scholarly journals Tracking Syntactic Conflict between Languages over the Course of L2 Acquisition: A Cross-sectional Event-related Potential Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 822-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Mickan ◽  
Kristin Lemhöfer
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Control Group ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Sentence Reading ◽  
Conflict Condition ◽  
Beginning Learners ◽  
L1 And L2

One challenge of learning a foreign language (L2) in adulthood is the mastery of syntactic structures that are implemented differently in L2 and one's native language (L1). Here, we asked how L2 speakers learn to process syntactic constructions that are in direct conflict between L1 and L2, in comparison to structures without such a conflict. To do so, we measured EEG during sentence reading in three groups of German learners of Dutch with different degrees of L2 experience (from 3 to more than 18 months of L2 immersion) as well as a control group of Dutch native speakers. They read grammatical and ungrammatical Dutch sentences that, in the conflict condition, contained a structure with opposing word orders in Dutch and German (sentence-final double infinitives) and, in the no-conflict condition, a structure for which word order is identical in Dutch and German (subordinate clause inversion). Results showed, first, that beginning learners showed N400-like signatures instead of the expected P600 for both types of violations, suggesting that, in the very early stages of learning, different neurocognitive processes are employed compared with native speakers, regardless of L1–L2 similarity. In contrast, both advanced and intermediate learners already showed native-like P600 signatures for the no-conflict sentences. However, their P600 signatures were significantly delayed in processing the conflicting structure, even though behavioral performance was on a native level for both these groups and structures. These findings suggest that L1–L2 word order conflicts clearly remain an obstacle to native-like processing, even for advanced L2 learners.

Lexical and discourse factors in the second language acquisition of Spanish word order

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy Jandrey Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Spanish Word ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Beginning Learners

This study investigates the acquisition of Spanish word order by native speakers of English. Specifically, it considers the development of sensitivity to the distinct interpretations of subject-verb (SV) vs. verb-subject (VS) order, as determined by lexical verb class (unaccusative and unergative verbs) and discourse structure.Participants included a native speaker control group and learners at four proficiency levels. Results from a contextualized production task indicate that beginning learners transferred the SV order of English for all structures. Intermediate learners showed a gradual increase in the production of lexically and discourse-determined inversion, although their data was also characterized by indeterminacy and variability. The advanced learners demonstrated a sensitivity to the word order effects of unaccusativity and discourse factors, but also tended to overgeneralize inversion to unergative verbs in a neutral discourse context.

A View of the Lexical–Grammatical Link in Young Latinos With Specific Language Impairment Using Language-Specific and Conceptual Measures

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 1775-1786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucía I. Méndez ◽  
Gabriela Simon-Cereijido
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Vocabulary Skills ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
L1 And L2

Purpose This study investigated the nature of the association of lexical–grammatical abilities within and across languages in Latino dual language learners (DLLs) with specific language impairment (SLI) using language-specific and bilingual measures. Method Seventy-four Spanish/English–speaking preschoolers with SLI from preschools serving low-income households participated in the study. Participants had stronger skills in Spanish (first language [L1]) and were in the initial stages of learning English (second language [L2]). The children's lexical, semantic, and grammar abilities were assessed using normative and researcher-developed tools in English and Spanish. Hierarchical linear regressions of cross-sectional data were conducted using measures of sentence repetition tasks, language-specific vocabulary, and conceptual bilingual lexical and semantic abilities in Spanish and English. Results Results indicate that language-specific vocabulary abilities support the development of grammar in L1 and L2 in this population. L1 vocabulary also contributes to L2 grammar above and beyond the contribution of L2 vocabulary skills. However, the cross-linguistic association between vocabulary in L2 and grammar skills in the stronger or more proficient language (L1) is not observed. In addition, conceptual vocabulary significantly supported grammar in L2, whereas bilingual semantic skills supported L1 grammar. Conclusions Our findings reveal that the same language-specific vocabulary abilities drive grammar development in L1 and L2 in DLLs with SLI. In the early stages of L2 acquisition, vocabulary skills in L1 also seem to contribute to grammar skills in L2 in this population. Thus, it is critical to support vocabulary development in both L1 and L2 in DLLs with SLI, particularly in the beginning stages of L2 acquisition. Clinical and educational implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Future or Movement? The L2 Acquisition of Aller + V Forms

