scholarly journals L1 EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION CAN IMPROVE L2 ONLINE AND OFFLINE PERFORMANCE

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin McManus ◽  
Emma Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Context Sentence ◽  
Explicit Information ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Sentence Matching ◽  
Online Sentence Processing ◽  
L1 English

This study investigated the effectiveness of providing L1 explicit information (EI) with practice for making more accurate and faster interpretations of L2 FrenchImparfait(IMP). Two treatments were investigated: (a) “L2-only,” providing EI about the L2 with L2 interpretation practice, and (b) “L2+L1,” providing the exact same L2-only treatment and including EI about the L1 (English) with practice interpreting L1 features that are equivalent to the IMP. Fifty L2 French learners were randomly assigned to either L2-only, L2+L1, or a control group. Online (self-paced reading) and offline (context-sentence matching) measures from pretest, posttest, and delayed posttests showed that providing additional L1 EI and practice improved not only offline L2 accuracy, but also the speed of online L2 processing. To our knowledge, this makes original and significant contributions about the nature of EI with practice and the role of the L1 (Tolentino & Tokowicz, 2014), and it extends a recent line of research examining EI effects in online sentence processing (Andringa & Curcic, 2015).

scholarly journals Accessing and maintaining referents in L2 processing of wh-dependencies

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kate Miller
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Time Profiles ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
L2 Processing

This study considers the role of lexical access in the activation and maintenance of referents interacting with syntactic computations during the online processing of wh-dependencies in second-language French by beginning (N = 39), low intermediate (N = 40), and high intermediate (N = 35) learners. Two computer-paced reading tasks involving concurrent picture classification were designed to investigate trace reactivation during sentence processing: The first task targeted sentences that contained indirect object relative clauses, whereas the second task involved indirect object cleft sentences. Response time profiles for sentences containing English-French cognates as antecedents were compared with those for sentences with noncognate vocabulary. All learner participants produced differing response patterns for cognate and noncognate items. Intermediate learners’ response patterns were consistent with trace reactivation for cognate items only; noncognate items induced inhibitions or erratic response patterns. Additionally, a (French-English bilingual) native speaker control group (N = 35) showed the predicted response pattern with the noncognate items only. These findings indicate that the role of lexical access in sentence processing merits further consideration.

Semantics and morphosyntax in predictive L2 sentence processing

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Hopp
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Lower Sensitivity ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Anticipatory Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 English

AbstractIn the context of current approaches to anticipation in native and non-native sentence processing, this paper investigates whether late second-language (L2) learners integrate morphosyntax, i.e. case marking, and verb semantics to generate anticipations in L2 sentence comprehension. In a visual-world eye-tracking experiment with 45 L1 English L2 learners of German and 12 German natives, German natives are found to integrate morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic information in anticipatory processing, while L2 learners only rely on lexical-semantic information for prediction. Moreover, there is no indication that increasing proficiency leads to the involvement of morphosyntax in predictive L2 processing. We discuss reasons for the lower sensitivity to morphosyntax in anticipatory L2 sentence processing.

Morphosyntactic adaptation in adult L2 processing: Exposure and the processing of case and tense violations

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 627-656
Author(s):  
Holger Hopp
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Control Group Design ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Group Design ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Input Adaptation ◽  
Verb Tense ◽  
Experimental Versus

AbstractThis paper investigates morphosyntactic adaptation in second language (L2) sentence processing. In a pre-/posttest control group design, two experiments with intermediate to advanced German–English learners examine whether massed exposure to informative input leads to adaptation in L2 processing in that L2 readers come to integrate inflection in real-time comprehension. Experiment 1 on case marking shows that input causing prediction error and flagging the target parse leads to nativelike integration of case in the reanalysis of garden-path sentences. Experiment 2 shows partially nativelike processing of adverbial–verb tense mismatches after exposure to target input. Adaptation was selective to the experimental versus the control group in processing, yet it did not generalize to offline, explicit performance. We conclude that morphosyntactic adaptation constitutes an implicit learning mechanism in L2 processing, and we discuss its implications for models of L2 processing and acquisition.

The long-term effect of explicit instruction on learners’ knowledge on English articles

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari Umeda ◽  
Neal Snape ◽  
Noriaki Yusa ◽  
John Wiltshier
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Instruction Group ◽  
Long Term Effect ◽  
One Year ◽  
English Articles ◽  
Generic Sentences

This study examines the role of explicit instruction in article semantics to L2 learners of English. Two types of generic sentences, expressed by different articles, were tested over time. An instruction group ( n = 21), a control group ( n = 16) and a native English speaker control group ( n = 9) participated in the study. The instruction group received nine 60-minute lessons across 9 weeks. A pre-test was administered to both groups before instruction began and four post-tests were given to both groups. The results from delayed post-tests show that the instruction group improved, but after one year little knowledge was retained. The findings suggest that explicit knowledge of articles is unlikely to be retained unless ongoing instruction is achieved.

scholarly journals Signatures of automaticity during practice: Explicit instruction about L1 processing routines can improve L2 grammatical processing

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEVIN MCMANUS ◽  
EMMA MARSDEN
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
First Language ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Group B ◽  
Knowledge Restructuring ◽  
Accuracy Speed ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTThis study examined the extent to which explicit instruction about first language (L1) and second language (L2) processing routines improved the accuracy, speed, and automaticity of learners’ responses during sentence interpretation practice. Fifty-three English-speaking learners of L2 French were assigned to one of the following treatments: (a) a “core” treatment consisting of L2 explicit information (EI) with L2 interpretation practice (L2-only group); (b) the same L2 core+L1 practice with L1 EI (L2+L1 group); or (c) the same L2 core+L1 practice but without L1 EI (L2+L1prac group). Findings indicated that increasing amounts of practice led to more accurate and faster performance only for learners who received L1 EI (L2+L1 group). Coefficient of variation analyses (Segalowitz & Segalowitz, 1993) indicated knowledge restructuring early on that appeared to lead to gradual automatization over time (Solovyeva & DeKeyser, 2017; Suzuki, 2017). Our findings that EI and practice about L1 processing routines benefited the accuracy, speed, and automaticity of L2 performance have major implications for theories of L2 learning, the role of L1 EI in L2 grammar learning, and L2 pedagogy.

