Second language sentence processing in reading for comprehension and translation

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 518-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUNG HYUN LIM ◽  
KIEL CHRISTIANSON
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

A self-paced reading and translation task was used with learners of English as a second language (L2) to explore what sorts of information L2 learners use during online comprehension compared to native speakers, and how task (reading for comprehension vs. translation) and proficiency affect L2 comprehension. Thirty-six Korean native speakers of English and 32 native English speakers read plausible and implausible subject relative clauses and object relative clauses. Reading times, comprehension accuracy, and translations were analyzed. Results showed that L2 learners were able to use syntactic information similarly to native speakers during comprehension, and that online L2 processing and offline comprehension were modulated by reading goals and proficiency. Results are interpreted as showing that L2 processing is quantitatively rather than qualitatively different from first language processing, i.e. strategically “good enough”.

Processing Chinese relative clauses: An investigation of second-language learners from different learning contexts

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Yao ◽  
Claire Renaud
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
The Us ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Matrix Subject

AbstractThe goal of this study is to examine the processing of Chinese relative clauses (RCs) through a self-paced reading task and to determine whether the learning environment plays a role in the second-language (L2) acquisition of RCs. We investigated two types of RCs (subject vs. object RCs) along with two positions in which a RC can occur (modifying a matrix subject noun phrase [NP] vs. a matrix object NP). Eighteen native speakers of Chinese and twenty-one L2 learners at an intermediate proficiency level participated in the study. Ten learners were students learning Chinese in the US (i. e., in a foreign-language context), whereas the other eleven learners were students studying Chinese in China (i. e., in a study-abroad context). The comprehension of sentences containing a RC and reading times (RTs) on the RC and the head noun (the segment immediately following the RC) were analyzed. The results show distinct patterns for the learners and the native speakers. The accuracy data reveals that the L2 learners in China performed better than the L2 learners in the US. Additionally, the L2 learners in China exhibited a processing speed advantage to the L2 learners in the US. The RT data highlighted important asymmetries in the L2 learners in the US and the native speakers, while the results were flat for the L2 learners in China. Specifically, L2 learners in the US took longer to read object RCs than subject RCs while the opposite pattern was obtained for the L1 speakers. Moreover, matrix-object-modifying RCs revealed shorter RTs than matrix-subject-modifying RCs for L2 learners in the US, whereas the opposite pattern was found for the L1 speakers. These findings are discussed in light of the Linear Distance Theory and the Structural Distance Theory (e. g., O’Grady 1997. Syntactic development. Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Overall, these results seem to provide support to the assumption that changes in syntactic processing happen as a result of exposure to the language environment (Cuetos et al. 1996. Parsing in different languages. In Manuel Carreias, Jose E. Garcia-Albea & Nuria Sebastien-Galles (eds.), Language processing in Spanish, 145–187. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; Frenck–Mestre 2002. An on-line look at sentence processing in the second language. In Roberto Heredia & Jeanette Altarriba (eds.), Bilingual sentence processing, 217–236. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.).

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.

scholarly journals Processingwh-dependencies in a second language: a cross-modal priming study

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Felser ◽  
Leah Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Real Time Processing ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Gap Control ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Antecedent Reactivation

This study investigates the real-time processing of wh-dependencies by advanced Greek-speaking learners of English using a cross-modal picture priming task. Participants were asked to respond to different types of picture target presented either at structurally defined gap positions, or at pre-gap control positions, while listening to sentences containing indirect-object relative clauses. Our results indicate that the learners processed the experimental sentences differently from both adult native speakers of English and monolingual English-speaking children. Contrary to what has been found for native speakers, the learners' response pattern was not influenced by individual working memory differences. Adult second language learners differed from native speakers with a relatively high reading or listening span in that they did not show any evidence of structurally based antecedent reactivation at the point of the indirect object gap. They also differed from low-span native speakers, however, in that they showed evidence of maintained antecedent activation during the processing of the experimental sentences. Whereas the localized priming effect observed in the high-span controls is indicative of trace-based antecedent reactivation in native sentence processing, the results from the Greek-speaking learners support the hypothesis that the mental representations built during non-native language processing lack abstract linguistic structure such as movement traces.

The shallow structure hypothesis of second language sentence processing: What is restricted and why?

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-52
Author(s):  
Margaret Gillon Dowens ◽  
Manuel Carreiras
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Direct Form ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
On Line ◽  
Shallow Structure

Clahsen and Felser (CF) analyze the performance of monolingual children and adult second language (L2) learners in off-line and on-line tasks and compare their performance with that of adult monolinguals. They conclude that child first language (L1) processing is basically the same as adult L1 processing (the contiguity assumption), with differences in performance being due to cognitive developmental limitations. They argue that differences in L2 performance, however, are more qualitative and not explained by shortage of working memory (WM) resources, differences in processing speed, transfer of L1 processing routines, or incomplete acquisition of the target grammar. They propose a shallow structure hypothesis (SSH) to explain the differences reported in sentence processing. According to this, the syntactic representations computed by L2 learners during comprehension are shallower and less detailed than those computed by native speakers and involve more direct form-function mappings.

