L2 LEARNERS’ ADAPTATION TO AN L2 STRUCTURE THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM L1

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Heeju Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Learning Mechanism ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Matching Game ◽  
Causative Structure ◽  
Korean Learners ◽  
Korean Learners Of English ◽  
Cumulative Experience

Abstract The present study investigates how L2 learners adapt their production preferences following immediate and cumulative experience with a syntactic structure when an L2 structure differs from an L1 structure in terms of verb subcategorization frame and argument structure. Korean learners of English described causative events in English in a picture-matching game. The meaning of a causative sentence in English (e.g., Jen had her computer fixed) is expressed with an active transitive sentence in Korean (e.g., Jen-NOM computer-ACC fixed). The results demonstrated that both immediate and cumulative experience with a causative structure increased the likelihood of producing grammatical causative descriptions (e.g., Jen had her computer fixed), while decreasing the production of ungrammatical active transitive descriptions (e.g., Jen fixed her computer). The findings provide novel evidence that an implicit learning mechanism is involved in L2 learners’ processing and learning of an L2 structure that is different from L1.

Cross-linguistic syntactic priming in Korean learners of English

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1223-1247
Author(s):  
Myeongeun Son
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Syntactic Priming ◽  
Information Structures ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Syntactic Representation ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Korean And English ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Korean Learners ◽  
Korean Learners Of English

AbstractThis study investigates whether L2 learners develop and share an abstract syntactic representation between an L1 and L2 with different word orders and, if so, whether one language’s unique syntactic features affect the shared representation. Korean (SOV) and English (SVO) have equivalent dative alternations; however, because Korean allows word-order scrambling, several dative structures are available in Korean that do not have English counterparts. In this study’s cross-linguistic syntactic priming experiment, intermediate and advanced Korean learners of English described pictures in English after reading various types of Korean dative sentences. The study found evidence of cross-linguistic syntactic priming between Korean and English, regardless of L2 proficiency, but only when prime and target structures shared identical functional assignments, information structures, and order of thematic roles. These results suggest that, within limits created by language-specific features, L2 learners can develop and share abstract representations between two languages with different word orders.

Learnability in the acquisition of the English tough construction by L1-Korean adult and child L2 learners

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832092259
Author(s):  
Kitaek Kim ◽  
Bonnie D Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Value Judgment ◽  
Chance Performance ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Korean Adult ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Target Performance ◽  
Korean Learners ◽  
Korean Learners Of English

In the English tough construction (TC), knowledge of tough movement is necessary for target performance (the object-interpretation only; e.g. Johni is easy to see ei). The acquisition of the English TC raises a learnability problem for first-language (L1) Korean learners of English as a second language (L2): (1) Korean has no tough movement; (2) no input dictates that the ‘subject interpretation’ is disallowed in the English TC; and (3) no classroom instruction covers the English TC. According to the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis, L2 children – but not L2 adults – can overcome this learnability problem. L1-Korean adult ( n = 49) and child ( n = 30) L2 learners’ (L2ers’) knowledge of the English TC was assessed via a truth-value judgment task manipulating (1) verb transitivity to make the infinitival object gap more vs. less salient and (2) context to avoid vs. strengthen bias toward the (erroneous) subject interpretation. Notably, some high-proficiency adult L2ers showed significantly above-chance performance, despite the error-inducing manipulations, suggesting that adult L2ers can overcome the learnability problem.

A preposition is something you can end a sentence with: Learning English stranded prepositions through structural priming

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A Conroy ◽  
Inés Antón-Méndez
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Second Language Acquisition Theory

This study investigated whether second language (L2) learners of English could learn to produce stranded prepositions through structural priming. Structural priming is the tendency for speakers to repeat the structure of previously experienced sentences, without intention or conscious awareness of such behaviour, and is thought to be associated with implicit learning of syntactic structure. The syntactic structure chosen for this study was the stranded preposition in English relative clauses, a structure which is known to be difficult for L2 learners to acquire, and which is often replaced by a related ungrammatical interlanguage variant: null preposition (null prep). It was hypothesized that, during and just after a structural priming treatment, learners would produce more sentences containing stranded prepositions and fewer null prep sentences than before the treatment. The results revealed that learners indeed produced more stranded prepositions during and after priming than before and we interpret this behaviour as a possible indication of implicit learning of an L2 structure. However, learners did not produce significantly fewer null preps during and after priming than before. We discuss the findings in terms of second language acquisition theory, interlanguage processes, and possible pedagogical implications.

