Grammatical gender processing in L2 speakers of Spanish

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Halberstadt ◽  
Jorge R. Valdés Kroff ◽  
Paola E. Dussias
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Visual World Paradigm ◽  
Gender Information ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 Use ◽  
Gender Processing

Abstract Recent findings indicate that native speakers (L1) use grammatical gender marking on articles to facilitate the processing of upcoming nouns (e.g., Lew-Williams & Fernald, 2007; Dussias, Valdés Kroff, Guzzardo Tamargo, & Gerfen, 2013). Conversely, adult second language (L2) learners for whom grammatical gender is absent in their first language appear to need near-native proficiency to behave like native speakers (Dussias et al., 2013; Hopp, 2013). The question addressed here is whether sensitivity to grammatical gender in L2 learners of Spanish is modulated by the cognate status of nouns due to their heightened parallel orthographic, phonological, morpho-syntactic and semantic activation. Additionally, the role of transparent and non-transparent word-final gender marking cues was examined because past studies have shown that native speakers of Spanish are sensitive to differences in gender transparency (Caffarra, Janssen, & Barber, 2014). Participants were English learners of Spanish and Spanish monolingual speakers. Data were collected using the visual world paradigm. Participants saw 2-picture visual scenes in which objects either matched in gender (same-gender trials) or mismatched (different-gender trials). Targets were embedded in the preamble Encuentra el/la ___ ‘Find the ___’. The monolingual group displayed an anticipatory effect on different gender trials, replicating past studies that show that native speakers use grammatical gender information encoded in prenominal modifiers predictively. The learners were able to use gender information on the articles to facilitate processing, but only when the nouns had gender endings that were transparent. Cognate status did not confer an advantage during grammatical gender processing.

Processing of grammatical gender in French as a first and second language: Evidence from ERPs

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 76-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Frenck-Mestre ◽  
Alice Foucart ◽  
Haydee Carrasco-Ortiz ◽  
Julia Herschensohn
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Language Background ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Phonetic Cues

The present study examined the processing of grammatical gender in second language (L2) French as a function of language background (Experiment 1) and as a function of overt phonetic properties of agreement (Experiment 2) by examining Event Related Potential (ERP) responses to gender discord in L2 French. In Experiment 1 we explored the role of the presence/absence of abstract grammatical gender in the L1 (gendered German, ungendered English): we compared German and English learners of French when processing post-nominal plural (no gender cues on determiner) attributive adjectives that either agreed in gender with the noun or presented a gender violation. We found grammaticalized responses (P600) by native and L1 English learners, but no response by German L1, a result we attribute to the possible influence of plurality, which is gender neutralized in German DP concord. In Experiment 2, we examined the role of overt phonetic cues to noun-adjective gender agreement in French, for both native speakers and Spanish L2 learners of French, finding that both natives and L2 learners showed a more robust P600 in the presence of phonetic cues. These data, in conjunction with those of other ERP studies can best be accounted for by a model that allows for native language influence, that is not, however constrained by age of acquisition, and that must also allow for clear cues in the input to influence acquisition and/or processing.

scholarly journals The Acquisition of Grammatical Gender in Arabic Demonstratives by English Native Speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Anwar Saad Aljadani
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Gender System

Recently, an increase interest in the acquisition of grammatical gender by second language (L2) learners has been revealed. This paper investigated the acquisition of Arabic, a language that has a rich grammatical gender system, by speakers of a first language (L1) that does not have gender (English). Arabic demonstrative pronouns selected as the linguistic feature to be investigated.  Due to the gender differentiations, Arabic has nearly ten demonstrative pronouns whereas English has four demonstrative pronouns. Consequently, learnability considerations, the Full Transfer/Full Access (FT/FA) hypothesis presumes that English learners of Arabic will have the ability to acquire L2 grammatical gender despite the absence of these systems in their L1. However, the Failed Functional Features (FFF) hypothesis predicts that English learners of Arabic cannot acquire these systems since they are not available in their L1. This paper investigated the ability of English learners of Arabic in acquiring the Arabic demonstrative pronouns with their gender as accurate as native speakers of Arabic do. Moreover, does the proficiency level play a role in the acquisition of demonstratives? Finally, which hypothesis will be supported by the findings? It was found that L2 learners did not acquire the phenomenon as accurate as the native speakers did. Furthermore, proficiency level played a role in the acquisition of demonstratives as a significant disparity between L2 learners’ levels was appeared. Finally, the current outcomes could be attributed to FT/FA hypothesis.

