The acquisition of complex sentences: a cross-linguistic study

1982 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Myhill
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Linguistic Study ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments

The paper reports the results of a test involving grammaticality judgments of English sentences given to native speakers of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese studying English as a second language. A detailed account is presented of aspects of Spanish and Chinese syntax that might explain the performance of the subjects, and an appeal is made for a more thorough search for and description of the areas of syntax in which language transfer is most likely to take place, based upon the study of acquisition data involving many different L1s and L2s. The results suggest that interference can come from sources not specified in traditional contrastive analyses and that researchers therefore must not restrict themselves to testing these analyses.

The functional roles of lexical devices in second language learners’ encoding of temporality: A study of Mandarin Chinese-speaking ESL learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Ma ◽  
Gita Martohardjono ◽  
William McClure
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Past Time ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Esl Learners

AbstractThe present study investigates the functional roles of two lexical devices, past-time temporal adverbials and frequency adverbs, in Mandarin Chinese-speaking ESL learners’ encoding of temporality in their English interlanguage. The results of the present study indicate that past-time temporal adverbials are facilitative in Mandarin Chinese-speaking ESL learners’ encoding of past time. Meanwhile, the existence/absence of the matrix agreement, which is a linguistic device that has not been discussed in previous studies, may also lead to learners’ different reactions. The results of the present study also show that the introduction of frequency adverbs is associated with a higher usage rate of the present tense and causes more difficulty in a past tense context. This association is found to exist not only in learners’ data, but also in English native speakers’ data. The present study contributes to our understanding of the development of second language learners’ expression of temporal locations and relations.

Non-Foreign-Accented Speech in Adult Second Language Learners

2001 ◽  
Vol 133-134 ◽  
pp. 185-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald G. Neufeld
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Tape Recorder ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Test Conditions ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Rigorous Test

Abstract The findings of this study add to the growing number of reports in which investigators claim to have located adult second language learners who, under rigorous test conditions, manage to pass as native speakers in L2. The aims of this paper were two, first, to provide a detailed account of how we tested and qualified our Anglophones as native-like speakers of French and, second, to suggest that, interesting as our data were, more questions emerge than do answers. Seven of 18 English/French bilinguals, having acquired L2 after the age of 16, were selected by means of a pre-test interview with three Francophones as “potentially of French-speaking background.” These seven, along with three Francophone controls, recited an 81-word passage in French onto a tape-recorder. Sixty-eight native-speaking French raters, of similar dialectal background and weak in English, each heard one of four tapes with differing random roders of the 10 passages, their task being to designate each voice as “Franco-phone” or “non-Francophone.” Four of our seven English-Franch bilinguals obtained ratings statistically comparable to those of our three Francophone controls.

Selective vulnerability and dominant language transfer in the acquisition of the Chinese cleft construction by heritage speakers

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-227
Author(s):  
Ziyin Mai ◽  
Xiangjun Deng
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Selective Vulnerability ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Different Types

Abstract This study investigates effects of selective vulnerability and dominant language transfer in heritage grammar. Mandarin Chinese has a shì…de cleft construction, which, despite its superficial similarities with the it-cleft in English, is subject to additional conditions. Four experimental tasks elicited eighteen adult heritage speakers’ implicit knowledge of the word order and the temporal, telicity and discourse conditions associated with the Chinese cleft. The heritage speakers demonstrated target-like representation of the conditions. Meanwhile, their sensitivity to the telicity and discourse conditions is weaker than that of native speakers in Beijing, suggesting selective vulnerability in the heritage grammar. By comparing the heritage speakers with adult second language learners of Chinese, we concluded that the vulnerability of the heritage grammar in the discourse domain did not result from cross-linguistic influence from English. In different types of Chinese-English bilinguals, the dominant language affects the weaker language in different ways.

Discourse Markers in the Academic Writing of Arab Students of English: A Corpus-based Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 569
Author(s):  
Abeer Q. Taweel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Arab Students ◽  
Shed Light

This study aims to shed light on the discourse markers used in the academic writing of Arab students of English as a second language within the framework of corpus linguistics. By so doing, an attempt will be made to examine the use of the discourse marker expressing attitude, sequence, cause and result, addition, and comparing and contrasting. For comparison purposes, similar-sized authentic corpus will be used to examine the learners’ use, overuse, and underuse of the target markers. Moreover, the study will provide a detailed account of the possible reasons contributing to the disparity between the two corpora in terms of the use of the target markers. Results show that learners use more discourse markers than native speakers. While this is a general tendency, it still remains feasible to attribute the disparity between the two corpora to learners L1 influence where some of the overused markers spring out naturally and smoothly as they have rhetorical functions in learners’ native tongue.

