Non-native perception and first language experience: The case of English final stop perception by Saudi Arabic listeners

Abstract This study investigated the unresolved issue of potential sources of heritage language attrition. To test contributing effects of three learner variables – age of second language acquisition, length of residence, and language input – on heritage children's lexical retrieval accuracy and speed, we conducted a real-time word naming task with 68 children (age 11–14 years) living in South Korea who spoke either Chinese or Russian as a heritage language. Results of regression analyses showed that the participants were less accurate and slower in naming target words in their heritage language as their length of residence in Korea and the amount of Korean input increased. The age of Korean acquisition did not significantly influence their performance. These findings support the claim that heritage speakers’ language experience is a more reliable predictor of first language attrition than age of acquisition. We discuss these findings in light of different approaches to explaining language attrition.

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The Production of New and Similar Vowels by Adult German Learners of English

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263100010792 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 131-158 ◽

Cited By ~ 123

Author(s):

Ocke-Schwen Bohn ◽

James Emil Flege

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

English Language ◽

First Language ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Control Group ◽

Language Experience ◽

English Vowels ◽

L1 English ◽

Positive Effect

The study reported in this paper examined the effect of second language (L2) experience on the production of L2 vowels for which acoustic counterparts are either present or absent in the first language (L1). The hypothesis being tested was that amount of L2 experience would not affect L1 German speakers' production of the “similar” English vowels /i, l, ∈/, whereas English language experience would enable L1 Germans to produce an English-like /æ/, which has no counterpart in German. The predictions were tested in two experiments that compared the production of English /i, l, ∈, æ/ by two groups of L1 German speakers differing in English language experience and an L1 English control group. An acoustic experiment compared the three groups for spectral and temporal characteristics of the English vowels produced in /bVt/ words. The same tokens were assessed for intelligibility in a labeling experiment. The results of both experiments were largely consistent with the hypothesis. The experienced L2 speakers did not produce the similar English vowels /i, l, ∈/ more intelligibly than the inexperienced L2 speakers, not did experience have a positive effect on approximating the English acoustic norms for these similar vowels. The intelligibility results for the new vowel /æ/ did not clearly support the model. However, the acoustic comparisons showed that the experienced but not the inexperienced L2 speakers produced the new vowel /æ/ in much the same way as the native English speakers.

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Usage-based Approaches to Second Language Acquisition: Cognitive and Social Aspects

Journal of Language Teaching and Research ◽

10.17507/jltr.1103.16 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 473

Author(s):

Yaghoob Javadi ◽

Fakhereh Kazemirad

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Production ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

First Language ◽

Social Aspects ◽

Language Experience ◽

Learning Language

Usage-based approaches focus on learning language through engaging in the interpersonal communicative and cognitive processes. They consider language as the best accomplishment of our social and cognitive competences which bridges society and cognition. Based on usage-based approaches, language can be learned from language use, by means of social skills and generalizations over usage events in interaction. These approaches actually explore how language learning occurs through language experience. Therefore, usage-based approaches are input-dependent and experience-driven and assume frequency of usage as an inseparable part of language learning which plays an important role in the language production, language comprehension, and also grammaticality of the patterns. While usage-based approaches have been successful in showing how first language is learnt from the input, it is still less clear how these approaches can be made use of in second language learning. The present study provides an overview of the usage-based approaches to second language acquisition and their cognitive and social underpinnings. Firstly, the notion, underlying tenets, and major constructs of usage-based approaches are summarized. Then usage-based linguistics is described in detail. Finally, cognitive and social aspects of usage-based approaches are taken into account.

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The Effect of the Positive and the Negative Evidences in Learning English ‘to’ with Manner-of-Motion to Goal Constructions by L1 Saudi Arabic Speakers

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v13n6p20 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 20

Author(s):

Hanan Mohammed Kabli

Keyword(s):

