Sentence Prosody in a Second Language

2020 ◽  
pp. 604-618
Author(s):  
Jürgen Trouvain ◽  
Bettina Braun
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Level Ii ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
L1 And L2

This chapter provides an overview of (i) the intonational properties of second language (L2) speech above the word level, (ii) timing aspects, and (iii) the perception and processing of the target languages’ prosody by L2 learners. Intonationally, the chapter summarizes prosodic differences between different learner groups regarding prosodic marking of information structure (highlighting of new or contrastive information), illocution (questions or assertions), and prosodic phrasing. Apart from phonological differences, the chapter also reports phonetic differences between native language (L1) and L2 intonation, observed in particular in the alignment and scaling of the tonal targets in pitch accents. Finally, the chapter summarizes findings on the prosodic marking of expressive prosody in L2 speech. Timing-wise, it focuses on the phenomena of rhythm, tempo, and fluency in L2 speech. The chapter next moves on to an overview of work on the perception and interpretation of intonation of the target language by L2 learners (information structure, illocution, accent location, phrasing, attitudes), and also provides examples of the present knowledge of the online processing of prosody by L2 learners. The chapter then flips the perspective and presents data on how native speakers of the target language perceive foreign-accented L2 speech, regarding foreign-accentedness, intelligibility, and comprehension.

Gesture and information structure in first and second language

Gesture ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiko Yoshioka
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Target Language ◽  
General Phenomenon ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Structure Information ◽  
Zero Anaphora ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
Target Languages

This study investigates the frequency of gestural marking of pre-introduced referents in discourse by Dutch learners of Japanese with native data as baseline. Of interest is whether learners’ over-explicit marking of referents in speech and gesture reported in the literature is a phenomenon related specifically to the acquisition process of pronominal systems or a general phenomenon related to learning to structure information in a target-like manner irrespective of target languages. The data were analyzed in terms of referential expressions used (lexical NP, pronoun, zero-anaphora) and of the rate of gestures accompanying mentions of referents. The results reveal that even when the target language does not have an active use of pronouns, learners overtly specify referents in two modalities. Cross-linguistic variations in discourse-related gestures and possible accounts of the frequent gestural marking of referents in L2 are discussed.

The UG paradox in L2 acquisition

1989 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Clahsen ◽  
Pieter Muysken
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2

There is a considerable amount of recent evidence that stable principles of Universal Grammar (UG) are available to adult second language (L2) learners in structuring their intuitions about the target language grammar. In contrast, however, there is also evidence from the acquisition of word order, agreement and negation in German that there are substantial differences between first language (L1) and L2 learners. In our view, these differences are due to UG principles guiding L1, but not L2 acquisition. We will show that alternative ways of accounting for the L1/L2 differences are not successful. Finally we will deal with the question of how our view can be reconciled with the idea that L2 learners can use UG principles to some extent in the evaluation of target sentences.

Learning Kiswahili as a Second Language for Iraqw-Speaking People: Explaining the Reasons for Error

Utafiti ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-146
Author(s):  
Sarah Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Structural Difference ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Insertion And Deletion ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2

Learning Kiswahili as a second language among the Iraqw community has been influenced by various errors committed by the learners. This situation causes various learners of Kiswahili in this community not to achieve native-like competence in the target language. However, the sources of these errors are not explicitly identified. Many studies draw on different perspectives to describe the sources of errors for L2 learners. For instance, Lado (1957) explains that many errors for L2 learners are due to the interference of L1 while Corder (1967) explains that many errors for L2 learners are caused by the learners themselves since they wrongly use rules of their L2. The findings revealed that the Kiswahili learners among the Iraqw community commit different errors in various contexts, namely concordial agreement marking, insertion and deletion of affixes. It has also been revealed that the causes of those errors include the environments that the learners encounter, the structural difference between L1 and L2, the effects of L1 on L2, lack of enough learning and teaching facilities for Kiswahili as L2, and teachers are not well equipped with Kiswahili content and methodologies for teaching and learning Kiswahili as L2.

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.

Neural deficits in auditory phonological processing in Chinese children with English reading impairment

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIANGZHI MENG ◽  
HANLIN YOU ◽  
MEIXIA SONG ◽  
AMY S. DESROCHES ◽  
ZHENGKE WANG ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Reading Impairment ◽  
English Reading ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Esl Learners

Auditory phonological processing skills are critical for successful reading development in English not only in native (L1) speakers but also in second language (L2) learners. However, the neural deficits of auditory phonological processing remain unknown in English-as-the-second-language (ESL) learners with reading difficulties. Here we investigated neural responses during spoken word rhyme judgments in typical and impaired ESL readers in China. The impaired readers showed comparable activation in the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG), but reduced activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and left fusiform and reduced connectivity between the LSTG and left fusiform when compared to typical readers. These findings suggest that impaired ESL readers have relative intact representations but impaired manipulation of phonology and reduced or absent automatic access to orthographic representations. This is consistent with previous findings in native English speakers and suggests a common neural mechanism underlying English impairment across the L1 and L2 learners.

