Generating predictions based on semantic categories in a second language: A case of numeral classifiers in Japanese

AbstractThis study examined whether native Japanese speakers and second language (L2) speakers of Japanese use information from numeral classifiers to predict possible referents. Using a visual-world eye-tracking paradigm, we asked participants to identify picture objects that take either the same or different numeral classifiers while they listened to Japanese sentences referring to one object. The results showed that native speakers looked to the target predictively more often when the classifier was informative about noun identity than when it was not. L2 learners also showed a facilitative effect of classifiers that was comparable to that of native speakers. In addition, we found that the level of proficiency played a role in the speed of real-time referent resolutions when the participants heard the target nouns in audio input. However, such an effect was not observed during the period when the predictions were generated.

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Processing focus in native and non-native speakers of English: an eye-tracking study in the visual world paradigm

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716421000230 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-32

Author(s):

Haoyan Ge ◽

Iris Mulders ◽

Xin Kang ◽

Aoju Chen ◽

Virginia Yip

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Real Time ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Visual World ◽

Visual World Paradigm ◽

L2 Processing ◽

Multiple Interfaces ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

The Difference

Abstract This “visual-world” eye-tracking study investigated the processing of focus in English sentences with preverbal only by L2 learners whose L1 was either Cantonese or Dutch, compared to native speakers of English. Participants heard only-sentences with prosodic prominence either on the object or on the verb and viewed pictures containing an object-focus alternative and a verb-focus alternative. We found that both L2 groups showed delayed eye movements to the alternative of focus, which was different from the native speakers of English. Moreover, Dutch learners of English were even slower than Cantonese learners of English in directing fixations to the alternative of focus. We interpreted the delayed fixation patterns in both L2 groups as evidence of difficulties in integrating multiple interfaces in real time. Furthermore, the similarity between English and Dutch in the use of prosody to mark focus hindered Dutch learners’ L2 processing of focus, whereas the difference between English and Cantonese in the realization of focus facilitated Cantonese learners’ processing of focus in English.

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Spared bottom-up but impaired top-down interactive effects during naturalistic language processing in schizophrenia: evidence from the visual-world paradigm

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291718001952 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 (08) ◽

pp. 1335-1345 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hugh Rabagliati ◽

Nathaniel Delaney-Busch ◽

Jesse Snedeker ◽

Gina Kuperberg

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Real Time ◽

Language Processing ◽

Interactive Effects ◽

Top Down ◽

Visual World ◽

Bottom Up ◽

Lexical Representations ◽

Spoken Language Processing ◽

Level Information

AbstractBackgroundPeople with schizophrenia process language in unusual ways, but the causes of these abnormalities are unclear. In particular, it has proven difficult to empirically disentangle explanations based on impairments in the top-down processing of higher level information from those based on the bottom-up processing of lower level information.MethodsTo distinguish these accounts, we used visual-world eye tracking, a paradigm that measures spoken language processing during real-world interactions. Participants listened to and then acted out syntactically ambiguous spoken instructions (e.g. ‘tickle the frog with the feather’, which could either specify how to tickle a frog, or which frog to tickle). We contrasted how 24 people with schizophrenia and 24 demographically matched controls used two types of lower level information (prosody and lexical representations) and two types of higher level information (pragmatic and discourse-level representations) to resolve the ambiguous meanings of these instructions. Eye tracking allowed us to assess how participants arrived at their interpretation in real time, while recordings of participants’ actions measured how they ultimately interpreted the instructions.ResultsWe found a striking dissociation in participants’ eye movements: the two groups were similarly adept at using lower level information to immediately constrain their interpretations of the instructions, but only controls showed evidence of fast top-down use of higher level information. People with schizophrenia, nonetheless, did eventually reach the same interpretations as controls.ConclusionsThese data suggest that language abnormalities in schizophrenia partially result from a failure to use higher level information in a top-down fashion, to constrain the interpretation of language as it unfolds in real time.

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Telling good stories in different languages

Narrative Inquiry ◽

10.1075/ni.18.1.05min ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 83-110 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Masahiko Minami

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Complex Nature ◽

Emotional Information ◽

Native Japanese Speakers ◽

Good Story ◽

Sequence Of Events ◽

Japanese Speakers ◽

Chronological Sequence

There are many ways to tell a story, but whether a story is good or bad depends on whether or not the listener/reader can comprehend all that the speaker/writer wants to convey in his or her story. This study examines the characteristics of stories that native speakers of given languages consider to be good. Forty English-Japanese bilingual children ages six to twelve were asked to narrate a picture storybook in both English and Japanese. Also involved in the study were 16 adult native Japanese speakers and 16 adult native English speakers who evaluated the stories produced by the bilingual children. An analysis of narratives receiving high ratings from evaluators shows that most stories considered good in English or Japanese should be lengthy stories with a large and varied vocabulary, and should be told in the past tense. In addition to those similarities in effective stories told in the two languages, we also found dissimilarities between “good” stories in English and “good” stories in Japanese. English evaluators felt that relating a series of events in chronological order is only one part of a good story. Providing evaluative comments (i.e., statements or words that tell the listener/reader what the narrator thinks about a person, place, thing, or event) is an indispensable part of telling good stories. So, in stories in English, aside from the standard expectation of a sequential series of events, providing the listener with emotional information is considered equally important. On the other hand, Japanese speakers accepted stories that emphasize a temporal sequence of action with less emphasis on nonsequential information, especially evaluative descriptions, and which effectively use passive forms and subject-referencing markers to enable a clear chronological sequence of events. Because the standards of what makes a good story may differ in the home and school languages/cultures, and because of the complex nature of such differences as shown in this study, it seems advisable that schools intervene and support the development of bilingual children’s skills in the use of the mainstream culture’s standards.