First Language ◽

Intermediate Stage ◽

Judgment Task ◽

Boundary Crossing ◽

Control Group ◽

Negative Evidence ◽

Positive Evidence ◽

Arabic Speakers ◽

Stage Of Development ◽

Saudi Arabic

The present study investigates the effect of the first language (L1) on learners by using the negative and the positive evidence in the classrooms while teaching English directional prepositions such as ‘to’ and ‘into’. It is assumed that Arabic has two versions of ‘to’. It has the directional interpretation without boundary-crossing which is equivalent to the English ‘to’; whereas, it also denotes a similar interpretation to English directional preposition ‘into’ which is unavailable in Arabic and involves boundary-crossing. The study considers two groups to examine the effect of the overlaps, who are at an intermediate stage of development; the experiment group (E.G.) and the control group (C.G.). The control group is the base to measure the effectiveness of the treatments on the experiment groups’ judgments. Hence, an Acceptability Judgment Task is devised to elicit participants’ judgments on the task items in the pretest and the posttest. Results show clear advantage of the negative evidence in the experiment group’s performance in the posttest in learning ‘to’ with and without boundary-crossing. There is a difference in the experiment group’s performance in the posttest in learning ‘into’ with the boundary-crossing event after receiving the positive evidence. Similarly, a difference was observed in the experiment group’s judgment with those of the control group in the comparison between ‘to’ and ‘into’ with the boundary-crossing event in the posttest.

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Global Second Language Proficiency Predicts Self-Perceptions of General Sarcasm Use Among Bilingual Adults

Journal of Language and Social Psychology ◽

10.1177/0261927x19865764 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

pp. 459-478

Author(s):

Mehrgol Tiv ◽

Vincent Rouillard ◽

Naomi Vingron ◽

Sabrina Wiebe ◽

Debra Titone

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

First Language ◽

Social Contexts ◽

Communication Style ◽

Communication Styles ◽

Language Experience ◽

Social Functions ◽

Second Language Proficiency ◽

Cognitive Changes

Each culture has a distinct set of features that contribute to a unique communication style. For example, bilinguals often balance multiple social contexts and may undergo cognitive changes that consequently support different communication styles. The present work examines how individual differences in bilingual experience affect one form of communication style: sarcastic and indirect language. A diverse sample of largely bilingual adults (first language English) rated their likelihood of using sarcastic and indirect language across different daily settings. They also rated their second language experience. There were two key findings: Bilinguals use sarcasm for similar social functions as do monolinguals (general sarcasm, frustration diffusion, and embarrassment diffusion) and greater global second language proficiency linked to greater usage of general sarcasm in daily life. These results suggest that bilinguals may use sarcasm to achieve various communicative goals and bilingual experience may affect general cognitive capacities that support sarcasm use across real-world contexts.

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The Influence of Second Language Experience in the Pattern of Language Processing of the Bilingual Lexicon

MANUSYA ◽

10.1163/26659077-00501006 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 79-95

Author(s):

P. Sudasna ◽

S. Luksaneeyanawin ◽

D. Burnham

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Processing ◽

English Language ◽

First Language ◽

Language Experience ◽

High Group ◽

Bilingual Lexicon ◽

Bilingual Speakers ◽

Word Forms ◽

Thai English

The present experimental research studies whether Thai-English bilinguals’ language experience in their non-native language influences the pattern of language processing of the bilingual lexicon. Two groups of 100 native Thai bilingual speakers with high or low English language experience were asked to perform Stroop Interference Tasks, with the processing of word forms being either Thai or English and the processing in colour naming also being either Thai or English. The results showed that when the processing of word forms was in Thai, there was more intra- than interlingual interference, and that the degree of interference was equivalent between the two English experience groups. When the processing of word forms was in English, the high and the low groups showed more intra- than interlingual interference; however, the high group showed more interference than the low group did. The results provide evidence that the maximal interference occurs in the processing of the first language and the interference in the processing of the second language is proportional to L2 language experience. The results suggest that there is a relationship between language experience and language processing of the bilingual lexicon.

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Monolingual and bilingual recognition of regular and irregular English verbs: Sensitivity to form similarity varies with first language experience

Journal of Memory and Language ◽

10.1016/j.jml.2007.03.001 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 57 (1) ◽

pp. 65-80 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Dana M. Basnight-Brown ◽

Lang Chen ◽

Shu Hua ◽

Aleksandar Kostić ◽

Laurie Beth Feldman

Keyword(s):

First Language ◽

Language Experience

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Pre-emption of L1 properties in the L2 acquisition of English wh-interrogatives: Effects of L2 proficiency and age of onset

IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching ◽

10.1515/iral-2016-0128 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 58 (4) ◽

pp. 443-473

Author(s):

Kholoud A. Al-Thubaiti

Keyword(s):

Critical Period ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

First Language ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Judgment Task ◽

