Making use of cues to sentence length in L1 and L2 German*

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-477
Author(s):  
Mary Grantham O’Brien ◽  
Carrie N. Jackson ◽  
Alison Eisel Hendricks
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2

The current study examines whether German native speakers and immersed and non-immersed L2 learners of German use prosodic cues to identify the length of a sentence in perception as a means to investigate the interaction between prosody and syntactic structure among L2 learners. In a perceptual gating experiment, all three groups successfully differentiated short from medium and long sentences, although the native speakers used cues to identify sentence length earlier than the L2 learners. Among the L2 participants, those immersed in the L2 and those with higher L2 proficiency were better able to distinguish sentence length in the gating task. Importantly, immersed participants were more likely to differentiate short from non-short sentences than those who were not immersed, and those who were more proficient were less indeterminate and more confident in their responses than were those with lower L2 proficiency.

scholarly journals Investigation of Native Speaker and Second Language Learner Intuition of Collocation Frequency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Siyanova ◽  
S Spina
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Very Low Frequency ◽  
Second Language Learner ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2

© 2015 Language Learning Research Club, University of Michigan. Research into frequency intuition has focused primarily on native (L1) and, to a lesser degree, nonnative (L2) speaker intuitions about single word frequency. What remains a largely unexplored area is L1 and L2 intuitions about collocation (i.e., phrasal) frequency. To bridge this gap, the present study aimed to answer the following question: How do L2 learners and native speakers compare against each other and corpora in their subjective judgments of collocation frequency? Native speakers and learners of Italian were asked to judge 80 noun-adjective pairings as one of the following: high frequency, medium frequency, low frequency, very low frequency. Both L1 and L2 intuitions of high frequency collocations correlated strongly with corpus frequency. Neither of the two groups of participants exhibited accurate intuitions of medium and low frequency collocations. With regard to very low frequency pairings, L1 but not L2 intuitions were found to correlate with corpora for the majority of the items. Further, mixed-effects modeling revealed that L2 learners were comparable to native speakers in their judgments of the four frequency bands, although some differences did emerge. Taken together, the study provides new insights into the nature of L1 and L2 intuitions about phrasal frequency.

PARSING STRATEGIES IN L1 AND L2 SENTENCE PROCESSING

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Despina Papadopoulou ◽  
Harald Clahsen
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Lexical Cues

To contribute to a better understanding of second language (L2) sentence processing, the present study examines how L2 learners parse temporarily ambiguous sentences containing relative clauses. Results are reported from both off-line and on-line experiments with three groups of advanced learners of Greek whose native languages (L1s) were Spanish, German, or Russian as well as from corresponding experiments with a control group of adult native speakers of Greek. We found that, despite their nativelike mastery of the construction under investigation, the L2 learners showed relative-clause attachment preferences that were different from those of the native speakers. Moreover, the L2 learners did not exhibit L1-based preferences in their L2 Greek, as might be expected if they were directly influenced by L1 attachment preferences. We suggest that L2 learners integrate information relevant for parsing differently from native speakers, with the L2 learners relying more on lexical cues than the native speakers and less on purely structurally based parsing strategies.

scholarly journals Morphologically complex words in L1 and L2 processing: Evidence from masked priming experiments in English

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
RENITA SILVA ◽  
HARALD CLAHSEN
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Striking Contrast

This paper reports results from masked priming experiments investigating regular past-tense forms and deadjectival nominalizations with -ness and -ity in adult native (L1) speakers of English and in different groups of advanced adult second language (L2) learners of English. While the L1 group showed efficient priming for both inflected and derived word forms, the L2 learners demonstrated repetition-priming effects (like the L1 group), but no priming for inflected and reduced priming for derived word forms. We argue that this striking contrast between L1 and L2 processing supports the view that adult L2 learners rely more on lexical storage and less on combinatorial processing of morphologically complex words than native speakers.

scholarly journals Metaphorical language processing and amygdala activation in L1 and L2

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Citron ◽  
Nora Michaelis ◽  
Adele Eva Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Small Volume ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Amygdala Activation ◽  
Psycholinguistic Variables ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Increased Activity

The present study aims to investigate the neural correlates of processing conventional figurative language in non-native speakers in a comparison with native speakers. Italian proficient L2 learners of German and German native speakers read conventional metaphorical statements as well as literal paraphrases that were comparable on a range of psycholinguistic variables. Results confirm previous findings that native speakers show increased activity for metaphorical processing, and left amygdala activation increases with increasing Metaphoricity. At the whole-brain level, L2 learners showed the expected overall differences in activation when compared to native speakers (in the fronto-temporal network). But L2 speakers did not show any distinctive activation outside the caudate nucleus as Metaphoricity increased, suggesting that the L2 speakers were less affected by increasing Metaphoricity than native speakers were. With small volume correction, only a single peak in the amygdala reached threshold for L2 speakers as Metaphoricity increased. The findings are consistent with the view that metaphorical language is more engaging for native speakers but not necessarily for L2 speakers.

scholarly journals Investigation of Native Speaker and Second Language Learner Intuition of Collocation Frequency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Siyanova ◽  
S Spina
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Very Low Frequency ◽  
Second Language Learner ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2