Transfer effects in learning a second language grammatical gender system

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Sabourin ◽  
Laurie A. Stowe ◽  
Ger J. de Haan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Similar System ◽  
Gender System ◽  
L1 And L2

In this article second language (L2) knowledge of Dutch grammatical gender is investigated. Adult speakers of German, English and a Romance language (French, Italian or Spanish) were investigated to explore the role of transfer in learning the Dutch grammatical gender system. In the first language (L1) systems, German is the most similar to Dutch coming from a historically similar system. The Romance languages have grammatical gender; however, the system is not congruent to the Dutch system. English does not have grammatical gender (although semantic gender is marked in the pronoun system). Experiment 1, a simple gender assignment task, showed that all L2 participants tested could assign the correct gender to Dutch nouns (all L2 groups performing on average above 80%), although having gender in the L1 did correlate with higher accuracy, particularly when the gender systems were very similar. Effects of noun familiarity and a default gender strategy were found for all participants. In Experiment 2 agreement between the noun and the relative pronoun was investigated. In this task a distinct performance hierarchy was found with the German group performing the best (though significantly worse than native speakers), the Romance group performing well above chance (though not as well as the German group), and the English group performing at chance. These results show that L2 acquisition of grammatical gender is affected more by the morphological similarity of gender marking in the L1 and L2 than by the presence of abstract syntactic gender features in the L1.

scholarly journals Grammatical gender in L2: A production or a real-time processing problem?

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theres Grüter ◽  
Casey Lew-Williams ◽  
Anne Fernald
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Real Time Processing ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Gender Information ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Performance Problem

Mastery of grammatical gender is difficult to achieve in a second language (L2). This study investigates whether persistent difficulty with grammatical gender often observed in the speech of otherwise highly proficient L2 learners is best characterized as a production-specific performance problem, or as difficulty with the retrieval of gender information in real-time language use. In an experimental design that crossed production/comprehension and online/offline tasks, highly proficient L2 learners of Spanish performed at ceiling in offline comprehension, showed errors in elicited production, and exhibited weaker use of gender cues in online processing of familiar (though not novel) nouns than native speakers. These findings suggest that persistent difficulty with grammatical gender may not be limited to the realm of language production, but could affect both expressive and receptive use of language in real time. We propose that the observed differences in performance between native and non-native speakers lie at the level of lexical representation of grammatical gender and arise from fundamental differences in how infants and adults approach word learning.

LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC CONGRUENCY IN L2 PREDICTIVE GENDER PROCESSING

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Hopp ◽  
Natalia Lemmerth
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Visual World ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Syntactic Differences ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
German Mark ◽  
Gender Processing

This article investigates how lexical and syntactic differences in L1 and L2 grammatical gender affect L2 predictive gender processing. In a visual-world eye-tracking experiment, 24 L1 Russian adult learners and 15 native speakers of German were tested. Both Russian and German have three gender classes. Yet, they differ in lexical congruency, that is, whether a noun (“house”) is assigned to the same or a different gender class. Further, gender is syntactically realized on postnominal suffixes in Russian but on prenominal articles in German. For adjectives, both Russian and German mark gender on suffixes. In predictive gender processing, we find interactions of proficiency and congruency for gender-marked articles. Advanced L2 learners show nativelike gender prediction throughout. High-intermediate learners display asymmetries according to syntactic and lexical congruency. Predictive gender processing obtains for all nouns in the (syntactically congruent) adjective condition, yet only for lexically congruent nouns in the (syntactically incongruent) article condition.

Prediction and integration in native and second-language processing of elliptical structures

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
JOSEPH KIRKHAM ◽  
FRANK WIJNEN
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Frontal Negativity ◽  
Related Potentials

According to recent views of L2-sentence processing, L2-speakers do not predict upcoming information to the same extent as do native speakers. To investigate L2-speakers’ predictive use and integration of syntactic information across clauses, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from advanced L2-learners and native speakers while they read sentences in which the syntactic context did or did not allow noun-ellipsis (Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.) Both native and L2-speakers were sensitive to the context when integrating words after the potential ellipsis-site. However, native, but not L2-speakers, anticipated the ellipsis, as suggested by an ERP difference between elliptical and non-elliptical contexts preceding the potential ellipsis-site. In addition, L2-learners displayed a late frontal negativity for ungrammaticalities, suggesting differences in repair strategies or resources compared with native speakers.

