A Study of Read versus Conversational English Speech Produced by Native English Speakers and Korean Learners of English: Focusing on the Diapix Task

Using a self-paced reading task, this study examines whether second language (L2) learners are flexible enough to learn L2 parsing strategies that are not useful in their first language (L1). Native Korean-speaking learners of English were compared with native English speakers on resolving a temporary ambiguity about the relationship between a verb and the noun following it (e.g.,The student read [that] the article. . .). Consistent with previous studies, native English reading times showed the usual interaction between the optional complementizerthatand the particular verb's bias about the structures that can follow it. Lower proficiency L1-Korean learners of L2-English did not show a similar interaction, but higher proficiency learners did. Thus, despite native language word order differences (English: SVO; Korean: SOV) that determine the availability of verbs early enough in sentences to generate predictions about upcoming sentence structure, higher proficiency L1-Korean learners were able to learn to optimally combine verb bias and complementizer cues on-line during sentence comprehension just as native English speakers did, while lower proficiency learners had not yet learned to do so. Optimal interactive cue combination during L2 sentence comprehension can probably be achieved only after sufficient experience with the target language.

Download Full-text

Acoustic Distinctions of English /o/ and /ɔ/ Produced by English Speakers and Korean Learners of English

The Journal of Studies in Language ◽

10.18627/jslg.30.4.201502.951 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 951-972

Author(s):

안미진 ◽

Park, Eunsil

Keyword(s):

English Speakers ◽

Korean Learners ◽

Korean Learners Of English

Download Full-text

Aspectual marking among English and Korean learners of Mandarin Chinese

Chinese as a Second Language Research ◽

10.1515/caslar-2012-0002 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 3-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wai Lan Tsang,

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Small Scale ◽

Frequency Of Occurrence ◽

Aspect Hypothesis ◽

Similarities And Differences ◽

Korean Speakers ◽

Situation Types ◽

Korean Learners

AbstractThe present study reports on a small-scale investigation of Mandarin aspectual marking among two groups of pre-intermediate learners of Mandarin Chinese: native English speakers and native Korean speakers. The use of -le, -guo, and -zhe in the learners' written work was examined, with particular attention to three variables: (i) overall frequency of aspectual marking, (ii) frequency of occurrence of each marker, and (iii) interaction between these markers and situation types (Smith 1997). The learners' patterns were also compared with those of a group of native Mandarin speakers and analysed in terms of the postulates of the Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen & Shirai 1996, Bardovi-Harlig 2000). The overall analysis discerned both similarities and differences in the usage of the three markers among the learners. Such patterns are likely to be related to the distinctive nature of the markers, type of genre, the learners' L1 aspectual systems, and classroom/textbook input.

Download Full-text

Second language sensitivity to agreement errors: Evidence from eye movements during comprehension and translation

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716414000290 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 36 (6) ◽

pp. 1283-1315 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

JUNG HYUN LIM ◽

KIEL CHRISTIANSON

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Morphological Processing ◽

English Speakers ◽

L2 Proficiency ◽

Verb Agreement ◽

Asymmetric Pattern ◽

Critical Regions ◽

Korean Learners

ABSTRACTThe present study addresses the questions of (a) whether Korean learners of English show sensitivity to subject–verb agreement violations in an eye-tracking paradigm, and (b) how reading goals (reading for comprehension vs. translation) and second language (L2) proficiency modulate depth of morphological agreement processing. Thirty-six Korean speakers of L2 English and 32 native English speakers read 40 stimulus sentences, half of which contained subject–verb agreement violations in English. The factors were whether a head and a local intervening noun matched in number and whether a sentence was grammatical or not. In linear mixed models analyses, both agreement violations and noun phrase match/mismatch were found to be disruptive in processing for native speakers at the critical regions (verb and following word), and locally distracting number-marked nouns yielded an asymmetric pattern depending on grammaticality. When L2 speakers were asked to produce offline oral translations of the English sentences into Korean, they became more sensitive to agreement violations. In addition, higher L2 proficiency predicted greater sensitivity to morphological violations. The results indicate that L2 speakers are not necessarily insensitive to morphological violations and that L2 proficiency and task modulate the depth of L2 morphological processing.

Download Full-text