Effects of reading speed on second-language sentence processing

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 799-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
JOCELYN C. BALLANTYNE ◽  
FRANK WIJNEN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Reading Speed ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Language Conflict

ABSTRACTTo test the effects of reading speed on second-language (L2) sentence processing and the potential influence of conflicting native language word order, we compared advanced L2 learners of English with native English speakers on a self-paced reading task. L2 learners read faster overall than native English speakers. When differences in reading speed were controlled for, L2 learners were as sensitive to grammaticality manipulations as native English speakers. On-line reading times did not reflect any effect of cross-language conflict in the learners. Results from an end-of-sentence verification task showed a stronger bias toward a subject–object order in the cross-language conflict conditions in speed-matched L2 learners but not in L2 learners reading faster than native speakers. Results are compatible with hypothesized differences in resource allocation between L2 and native language processing.

Pervasiveness of shallow processing

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-88
Author(s):  
Irina A. Sekerina ◽  
Patricia J. Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
First Language ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Shallow Processing ◽  
L2 Learners

Clahsen and Felser (CF) offer a novel explanation for the qualitative differences in language processing often observed between adult first language (L1) speakers and second language (L2) learners. They argue that, although L2 learners are successful in drawing on lexical, morphological, and pragmatic sources of information, they underutilize syntactic structure, which results in shallower and less detailed processing than that of native speakers.

Continuity and shallow structures in language processing

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARALD CLAHSEN ◽  
CLAUDIA FELSER
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Target Article ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
Core Idea

The core idea that we argued for in the target article was that grammatical processing in a second language (L2) is fundamentally different from grammatical processing in one's native (first) language (L1). Our major source of evidence for this claim comes from experimental psycholinguistic studies investigating morphological and syntactic processing in child and adult native speakers, and nonnative speakers who acquired their L2 after childhood and for whom their L1 is the dominant language. With respect to child L1 processing, we argued for acontinuity of parsing hypothesisclaiming that the child's structural parser is basically the same as that of mature speakers and does not change over time. Adult L2 learners, in contrast, were seen to underuse syntactic information during sentence processing and to rely more on lexical–semantic cues to interpretation. To account for the observed L1/L2 differences in processing, we proposed the shallow structure hypothesis (SSH) according to which the representations adult L2 learners compute during processing contain less syntactic detail than those of child and adult native speakers.

scholarly journals Processing empty categories in a second language: When naturalistic exposure fills the (intermediate) gap

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOS PLIATSIKAS ◽  
THEODOROS MARINIS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽  
Empty Categories ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Shallow Structure

An ongoing debate on second language (L2) processing revolves around whether or not L2 learners process syntactic information similarly to monolinguals (L1), and what factors lead to a native-like processing. According to the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (Clahsen & Felser, 2006a), L2 learners’ processing does not include abstract syntactic features, such as intermediate gaps of wh-movement, but relies more on lexical/semantic information. Other researchers have suggested that naturalistic L2 exposure can lead to native-like processing (Dussias, 2003). This study investigates the effect of naturalistic exposure in processing wh-dependencies. Twenty-six advanced Greek learners of L2 English with an average nine years of naturalistic exposure, 30 with classroom exposure, and 30 native speakers of English completed a self-paced reading task with sentences involving intermediate gaps. L2 learners with naturalistic exposure showed evidence of native-like processing of the intermediate gaps, suggesting that linguistic immersion can lead to native-like abstract syntactic processing in the L2.

Some effects of first language argument structure and morphosyntax on second language sentence processing

1998 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Juffs
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Verb Argument Structure

This article explores some effects of first language verb-argument structure on second language processing of English as a second language. Speakers of Chinese, Japanese or Korean, three Romance languages and native English speakers provided word-by-word reading times and grammaticality judgement data in a self-paced reading task. Results suggest that reliable differences in parsing are not restricted to cases where verb-argument structure differs crosslinguistically.

Second language processing of English past tense morphology: The role of working memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Filiz Rızaoğlu ◽  
Ayşe Gürel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
L2 Learners

AbstractThis study examines, via a masked priming task, the processing of English regular and irregular past tense morphology in proficient second language (L2) learners and native speakers in relation to working memory capacity (WMC), as measured by the Automated Reading Span (ARSPAN) and Operation Span (AOSPAN) tasks. The findings revealed quantitative group differences in the form of slower reaction times (RTs) in the L2-English group. While no correlation was found between the morphological processing patterns and WMC in either group, there was a negative relationship between English and Turkish ARSPAN scores and the speed of word recognition in the L2 group. Overall, comparable decompositional processing patterns found in both groups suggest that, like native speakers, high-proficiency L2 learners are sensitive to the morphological structure of the target language.

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