English Speakers ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

L2 Proficiency ◽

Saudi Arabic ◽

Acceptability Judgment

AbstractThis study investigates whether second language (L2) speakers can pre-empt a first language (L1) property which involves uninterpretable features, such as resumption. The Interpretability Hypothesis predicts persistent L1 effects in L2 grammars because uninterpretable features resist resetting beyond some critical period (Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou 2007). Unlike English, Saudi Arabic allows grammatical resumption in complex wh-interrogatives, which is highly preferred with (D)iscourse-linked wh-forms (e. g. ʔayy-NP ‘which-NP’) but disallowed with non-D-linked ones (e. g. ʔeeʃ ‘what’). The study was conducted with fifteen native English speakers and 34 (very)-advanced Saudi Arabic L2 speakers of English with age of onset (AO 1–13 years). In a bimodal, timed acceptability judgment task, their accuracy judgments of 32 (un)grammatical wh-interrogatives were tested. As predicted, results show that L2 speakers of very advanced levels inaccurately accepted resumption especially with D-linked wh-interrogatives. The results also show non-significant differences between AO 1–6 and 7–13 years in their rejection accuracy of resumption.

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The Languages of Charles Reznikoff

Journal of American Studies ◽

10.1017/s0021875811000107 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 355-369

Author(s):

IAN DAVIDSON

Keyword(s):

First Language ◽

The Other ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

Language Experience ◽

Poetry And Poetics ◽

Modernist Poetry ◽

Linguistic Complexity ◽

Charles Reznikoff ◽

Late Nineteenth ◽

The Relationship

This paper examines the representation of American everyday life and the language of the legal system in the work of Charles Reznikoff. It draws comparisons between Reznikoff's accounts of the lives of immigrants to America in his work, and Jacques Derrida's experience of colonial relationships as described in his book Monolingualism of the Other or The Prosthesis of Origin. Charles Reznikoff was the son of Russian Jews who moved to America to escape the pogroms of the late nineteenth century. His parents spoke Yiddish and Russian, his grandparents spoke Hebrew, and Reznikoff's first language was English. This familial linguistic complexity was further added to by his associations with experimental modernist poetry and poetics through the “Objectivists,” an environment that provided him with the poetic forms in which to explore relationships between language, experience and its representation. I cite two other linguistic contexts: that of the law, acquired through his legal training, and that of commerce and sales, acquired through working as a hat salesman for his parents' business. Reznikoff therefore had no naturalized relationship between language and either family or national identity, or between language and place. I use Derrida's notion of “a first language that is not my own” to explore the implications for Reznikoff's poetry, and particularly the relationship between the specific accounts of experience in Testimony and the more general notions of nation and justice. While I conclude that a concern of the poems is always language, and what language means in different contexts, the poems also seek to connect with the material consequences of injustice for the fleshly bodies of the victims.

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Use of Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Assess Syntactic Processing by Monolingual and Bilingual Adults and Children

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.621025 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Guoqin Ding ◽

Kathleen A. J. Mohr ◽

Carla I. Orellana ◽

Allison S. Hancock ◽

Stephanie Juth ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Near Infrared ◽

First Language ◽

Response Patterns ◽

Language Experience ◽

Hemodynamic Responses ◽

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Syntactic Knowledge ◽

Adults And Children

This exploratory study assessed the use of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine hemodynamic response patterns during sentence processing. Four groups of participants: monolingual English children, bilingual Chinese-English children, bilingual Chinese-English adults and monolingual English adults were given an agent selection syntactic processing task. Bilingual child participants were classified as simultaneous or sequential bilinguals to examine the impact of first language, age of second-language acquisition (AoL2A), and the length of second language experience on behavioral performance and cortical activation. Participants were asked to select the agent of four types of sentences: subject-verb-object (SVO), passive (PAS), subject-extracted relative clause (SR), and object-extracted relative clause (OR) adopted from the “Whatdunit” task by Montgomery et al. (2016). Semantic cues were removed by using inanimate nouns for agents and patients, which constrained participants to make decisions based on syntactic knowledge. Behavioral results showed greater accuracy for canonical SVO and SR sentence types than for noncanonical OR and PAS sentence types, which aligns with prior studies. Neuroimaging results revealed greater hemodynamic responses to relative clauses (i.e., SR and OR sentences) than to simple sentences (SVO and PAS), especially for Chinese-English bilinguals suggesting first-language transfer influencing sentence processing in English. The effects AoL2A and the length of second language experience showed no significant differences between simultaneous and sequential bilinguals or between bilingual adults and children for identifying the correct agent in each sentence. However, neuroimaging results demonstrated greater hemodynamic responses in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) in simultaneous bilinguals compared to sequential bilinguals and greater hemodynamic responses in left and right DLPFC and left IPL among bilingual adults. Different behavioral and neural hemodynamic response patterns afford new insights into the effects of syntactic knowledge on sentence processing.

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