Age and knowledge of morphosyntax in english as an additional language: grammatical judgment and error correction

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50
Author(s):  
Muhammad Asif Qureshi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Error Correction ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Grammatical Judgment

AbstractResearch on age and second language acquisition (L2A) is vast, but inconclusive. Such research has mainly been motivated by the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), which postulates that language acquisition becomes extremely difficult after the onset of puberty. Also, there is a lack of research on age and third/additional language (L3/Ln) learning. To fill this gap, this article examines differences in morphosyntactic knowledge between early and late learners of English as a L3/Ln. In this study, ‘early’ and ‘late’ learners are those participants first exposed to English as a medium of instruction (MOI) in 1st and 11th grades, respectively. Participants’ morphosyntactic knowledge was assessed based on two tasks: (a) a Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) and (b) an editing task. Three hundred and thirty five undergraduate and graduate students from two universities in Pakistan voluntarily participated in the research. Results of the group comparisons showed no statistically significant differences between early and late learners on the GJT; however, on the editing task, a modest but significant difference was observed between the two groups, with late learners scoring higher. This finding contradicts the predictions of the CPH.

scholarly journals THE ROBUSTNESS OF CRITICAL PERIOD EFFECTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. DeKeyser
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Period Effects ◽  
High Level ◽  
Adult Immigrants

This study was designed to test the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (Bley-Vroman, 1988), which states that, whereas children are known to learn language almost completely through (implicit) domain-specific mechanisms, adults have largely lost the ability to learn a language without reflecting on its structure and have to use alternative mechanisms, drawing especially on their problem-solving capacities, to learn a second language. The hypothesis implies that only adults with a high level of verbal analytical ability will reach near-native competence in their second language, but that this ability will not be a significant predictor of success for childhood second language acquisition. A study with 57 adult Hungarian-speaking immigrants confirmed the hypothesis in the sense that very few adult immigrants scored within the range of child arrivals on a grammaticality judgment test, and that the few who did had high levels of verbal analytical ability; this ability was not a significant predictor for childhood arrivals. This study replicates the findings of Johnson and Newport (1989) and provides an explanation for the apparent exceptions in their study. These findings lead to a reconceptualization of the Critical Period Hypothesis: If the scope of this hypothesis is limited to implicit learning mechanisms, then it appears that there may be no exceptions to the age effects that the hypothesis seeks to explain.

Implicit and explicit knowledge in second language acquisition

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
PATRICK REBUSCHAT ◽  
JOHN N. WILLIAMS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Incidental Exposure ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

ABSTRACTLanguage development is frequently characterized as a process where learning proceeds implicitly, that is, incidentally and in absence of awareness of what was learned. This article reports the results of two experiments that investigated whether second language acquisition can also result in implicit knowledge. Adult learners were trained on an artificial language under incidental learning conditions and then tested by means of grammaticality judgments and subjective measures of awareness. The results indicate that incidental exposure to second language syntax can result in unconscious knowledge, which suggests that at least some of the learning in this experiment was implicit. At the same time, however, it was also found that conscious (but unverbalizable) knowledge was clearly linked to improved performance in the grammaticality judgment task.

Grammatically Judgments and Second Language Acquisition

1991 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rod Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Dative Alternation ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions

This article takes a critical look at grammaticality judgment tasks in second language acquisition research. It begins by examining the theoretical assumptions that underlie grammaticality judgment tasks, pointing out that previous studies have reported considerable differences between the results obtained from grammaticality judgment tasks and from other, production-oriented tasks. A description of the design features of grammaticality judgment tasks that have been used to date is then provided. There follows an account of a small-scale study designed to investigate the nature of learner judgments. Twenty-one adult advanced Chinese learners of English were asked to judge sentences designed to test their knowledge of dative alternation. The results indicated that the learners rarely used the “not sure” option in the test. Eight of these subjects were then administered a reduced version of the original test as a think-aloud task 1 week later. The results showed that these learners were inconsistent in 22.5% of their judgments. The think-aloud protocols showed that they resorted to a variety of strategies in making judgments. The article concludes by arguing that grammaticality judgment tasks elicit a particular kind of performance that needs to be understood much more thoroughly before it is used as a basis for investigating second language acquisition.