PROCESSING OF THE REDUCED RELATIVE CLAUSE VERSUS MAIN VERB AMBIGUITY IN L2 LEARNERS AT DIFFERENT PROFICIENCY LEVELS

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Rah ◽  
Dany Adone
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Versus Main ◽  
Main Verb ◽  
L1 And L2

This article presents new evidence from offline and online processing of garden-path sentences that are ambiguous between reduced relative clause resolution and main verb resolution. The participants of this study are intermediate and advanced German learners of English who have learned the language in a nonimmersed context. The results show that for second language (L2) learners, there is a dissociation between parsing mechanisms and grammatical knowledge: The learners successfully process the structures in question offline, but the online self-paced reading task shows different patterns for the L2 learners and the native-speaker control group. The results are discussed with regard to shallow processing in L2 learners (Clahsen & Felser, 2006). Because the structures in question differ in English and German, first language (L1) influence is also discussed as an explanation for the findings. The comparison of the three participant groups’ results points to a gradual rather than a fundamental difference between L1 and L2 processing.

scholarly journals Are ideophones translatable? The case of translating isiZulu ideophones in DBZ Ntuli’s short story Uthingo Lwenkosazana (The Rainbow)

Literator ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mthikazi Rose Masubelele
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
To Come ◽  
Target Languages

The meaning of words comes into play when words as units of translation are to be translated from one language into another. Lexical items that are extant in one language but not in others pose enormous problems for translators. The translation of ideophones – which feature very prominently in African discourse – is a case in point in this article. Translators faced with the translation of such forms are required to come up with strategies to aptly express their meanings in the target text. This article seeks to establish how CSZ Ntuli, in his English translation of an isiZulu short story Uthingo Lwenkosazana by DBZ Ntuli, has translated some of the ideophones used by the original author. Translation strategies used by CSZ Ntuli in his translation to express the meanings of the isiZulu ideophones will be brought to light in this article. It will be confirmed that CSZ Ntuli, using different lexical forms in the target language, has effectively changed unfamiliar isiZulu cultural notions to concepts that the English target reader can relate to. It will also be shown that the meanings of the isiZulu ideophones can be expressed in the target language using approximation and amplification as translation strategies provided that the translator has a good command of both source and target languages. The discussion will also look at how various translation scholars view the notion of equivalence at word level, and research on ideophones in isiZulu will also be reviewed.

Reading-time studies of second language ambiguity resolution

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Despina Papadopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Target Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Impact

This article provides a review of studies that have examined the ambiguity resolution strategies employed when processing a second language (L2). The way second language learners parse the L2 input has not yet been thoroughly investigated, although recently there has been an increasing interest in this area. The exploration of the mechanisms L2 learners use to parse ambiguous constructions allows us to examine not only aspects of L2 acquisition that still remain obscure, but also the validity of existing theories of parsing. The studies reported in this article look at three different types of ambiguous construction in the L2, and their results are discussed in relation to the L2 performance pattern. Most of the findings show that even advanced L2 learners are slower readers than native speakers and apply processing routines that depart from those best suited for processing the target language input. In addition, although L2 learners show sensitivity to lexical cues such as verb argument structure when processing the L2 input, they are less likely to rapidly employ structural information on line. The issues of the transfer of processing mechanisms from the first language (L1) to the second as well as the impact of L2 exposure on the adoption of the L2 processing routines are still unresolved and need to be further investigated.

Orthographic activation in spoken word recognition of L2 phonological variants

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832096825
Author(s):  
Jeong-Im Han ◽  
Song Yi Kim
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Spoken Words ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Prime Target

The present study investigated the influence of orthographic input on the recognition of second language (L2) spoken words with phonological variants, when first language (L1) and L2 have different orthographic structures. Lexical encoding for intermediate-to-advanced level Mandarin learners of Korean was assessed using masked cross-modal and within-modal priming tasks. Given that Korean has obstruent nasalization in the syllable coda, prime target pairs were created with and without such phonological variants, but spellings that were provided in the cross-modal task reflected their unaltered, nonnasalized forms. The results indicate that when L2 learners are exposed to transparent alphabetic orthography, they do not show a particular cost for spoken word recognition of L2 phonological variants as long as the variation is regular and rule-governed.

Frequency effects and second language lexical acquisition

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Crossley ◽  
Tom Salsbury ◽  
Ashley Titak ◽  
Danielle McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Lexical Acquisition ◽  
Absolute Frequency ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
L1 And L2

Frequency effects in an L1 and L2 longitudinal corpus were investigated using Zipfian distribution analyses and linear curve estimations. The results demonstrated that the NS lexical input exhibited Zipfian distributions, but that the L2 lexical output did not match the NS Zipfian patterns. Word frequency analyses indicated that NS interlocutors modify their lexicon such that frequency scores decrease as a function of time that L2 learners have studied English. In contrast, the word frequency scores for the L2 output increased as a function of time. Post-hoc analyses indicated that differences in frequency scores between NS input and L2 output were best explained by the repetition of infrequent words, but not frequent words by L2 learners in the early stages of language acquisition. The results question absolute frequency interpretations of lexical acquisition for L2 learners and provide evidence for usage-based approaches for language learning.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document