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Effects of task language and second-language proficiency on the neural correlates of phonemic fluency in native Japanese speakers

Neuroreport ◽

10.1097/wnr.0000000000000852 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 28 (14) ◽

pp. 884-889 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Greggory J. Wroblewski ◽

Koji Matsuo ◽

Keiko Hirata ◽

Toshio Matsubara ◽

Kenichiro Harada ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Second Language Proficiency ◽

Native Japanese Speakers ◽

Japanese Speakers ◽

Phonemic Fluency

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Language Learners' Social Interaction during Study Abroad

Handbook of Research on Study Abroad Programs and Outbound Mobility - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-0169-5.ch029 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 722-754

Author(s):

Rikki Campbell

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Social Interaction ◽

Study Abroad ◽

Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Target Language ◽

Common Belief ◽

Study Abroad Programs ◽

Native Japanese Speakers ◽

Depth Interviews

There is a common belief that one of the best methods for learning a foreign or second language is to develop social relationships with native speakers and to communicate with them using that language. In order to increase such interactional opportunities, participation in study abroad programs where the target language is spoken is frequently recommended. However, language learners often report disappointment in their degree of interaction and friendship development with native speakers while abroad. With a focus on learners of Japanese, the study reported in this chapter examines the contexts in which study abroad students in Japan find opportunities to interact and establish friendships with native Japanese speakers, and discusses the participants' satisfaction with and benefits of such interaction and friendships. The results draw upon 36 questionnaire responses, as well as in-depth interviews with four focal informants, all of who experienced a study abroad in Japan between 2010-2013.

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The functional weight of a prosodic cue in the native language predicts the learning of speech segmentation in a second language

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s136672891700030x ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 640-652 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

ANNIE TREMBLAY ◽

MIRJAM BROERSMA ◽

CAITLIN E. COUGHLIN

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Native Language ◽

Speech Segmentation ◽

Strongly Correlated ◽

Vowel Quality ◽

Visual World ◽

Cue Weighting

This study newly investigates whether the functional weight of a prosodic cue in the native language predicts listeners’ learning and use of that cue in second-language speech segmentation. It compares English and Dutch listeners’ use of fundamental-frequency (F0) rise as a cue to word-final boundaries in French. F0 rise signals word-initial boundaries in English and Dutch, but has a weaker functional weight in English than Dutch because it is more strongly correlated with vowel quality in English than Dutch. English- and Dutch-speaking learners of French matched in French proficiency and experience, and native French listeners completed a visual-world eye-tracking experiment in French where they monitored words ending with/out an F0 rise (replication of Tremblay, Broersma, Coughlin & Choi, 2016). Dutch listeners made earlier/greater use of the F0 rise than English listeners, and in one condition they made greater use of F0 rise than French listeners, extending the cue-weighting theory to speech segmentation.

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Prosodic cues in second-language speech processing: A visual world eye-tracking study

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658319879196 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 026765831987919 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Michelle Perdomo ◽

Edith Kaan

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Speech Processing ◽

Information Structure ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Movement Behavior ◽

Visual World ◽

Prosodic Cues ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Building Information ◽

Native Speakers Of English

Listeners interpret cues in speech processing immediately rather than waiting until the end of a sentence. In particular, prosodic cues in auditory speech processing can aid listeners in building information structure and contrast sets. Native speakers even use this information in combination with syntactic and semantic information to build mental representations predictively. Research on second-language (L2) learners suggests that learners have difficulty integrating linguistic information across various domains, likely subject to L2 proficiency levels. The current study investigated eye-movement behavior of native speakers of English and Chinese learners of English in their use of contrastive intonational cues to restrict the set of upcoming referents in a visual world paradigm. Both native speakers and learners used contrastive pitch accent to restrict the set of referents. Whereas native speakers anticipated the upcoming set of referents, this was less clear in the L2 learners. This suggests that learners are able to integrate information across multiple domains to build information structure in the L2 but may not do so predictively. Prosodic processing was not affected by proficiency or working memory in the L2 speakers.

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The emergence of awareness in uninstructed L2 learning: A visual world eye tracking study

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658320915502 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 335-357 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sible Andringa

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Implicit Learning ◽

Research Agenda ◽

Movement Behavior ◽

Visual World ◽

L2 Learning ◽

Learning Without Awareness ◽

Over Time

The construct of awareness plays a pivotal role in several big debates in the field of second language acquisition. It lies at the heart of discussions about the (im)possibility of learning without awareness, or conversely, whether some degree of awareness is a requirement for learning to take place. In this study, I propose a research agenda to further the interface issue, which addresses how awareness, or knowledge of which you are aware, may impact on second language (L2) learning. I argue progress can be made by assessing the development of learning over time and establishing when awareness emerges, and by making a clear distinction between uninstructed and instructed learning. The present study was designed to investigate if awareness would autonomously emerge in uninstructed learning and whether this was contingent on prior implicit learning. Visual world eye tracking was used to monitor learners on the fly as they were exposed to a fully unknown miniature language with a determiner system marking for distance and animacy. Twenty-six out of 39 participants remained fully unaware of the determiner system and showed no signs of learning throughout the exposure. The remaining 13 participants, however, showed clear signs of changed eye movement behavior prior to and post awareness. Thus, in as far as learning was observed, it coincided with the emergence of awareness.

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