L1–L2 asymmetry in animacy effects in the processing of Japanese relative clause

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanako Mitsugi ◽  
Yasuhiro Shirai
Keyword(s):  
Constraint Satisfaction ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
First Languages ◽  
The Subject ◽  
English Group ◽  
Processing Difficulty

AbstractUsing self-paced reading, this study investigated the role of head animacy in the processing of Japanese relative clauses (RCs). Second language (L2) learners whose first languages (L1) are English and Korean, and Japanese native speakers participated. The results showed that for native speakers, inanimate heads diminished the processing difficulty associated with object RCs. However, head animacy did not have an effect on L2 processing. The Korean group showed the subject-object asymmetry but no effect of head animacy. The English group did not demonstrate the effect of RC type or head animacy. The overall pattern of these results suggests that L2 learners of Japanese are not guided by syntactic and lexical-semantic information in the same way as Japanese native speakers. These findings are interpreted within the constraint-satisfaction models (MacDonald et al., 1994) and are further discussed in the light of the research concerning the transfer of L1 processing routines.

Improving the Quality of Second Language Writing by First Language Use

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moussa Ahmadian ◽  
Sajjad Pouromid ◽  
Mehdi Nickkhah
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
L1 Use ◽  
Development Structure

The role of the learners’ first language (L1) in learning second language (L2) writing has recently become a focus in SLA research. There have been many studies focusing on different aspects of this phenomenon. The results of these studies have shown how L1 use may play facilitative roles in producing writing in the second language. Many variables, such as task type and language proficiency, have also been studied in this regard. Yet, there seems to be a paucity of research on whether L1 use can significantly improve the quality of written productions in L2. The present study was therefore designed to peruse this question and find what aspects of writing may improve with L1 use. To this end, the written productions of 36 Persian-speaking intermediate English learners writing an argumentative paragraph were analyzed. 6 of the 12 groups were asked to collaborate in their first language and the others were limited to using the second language in their collaborations. The results of statistical comparisons between the first language and second language groups revealed that L1 use can significantly improve the overall score gained by the L2 writers. It was also found that L1 use improves the quality of L2 written productions in terms of organization/unity, development, structure, and mechanics.

Grammatical gender processing in L2: Electrophysiological evidence of the effect of L1–L2 syntactic similarity

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALICE FOUCART ◽  
CHERYL FRENCK-MESTRE
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Electrophysiological Evidence ◽  
Syntactic Similarity ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Gender Processing

This study examines the effect of proficiency and similarity between the first and the second language on grammatical gender processing in L2. In three experiments, we manipulated gender agreement violations within the determiner phrase (DP), between the determiner and the noun (Experiment 1), the postposed adjective and the noun (Experiment 2) and the preposed adjective and the noun (Experiment 3). We compared the performance of German advanced learners of French to that of French native controls. The results showed a similar P600 effect for native and non-native speakers for agreement violations when agreement rules where similar in L1 and L2 (Experiment 1, depending on proficiency), whereas no effect was found for L2 learners when agreement rules varied across languages. These results suggest that syntactic processing in L2 is affected by the similarity of syntactic rules in L1 and L2.

scholarly journals An Overview of the Persian EFL learners’ Spelling Difficulties

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Maryam Alipour ◽  
Khazriyati Salehuddin ◽  
Siti Hamin Stapa
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Comprehensive Literature Review ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
English Spelling

Spelling is considered a difficult skill for foreign and second language learners of English as the ability to spell in English language comes with a lot of effort, particularly when the English spelling system is known to be a complex system, even among native speakers. The difficulties could be linguistic and extra-linguistic. This conceptual paper reviews the differences and similarities between English and Persian spelling system, the sages of spelling difficulties among children, particularly the approach suggested by Tabrizi, Tabrizi, and Tabrizi (2013)in which the stages of learning spelling among Iranian learners are analyzed. The types of morphological, phonological, and orthographical spelling difficulties, factors contributing to the spelling difficulty, as well as a comprehensive literature review of EFL studies conducted on English spelling are provided in this paper. Finally, the mental processing and the role of memory are discussed briefly. It was concluded that examining the differences between the learners’ first language and English language may provide useful insights into the English spelling problems faced by EFL learners.

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