On the role of discourse-level information in second-language sentence processing

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELSI KAISER
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
Level Information ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Shallow Structure

Based on a detailed review of existing studies of high-proficiency second-language (L2) learners who acquired the L2 in adolescence/adulthood, Cunnings (Cunnings, 2016) argues that Sorace's (2011) Interface Hypothesis (IH) and Clahsen and Felser's (2006) Shallow Structure Hypothesis (SSH) do not explain the existing data as well as his memory-based approach which posits that memory-retrieval processes in the L1 and L2 do not pattern alike. Cunnings proposes that L1 and L2 processing differ in terms of comprehenders’ ability to retrieve from memory information constructed during sentence processing. He concludes that L2 processing is more susceptible to interference effects during retrieval, and, most relevantly for this commentary, that discourse-based cues to memory retrieval are more heavily weighted in L2 than L1 processing.

Syntactic features and reanalysis in near-native processing

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Hopp
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Reading Accuracy ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Ultimate Attainment ◽  
L1 English

In order to investigate second language (L2) processing at ultimate attainment, 20 first language (L1) English and 20 L1 Dutch advanced to near-native speakers of German as well as 20 native Germans were tested in two experiments on subject-object ambiguities in German. The results from a self-paced reading task and a speeded acceptability judgement task show that the lower-proficient advanced learners in this study display the same processing preferences as natives in reading accuracy yet fail to demonstrate differential response latencies associated with native syntactic reanalysis. By contrast, near-native speakers of either L1 converge on incremental native reanalysis patterns. Together, the findings highlight the role of proficiency for processing the target language since it is only at near-native levels of proficiency that non-natives converge on native-like parsing. The results support the view that endstate non-native processing and native processing are qualitatively identical.

scholarly journals ONLINE AND OFFLINE EFFECTS OF L1 PRACTICE IN L2 GRAMMAR LEARNING

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 459-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin McManus ◽  
Emma Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Learning Gains ◽  
Explicit Information ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Offline Learning ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
English Speaking

AbstractThis study partially replicates McManus and Marsden (2017), who found that providing L1 explicit information (EI) plus task-essential practice led L2 learners to make more accurate and faster interpretations of French morphosyntax. The current study removed the original study’s L1 EI component to examine the role of the L1 practice. This design tested whether providing L1 task-essential practice only (alongside a core treatment of L2 EI plus L2 practice) resulted in similar online and offline learning gains compared to the original study’s L1 EI plus L1 practice. We used the same online and offline tests, with a similar population of English-speaking learners of L2 French (n = 19). For accuracy and speed of online and offline L2 processing, the findings suggest that additional L1 practice without L1 EI was no more beneficial than L2 EI plus L2 practice alone, indicating that the original study’s combination of additional L1 EI with L1 practice appeared to contribute to previously observed learning benefits.

A functional approach to cross-linguistic influence in ab initio L3 acquisition

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRISTINA SANZ ◽  
HAE IN PARK ◽  
BEATRIZ LADO
Keyword(s):  
Ab Initio ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Third Language ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
Immersion Experience ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
L1 English

The present study follows the role of the first (L1, English) and second (L2, Japanese or Spanish) languages in ab initio third language (L3, Latin) acquisition. Participants (N = 25) were L2 classroom learners without immersion experience. In order to complement previous generativist studies and to offer a fuller developmental account of how transfer operates at the morphosyntactic level, the Competition Model (CM) was adopted as theoretical framework. Positive changes in overall accuracy and sentence processing patterns in role assignment in L3 Latin show L3 development as largely modulated by the L1, suggesting that higher levels of L2 resonance are necessary for integrated patterns of L1 and L2 cues to emerge.

scholarly journals Processing linguistic negation with and without truth-value evaluation: Evidence from N400 and theta oscillations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Sommer ◽  
Silvia Hansen-Schirra ◽  
Arne Nagels ◽  
Yifei He
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Value Evaluation ◽  
Oscillatory Power ◽  
N400 Component ◽  
Truth Value ◽  
Online Sentence Processing ◽  
Target Words

How linguistic negation is processed online has been a long-standing issue in psycho- and neurolinguistics. In this study, we investigated negation processing in two distinct types of sentences with truth value evaluation (e.g., ‘A robin is a/not a bird’), and without (e.g., ‘The woman reads a/no book’), focusing on electroencephalogram (EEG) indices in terms of the N400 component and oscillatory power and inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC). Across both sentence constructions, we observed enhanced N400 and increased ITPC in the theta band for semantically unrelated target words, irrespective of negation. However for the theta power, we observed distinct modulation effects of negation on semantic-relatedness for two types of sentence constructions. In addition, we showed that direct comparison between affirmative and negative target words led to effects in the N400 and theta power in a nuanced manner. Our findings provide novel evidence on a more interactive role of negation during online sentence processing.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document