Acoustic Sources of Accent in Second Language Japanese Speech

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaori Idemaru ◽  
Peipei Wei ◽  
Lucy Gubbins
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Acoustic Measurements ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Chinese Speakers

This study reports an exploratory analysis of the acoustic characteristics of second language (L2) speech which give rise to the perception of a foreign accent. Japanese speech samples were collected from American English and Mandarin Chinese speakers ( n = 16 in each group) studying Japanese. The L2 participants and native speakers ( n = 10) provided speech samples modeling after six short sentences. Segmental (vowels and stops) and prosodic features (rhythm, tone, and fluency) were examined. Native Japanese listeners ( n = 10) rated the samples with regard to degrees of foreign accent. The analyses predicting accent ratings based on the acoustic measurements indicated that one of the prosodic features in particular, tone (defined as high and low patterns of pitch accent and intonation in this study), plays an important role in robustly predicting accent rating in L2 Japanese across the two first language (L1) backgrounds. These results were consistent with the prediction based on phonological and phonetic comparisons between Japanese and English, as well as Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. The results also revealed L1-specific predictors of perceived accent in Japanese. The findings of this study contribute to the growing literature that examines sources of perceived foreign accent.

Access to UG and language transfer: a study of L2 learners' interpretation of reconstruction in Chinese

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Ying
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
English Speaking

Twenty-seven English-speaking learners of Chinese (the experimental groups) and 20 native speakers of Chinese (the control group) participated in a study that investigated second language learners' knowledge of reconstruction (NP and predicate fronted sentences with ziji ‘self’) in Chinese. Results of a sentence interpretation task indicate that English-speaking learners of Chinese had knowledge of ambiguity of antecedence of ziji inside a moved predicate, and lack of ambiguity of antecedence of ziji inside a moved NP, although such information is not directly available in English. While the experiment produced evidence that they appeared to have access to Universal Grammar, English-speaking learners of Chinese bound ziji in non-movement sentences to an embedded subject, indicating that they mapped the narrower setting of reflexives in English onto a wider parameter setting of ziji in Chinese.

scholarly journals Taaloordrag in die onderrig van Afrikaans as tweede taal

Literator ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
M. Stander
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Language Form ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Short Period

Language transfer in the teaching of Afrikaans as a second language The biggest problem facing lecturers of Afrikaans as a second language at tertiary institutions is the fact that second-language students are usually taught by non-native speakers at primary and secondary levels. The language form used by these teachers shows clear deviations in comparison to the standardised form. This language form, which can be compared to an interlanguage, has its own distinctive features, and forms the target language of second-language speakers. The short period that second-language speakers are exposed to the standardised form at tertiary level is not enough to improve the situation significantly. The result is that students who qualify themselves as teachers, will transfer the same language form to their pupils at primary and secondary levels. One of the consequences is that this language form develops into a non-standardised form. Examples of deviations from teachers’ as well as from students’ language forms will be compared to indicate clearly the transfer that takes place.

Acquiring Nothing?

1995 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlene Polio
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Zero Pronouns ◽  
Nominal Reference

Some earlier SLA research suggests that zero pronouns should be easily acquired by second language learners, yet this has not been carefully examined because studies of nominal reference are usually limited to the acquisition of languages that do not have zero pronouns. This study examines how speakers of languages with zero pronouns (Japanese) and without them (English) use zero pronouns when acquiring a language that has them (Mandarin Chinese). The findings show that second language learners do not use zero pronouns as often as native speakers and that their use increases with proficiency. When examined more closely, it can be seen that the speakers have no difficulty using zero pronouns when there is a syntactic or semantic restriction, but they do have difficulty at the discourse level. It is claimed that this underuse of zero pronouns corresponds with other research that shows that second language learners tend to avoid pronouns in favor of full noun phrases. Some explanations for these phenomena are postulated.

scholarly journals O ritmo da interlíngua na produção do Português Europeu por falantes chineses

2017 ◽  
pp. 423-435
Author(s):  
Chao Zhou ◽  
Marisa Cruz ◽  
Sónia Frota
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Acquisition System ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Cluster Reduction ◽  
Chinese Mandarin

The present research examines the rhythmic properties of European Portuguese spoken by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. Based on the rhythm metrics and corpora used in previous studies focused on the comparison across different languages and varieties (Ramus, Nespor & Mehler, 1999; Frota & Vigário, 2001), we aimed at determining the rhythmic properties of the interlanguage and discussing the factors that may shape and/or constrain the grammar of the interlanguage. We analysed the rhythmic properties of sentences produced by 6 native speakers of Chinese Mandarin, with two different levels of proficiency in European Portuguese (L2) – B1 and C2. A crosscomparison analysis with the results obtained for European Portuguese (Frota & Vigário, 2001) and for Mandarin Chinese (Lin & Wang, 2007) was also conducted. Our results showed that the rhythm of the interlanguage evolves from L1 to L2, reflecting the proficiency level in the acquisition of European Portuguese as a L2. Additionally, we also found evidence for the influence of L1 on the grammar of the interlanguage (e.g., phonological simplifying processes such as cluster reduction in syllabic onsets or coda deletion). Although exploratory, these results contribute to further understand the intermediate linguistic status between a native and a second language, thus adding to the knowledge of the L2 acquisition system.

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