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Pascale Leclercq
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Patterns Of Use ◽  
Modal Values ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Narrative Function ◽  
Semantic Values

This study aims to advance the understanding of the impact of the discursive context in the form-function mappings of aller + V forms by native speakers (NSs) and learners of French (NNSs), and to further knowledge about the developmental patterns of use of such forms at three proficiency levels (lower intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced). While aller + V is often referred to as a periphrastic future form, i.e., a way to express temporal reference, it also takes a range of diverse semantic values (including spatial, aspectual, and modal values), and discursive functions. We therefore set out to examine data from a cross-sectional oral narrative and a longitudinal semi-guided interview task to find out to what extent aller + V forms are used by NSs and NNSs in a study abroad context. Our main results show that at lower intermediate level, spatial values dominate, while temporal and modal values emerge at upper intermediate and advanced levels. As regards the discursive functions of aller + V, learners make context appropriate choices (among others, narrative function in oral narratives, and stance-marking in interviews), but even at advanced level, their range of semantic values and discursive functions is more restricted than native speakers’.

L1 attrition and L2 acquisition

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 248-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conny Opitz
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Host Community ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
L1 Attrition ◽  
Global Language ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Fluency Task

L1 attrition is increasingly being studied as a feature of bilingualism, taking into account the parallel process of L2 language acquisition in a migrant situation. Such situations may foster L1 attrition as a result of insufficient L1 input and competition or interaction with the language of the host community. In a study of 27 German late bilinguals resident in Ireland, the question of a possible interaction between the two language systems (German and English) is addressed. This paper reports on the results of two of the elicitation instruments used – a C-test as a measure of global language proficiency, and a verbal fluency task as a measure of lexical retrieval and bilingual dominance. The former is an unspeeded integrative task, while the latter taps lexical access as a function of the relative activation levels of the languages. The analysis focuses on the proficiency profiles of the bilingual participants vis-à-vis a German and an Irish control group to establish the level of L1 attrition and L2 acquisition, and the degree with which L1 and L2 proficiency correlate.

Native and Nonnative Speakers' Processing of a Miniature Version of Japanese as Revealed by ERPs

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 1229-1244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta L. Mueller ◽  
Anja Hahne ◽  
Yugo Fujii ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Behavioral Skills ◽  
Word Category ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Before And After ◽  
On Line

Several event-related potential (ERP) studies in second language (L2) processing have revealed a differential vulnerability of syntax-related ERP effects in contrast to purely semantic ERP effects. However, it is still debated to what extent a potential critical period for L2 acquisition, as opposed to the attained proficiency level in the L2, contributes to the pattern of results reported in previous ERP studies. We studied L2 processing within the model of a miniature version of a natural language, namely Japanese, specifically constructed to assure high proficiency of the learners. In an auditory ERP experiment, we investigated sentence processing of the “Mini-Japanese” in Japanese native speakers and German volunteers before and after training. By making use of three different types of violation, namely, word category, case, and classifier violations, native and nonnative ERP patterns were compared. The three types of violation elicited three characteristic ERP patterns in Japanese native speakers. The word category violation elicited an anteriorly focused, broadly distributed early negativity followed by a P600, whereas the case violation evoked a P600 which was preceded by an N400. The classifier violation led solely to a late left distributed negativity with an anterior focus. Although the P600 was similar for Japanese natives and learners, the N400 and the anterior negativities were not present in the learner group. The differences across groups suggest deviant neural processes in on-line syntactic and thematic processing in the L2 learners despite high behavioral skills.

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.

The acquisition of word order in Dutch and German as L1 and L2

1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jordens
Keyword(s):  
Simple Model ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
German Word ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 And L2

In a recent paper, Clahsen and Muysken (1986) argue that children acquiring German as their first language have access to the 'move alpha' matrix when constructing a grammar for German. This should explain why children have SOV base order and the rule of verb-fronting from the very beginning. In this paper, it is argued that children's OV utterances cannot be related trans formationally to VO utterances. Initially, children acquire OV and VO with different sets of verbs.Clahsen and Muysken (1986) also claim that interlanguage rules of adult L2 learners are not definable in linguistic theory. Du Plessis et al. (1987) reply to this in arguing that the interlanguage rules of adults acquiring L2 German word order fall within the range of systems permitted by the Headedness parameter, the Proper Government parameter, and the Adjunction parameter. Therefore, these adult learners should have access to Universal Grammar (UG). It is argued here that it is not necessary to make this assumption. The L2-acquisition data can be easily accounted for within a simple model of L1-structural transfer.