Second language learnability and the acquisition of the argument structure of English locative verbs by Korean speakers

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hye-Ri Joo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Locative Alternation ◽  
Korean Speakers ◽  
Description Task ◽  
Korean Learners ◽  
Korean Learners Of English

The present research focuses on Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ knowledge of the locative alternation (e.g., John loaded hay onto the wagon/John loaded the wagon with hay) and its relationship to theories of language-particular and language-universal properties. Korean, the native language of the participants, has a locative alternation resembling that of English. However, although Korean and English are similar in terms of broad-range constraints, they are dissimilar in terms of narrow-range constraints for locative alternations. This study investigates whether the acquisition of such constraints in English locatives by Korean speakers, and whether the first language (L1) influences the second language (L2) acquisition of locative alternations. Two instruments are used in the experiment: a forced-choice picture-description task and a forced-choice sentence selection task. The study investigates an experimental group of Korean learners of English and a control group of native speakers of English. The results are discussed with reference to universality of linking, to the transfer of argument structure and to Pinker’s learnability theory. The primary results are: • The Korean learners of English had acquired the constructional meaning of the locative construction (which is related to Pinker’s (1989) concept of broad-range rules and broad conflation classes), a property claimed to be universal. • They had not achieved native-speaker knowledge of language-particular properties - which narrow conflation class verbs belong to - so that they did not reject ungrammatical sentences; and • Significant L1 transfer effects were not found.

The acquisition of phonetic details: Evidence from the production of English reduced vowels by Korean learners

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeong-Im Han ◽  
Jong-Bai Hwang ◽  
Tae-Hwan Choi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Statistical Properties ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Korean Learners ◽  
Korean Learners Of English

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acquisition of non-contrastive phonetic details of a second language. Reduced vowels in English are realized as a schwa or barred- i depending on their phonological contexts, but Korean has no reduced vowels. Two groups of Korean learners of English who differed according to the experience of residence in English-speaking countries and a group of English native speakers were asked to produce English reduced vowels in word-initial, word-internal and word-final positions. The mean duration ratios, and the mean values and distribution patterns of F1/F2 of the reduced vowels were compared between the three groups, which revealed that Korean learners without residence experience tended to produce each variant of English reduced vowels as the corresponding full vowels, whereas those with experience displayed similar patterns to the natives. The present results suggest that it is possible for second language (L2) learners to learn the statistical properties in L2.

Integrating meaning and structure in L1–L2 and L2–L1 translations

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung Hyun Lim ◽  
Kiel Christianson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Active Structure ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Lack Of Control ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Translation Errors ◽  
Korean Learners ◽  
Korean Learners Of English

This article examined the integration of semantic and morphosyntactic information by Korean learners of English as a second language (L2). In Experiment 1, L2 learners listened to English active or passive sentences that were either plausible or implausible and translated them into Korean. A significant number of Korean translations maintained the original passive/active structure, but switched the thematic roles of the actors in the sentences. In Experiment 2, the direction of translation was reversed and participants made very few translation errors, showing that the errors in Experiment 1 were not due to participants’ lack of control over the English passive morphosyntax. The results are strikingly similar to previous results in the first language (L1) psycholinguistics literature, and support a view of L2 processing (like L1 processing) that is ‘good enough’ in nature: misinterpretations arise from only a ‘good enough’ integration of semantic and morphosyntactic information in the input.

Argument structure licensing and Englishhave

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
KYUMIN KIM
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Theoretical Claim ◽  
Possessive Constructions ◽  
Typological Classification

This paper provides a unified syntactic account of the distribution of Englishhavein causative constructions (e.g.John had Mary read a book) and experiencer constructions (e.g.John had the student walk out of his classroom). It is argued thathaveis realized in the context of anapplicative head(Appl) and an event-introducer v, regardless of the type of v.Haveis spelled out in the causative when Appl merges under vCAUSE, and in the experiencer construction when Appl merges under vBE. This proposal is extended tohavein possessive constructions (e.g.John has a hat/a brother):haveis realized in the context of vBEand Appl. The proposed account provides empirical evidence for expanding the distribution of Appl: (i) a causative can take ApplP as a complement, which was absent in Pylkkänen's (2008) typological classification, and (ii) Appl can merge above Voice, contrary to Pylkkänen's analysis in which Appl is argued to always merge below VoiceP, never above. Moreover, the proposed account supports the theoretical claim that argument structure is licensed by functional syntactic structure; in particular, it shows that the relevant functional heads are not aspectual heads, but Appl and v.

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