© 2015 Language Learning Research Club, University of Michigan. Research into frequency intuition has focused primarily on native (L1) and, to a lesser degree, nonnative (L2) speaker intuitions about single word frequency. What remains a largely unexplored area is L1 and L2 intuitions about collocation (i.e., phrasal) frequency. To bridge this gap, the present study aimed to answer the following question: How do L2 learners and native speakers compare against each other and corpora in their subjective judgments of collocation frequency? Native speakers and learners of Italian were asked to judge 80 noun-adjective pairings as one of the following: high frequency, medium frequency, low frequency, very low frequency. Both L1 and L2 intuitions of high frequency collocations correlated strongly with corpus frequency. Neither of the two groups of participants exhibited accurate intuitions of medium and low frequency collocations. With regard to very low frequency pairings, L1 but not L2 intuitions were found to correlate with corpora for the majority of the items. Further, mixed-effects modeling revealed that L2 learners were comparable to native speakers in their judgments of the four frequency bands, although some differences did emerge. Taken together, the study provides new insights into the nature of L1 and L2 intuitions about phrasal frequency.

Acquisition of scalar implicatures

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal Snape ◽  
Hironobu Hosoi
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Research Questions

Abstract Our study investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of scalar implicatures some and all. We set out to answer two research questions based on three theoretical accounts, the lexical, pragmatic and syntactic accounts. In an experiment we include English and Japanese native speakers, and intermediate and advanced Japanese L2 learners of English. We used quantifiers some and all in ‘Yes/No’ questions in a context with sets of toy fruits, where pragmatic answers are expected, e.g., a ‘No’ response to the question ‘Are some of the strawberries in the red circle?’ (when a set of 14/14 strawberries are placed inside a red circle). Our individual results indicate that L2 learners are generally more pragmatic in their responses than native English speakers. But, there are neither significant differences between groups nor significant differences between L2 proficiency levels. We consider the implications of our findings for the acquisition of L2 semantics and pragmatics.

Anomaly detection in the processing of complex syntax by early L2 learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Stepanov ◽  
Sara Andreetta ◽  
Penka Stateva ◽  
Adam Zawiszewski ◽  
Itziar Laka
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Early Age ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Syntactic Dependencies ◽  
Syntactic Islands ◽  
L1 And L2

This study investigates the processing of long-distance syntactic dependencies by native speakers of Slovenian (L1) who are advanced learners of Italian as a second language (L2), compared with monolingual Italian speakers. Using a self-paced reading task, we compare sensitivity of the early-acquired L2 learners to syntactic anomalies in their L2 in two empirical domains: (1) syntactic islands, for which the learners’ L1 and L2 grammars provide a converging characterization, and (2) verb–clitic constructions, for which the respective L1 and L2 grammatical descriptions diverge. We find that although our L2 learners show native-like processing patterns in the former, converging, grammatical domain, they may nevertheless perform non-native-like with respect to syntactic phenomena in which the L1 and L2 grammars do not align, despite the early age of L2 acquisition. Implications for theories of L2 acquisition and endstate are discussed.

Event-related brain potentials and second language learning: syntactic processing in late L2 learners at different L2 proficiency levels

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet G. van Hell ◽  
Natasha Tokowicz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
Different Levels

There are several major questions in the literature on late second language (L2) learning and processing. Some of these questions include: Can late L2 learners process an L2 in a native-like way? What is the nature of the differences in L2 processing among L2 learners at different levels of L2 proficiency? In this article, we review studies that addressed these questions using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in late learners and that focused on syntactic processing. ERPs provide an on-line, millisecond-by-millisecond record of the brain’s electrical activity during cognitive processing. ERP measures can thus provide valuable information on the timing and degree of neural activation as language processing (here: syntactic processing in L2) unfolds over time. After discussing the use of ERPs for the study of L2 learning and processing, we review electrophysiological studies on syntactic and morphosyntactic processing in late L2 learners with different levels of L2 proficiency. The currently available evidence indicates that patterns of neural activity in the brain during syntactic and morphosyntactic processing can be modulated by various, possibly interrelated, factors including the similarity or dissimilarity of syntactic structures in L2 and L1, the exact nature of the syntactic structure L2 learners seek to comprehend and the concomitant expectancies they can generate with regard to violations in this structure, and the L2 learners’ level of L2 proficiency. Together these studies show that ERPs can successfully elucidate subtle differences in syntactic processing between L2 learners and native speakers, and among L2 learners at different levels of L2 proficiency, which are difficult to detect or that might have remained undetected with behavioural measures.

The perfective past tense in Greek as a second language

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Clahsen ◽  
Maria Martzoukou ◽  
Stavroula Stavrakaki
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Word Forms

This study reports results from four experiments investigating the perfective past tense of Greek in adult second language (L2) learners. The data come from L2 learners of Greek with intermediate to advanced L2 proficiency and different native language (L1) backgrounds, and L1 speakers of Greek. All participants were tested in both oral and written elicited production and acceptability judgment tasks on both existing and novel verb stimuli. The results showed that the L2 learners did not achieve native-like performance on the perfective past tense in Greek, even at an advanced level of proficiency. The L2 learners often chose verb forms that did not encode the perfective past tense. Differences to native speakers were found particularly for non-sigmatic verb forms, which contain morphological irregularities in the target language. The results of the four experiments will be discussed in the light of previous findings and accounts of inflectional morphology in adult L2 learners. Taken together, the results suggest that L2 learners rely more on stored inflected word forms and on associative generalizations than native speakers.

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.

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