scholarly journals Emerging ASL Distinctions in Sign-Speech Bilinguals' Signs and Co-speech Gestures in Placement Descriptions

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Therese Frederiksen
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Group Placement

Previous work on placement expressions (e.g., “she put the cup on the table”) has demonstrated cross-linguistic differences in the specificity of placement expressions in the native language (L1), with some languages preferring more general, widely applicable expressions and others preferring more specific expressions based on more fine-grained distinctions. Research on second language (L2) acquisition of an additional spoken language has shown that learning the appropriate L2 placement distinctions poses a challenge for adult learners whose L2 semantic representations can be non-target like and have fuzzy boundaries. Unknown is whether similar effects apply to learners acquiring a L2 in a different sensory-motor modality, e.g., hearing learners of a sign language. Placement verbs in signed languages tend to be highly iconic and to exhibit transparent semantic boundaries. This may facilitate acquisition of signed placement verbs. In addition, little is known about how exposure to different semantic boundaries in placement events in a typologically different language affects lexical semantic meaning in the L1. In this study, we examined placement event descriptions (in American Sign Language (ASL) and English) in hearing L2 learners of ASL who were native speakers of English. L2 signers' ASL placement descriptions looked similar to those of two Deaf, native ASL signer controls, suggesting that the iconicity and transparency of placement distinctions in the visual modality may facilitate L2 acquisition. Nevertheless, L2 signers used a wider range of handshapes in ASL and used them less appropriately, indicating that fuzzy semantic boundaries occur in cross-modal L2 acquisition as well. In addition, while the L2 signers' English verbal expressions were not different from those of a non-signing control group, placement distinctions expressed in co-speech gesture were marginally more ASL-like for L2 signers, suggesting that exposure to different semantic boundaries can cause changes to how placement is conceptualized in the L1 as well.

scholarly journals The Bottleneck Hypothesis in L2 acquisition: L1 Norwegian learners’ knowledge of syntax and morphology in L2 English

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Isabel Nadine Jensen ◽  
Roumyana Slabakova ◽  
Marit Westergaard ◽  
Björn Lundquist
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Functional Morphology ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verb Second

The Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2008, 2013) proposes that acquiring properties of the functional morphology is the most challenging part of learning a second language. In the experiment presented here, the predictions of this hypothesis are tested in the second language (L2) English of Norwegian native speakers. Two constructions are investigated that do not match in English and Norwegian: One involving functional morphology, subject–verb (SV) agreement, which is obligatory in the L2 but non-existent in the first language (L1), and one involving syntax, verb-second (V2) word order, which is obligatory in the L1, but restricted to specific contexts in the L2. The results of an acceptability judgement task indicate that the participants struggled more with identifying ungrammatical SV agreement than ungrammatical word order. We conclude that the findings lend tentative support to the Bottleneck Hypothesis.

Chinese L2 acquisition of sense relatedness for shàng “to go up”

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Haiyan Liang ◽  
Karen Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
The Senses ◽  
L2 Vocabulary ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Cognitive Motivations ◽  
Polysemous Words ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThis paper examines the relations between the senses of the Chinese polysemous verbshàng“to go up”, in an effort to understand how the various senses of polysemous words are organized in the L1 and L2 lexicons and to shed light on the role they might play in L2 polysemy acquisition. To this end, we analyzed the senses of shàng at the conceptual level, then used these findings to inform an empirical study of the sense relatedness as perceived by L1 and L2 participants. A developmental pattern is identifiable across the L2 proficiency groups. Specifically, the sense relations identified by the L2 groups increasingly approximate those identified by L1 as their proficiency level grows. Both native speakers and learners base their perceptions of sense relatedness on purported conceptual metaphors as well as other factors such as transitivity, function and concreteness – though the two groups apply these concepts in different ways. These findings suggest that learners can access the same conceptual tools as native speakers, but are using these tools in a way that differs from native speakers. Conclusions support the cognitive motivations behind polysemous senses and teaching-oriented findings that overlap in L1 and L2. Conceptual universals should be helpful in L2 vocabulary acquisition.

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