Incidental and explicit learning of L2 derivational morphology and the nature of acquired knowledge

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1377-1404
Author(s):  
Keiichi Ishikawa
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Verbal Reports ◽  
Delayed Effects ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Set Up

AbstractThe aim of the current study was to compare both incidental and explicit auditory learning of second language derivational morphology by measuring the accuracy and the reaction time of a grammaticality judgment task. Furthermore, the study was set up to examine the nature of acquired knowledge using subjective measures of awareness during the testing phases and postexperimental verbal reports. The delayed effects of learning were investigated by testing participants immediately after the learning and 1 week later also. The results showed a significant learning effect for the incidental and explicit learners immediately after exposure, but only the explicit learners maintained the learning effects a week later. Both types of learners showed no significant difference in the reaction time. Incidental learners primarily developed implicit knowledge, while explicit learners relied on explicit knowledge to a large extent, part of which became unconscious later. The differences of learning under incidental and explicit learning conditions are discussed in terms of the maintenance of knowledge.

Lexical Organization in Second Language Acquisition: Does the Critical Period Matter?

TESOL Journal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 540-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Cardimona ◽  
Pamela Smith ◽  
Lauren Sones Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Lexical Organization

scholarly journals Effect of Age in Second Language Acquisition: A Critical Review from the Perspective of Critical Period Hypothesis and Ultimate Attainment

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mosiur Rahman ◽  
Ambigapathy Pandian ◽  
Abdul Karim ◽  
Faheem Hasan Shahed
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Critical Period Hypothesis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ultimate Attainment ◽  
Effect Of Age

This article addresses the effect of age in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), posing the relative question that whether the Critical Period hypothesis (CPH) exists in Second Language (SL), and if existing, how it is associated duly with SLA. The justification of comparing the achievement of L1 and L2 learners on the basis of Ultimate Attainment (UA) in the establishment of Critical Period Hypothesis, is also discussed. In the methodology, secondary data analysis was used to answer of research questions. To achieve a reliable result from the wide range of secondary data primarily from journal articles, a systemic search has been adopted. In conclusion, compare and contrast was made with earlier studies to show the findings of the study and to scope future research. 

Comprehensible Input and Second Language Acquisition

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lester Loschky
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Comprehensible Input ◽  
Negotiated Interaction ◽  
Input Hypothesis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Vocabulary Recognition

This study attempts to test aspects of the input hypothesis (Krashen, 1980, 1983, 1985) and Long's modification of it (Long, 1980, 1983a, 1985). Specifically, it experimentally tests the hypothesis that both input and interactional modifications facilitate second language acquisition, using Japanese as the target language. Three experimental groups were differentiated in terms of input and interaction conditions: (1) unmodified input with no interaction, (2) premodified input with no interaction, and (3) unmodified input with the chance for negotiated interaction. The groups were compared in terms of (a) their degree of comprehension of the input and (b) their subsequent retention of vocabulary items and acquisition of two Japanese locative structures. The results indicated that moment-to-moment comprehension was highest for the negotiated interaction group, whereas there was no significant difference between the two noninteraction groups. Furthermore, there was no correlation found between differences in moment-to-moment comprehension and gains in vocabulary recognition and acquisition of structures, though significant gains on both measures were found for all three groups. Discussion of these findings centers on the relationship between comprehension and acquisition.

scholarly journals What does a critical period for second language acquisition mean?: Reflections on Hartshorne et al. (2018)

Cognition ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 206 ◽  
pp. 104478
Author(s):  
Arturo E. Hernandez ◽  
Jean P. Bodet ◽  
Kevin Gehm ◽  
Shutian Shen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Critical Period
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