scholarly journals Morpheme Analysis Associated with German Noun Plural Endings among Second Language (L2) Learners Using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 866
Author(s):  
Guiyoung Son
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Mechanism Model ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Syntactic Process ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Anterior Negativity ◽  
Dual Mechanism

This paper aims to examine the morpho-syntactic process of noun plural endings, “-n” and “-s”, in adult second language (L2) learners using event-related potentials (ERPs). German noun plural endings consist of many inflectional forms. They are one of the difficulties faced by German L2 learners. We recorded an electroencephalogram (EEG) study of German L2 learners by dividing study subjects into low and high L2 learners according to the learning level. We examined what ERP components were associated with L2 language processing. All participants were Korean German L2 learners who had achieved varying levels of proficiency. As a result of our analysis, we confirmed different morpho-syntactic processing between the two groups. First, N400 was detected at any learning level. It confirmed language processing supportive of the Full-Listing Model for irregular endings. Second, we confirmed left anterior negativity (LAN), as detected in both low and high proficiency L2 learners. LAN is supportive of a Full-Parsing Model for regular endings, as it was detected in both low and high proficiency L2 learners. However, P600 was detected in highly proficient L2 learners only. It implies that high proficiency learners differ from low proficiency L2 learners. P600 is processed in a reparsing process after recognition of grammatical errors. Based on this result, more active use of a Dual Mechanism Model is possible as learning levels improve. It confirms that improvement in L2 learners results in an approach to cognitive processing similar to that of German first language (L1) speakers.

scholarly journals The Impact of Proficiency on Syntactic Second-language Processing of German and Italian: Evidence from Event-related Potentials

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 2030-2048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Rossi ◽  
Manfred F. Gugler ◽  
Angela D. Friederici ◽  
Anja Hahne
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Word Category ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Anterior Negativity ◽  
The Impact

The present study investigated the role of proficiency in late second-language (L2) processing using comparable stimuli in German and Italian. Both sets of stimuli consisted of simple active sentences including a word category violation, a morphosyntactic agreement violation, or a combination of the two. Four experiments were conducted to study high- and low-proficiency L2 learners of German as well as high- and low-proficiency L2 learners of Italian. High-proficiency L2 learners in both languages showed the same event-related potential (ERP) components as native speakers for all syntactic violations. For the word category violation, they displayed an early anterior negativity (ELAN), an additional negativity reflecting reference-related processes, and a late P600 evidencing processes of reanalysis. For the processing of the morphosyntactic error, an anterior negativity (LAN) and a P600 were observed, whereas for the combined violation, the same ERP components were found as in the pure category violation. In high-proficiency L2 learners, the timing of the processing steps was equivalent to that of native speakers, although some amplitude differences were present. Low-proficiency L2 learners, however, showed qualitative differences in the agreement violation characterized by the absence of the LAN and quantitative differences reflected in a delayed P600 in every violation condition. These findings emphasize that with a high proficiency, late L2 learners can indeed show native-like neural responses with the timing approximating that of native speakers. This challenges the idea that there are fundamental differences in language processing in the brain between natives and late L2 learners.

Individual differences predict ERP signatures of second language learning of novel grammatical rules

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily S Nichols ◽  
Marc F Joanisse
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Grammatical Rule ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Anterior Negativity

We investigated the extent to which second-language (L2) learning is influenced by the similarity of grammatical features in one’s first language (L1). We used event-related potentials to identify neural signatures of a novel grammatical rule - grammatical gender - in L1 English speakers. Of interest was whether individual differences in L2 proficiency and age of acquisition (AoA) influenced these effects. L2 and native speakers of French read French sentences that were grammatically correct, or contained either a grammatical gender or word order violation. Proficiency and AoA predicted Left Anterior Negativity amplitude, with structure violations driving the proficiency effect and gender violations driving the AoA effect. Proficiency, group, and AoA predicted P600 amplitude for gender violations but not structure violations. Different effects of grammatical gender and structure violations indicate that L2 speakers engage novel grammatical processes differently from L1 speakers and that this varies appreciably based on both AoA and proficiency.

Prediction and integration in native and second-language processing of elliptical structures

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
JOSEPH KIRKHAM ◽  
FRANK WIJNEN
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Frontal Negativity ◽  
Related Potentials

According to recent views of L2-sentence processing, L2-speakers do not predict upcoming information to the same extent as do native speakers. To investigate L2-speakers’ predictive use and integration of syntactic information across clauses, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from advanced L2-learners and native speakers while they read sentences in which the syntactic context did or did not allow noun-ellipsis (Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.) Both native and L2-speakers were sensitive to the context when integrating words after the potential ellipsis-site. However, native, but not L2-speakers, anticipated the ellipsis, as suggested by an ERP difference between elliptical and non-elliptical contexts preceding the potential ellipsis-site. In addition, L2-learners displayed a late frontal negativity for ungrammaticalities, suggesting differences in repair strategies or resources compared with native speakers.

How children process over-regularizations: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARALD CLAHSEN ◽  
MONIKA LÜCK ◽  
ANJA HAHNE
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
On Line ◽  
Efficient Processing ◽  
Dual Mechanism

ABSTRACTThis study examines the mental processes involved in children's on-line recognition of inflected word forms using event-related potentials (ERPs). Sixty children in three age groups (20 six- to seven-year-olds, 20 eight- to nine-year-olds, 20 eleven- to twelve-year-olds) and 23 adults (tested in a previous study) listened to sentences containing correct or incorrect German noun plural forms. In the two older child groups, as well as in the adult group, over-regularized plural forms elicited brain responses that are characteristic of combinatorial (grammatical) violations. We also found that ERP components associated with language processing change from child to adult with respect to their onsets and their topography. The ERP violation effects obtained for over-regularizations suggest that children (aged eight years and above) and adults employ morphological computation for processing purposes, consistent with dual-mechanism models of inflection. The observed differences between children's and adults' ERP responses are argued to result from children's smaller lexicons and from slower and less efficient processing.

scholarly journals Situating language in a minimal social context: how seeing a picture of the speaker’s face affects language comprehension

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hernández-Gutiérrez ◽  
Francisco Muñoz ◽  
Jose Sánchez-García ◽  
Werner Sommer ◽  
Rasha Abdel Rahman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Processing Resources ◽  
Mere Presence ◽  
Anterior Negativity ◽  
Communicative Context

Abstract Natural use of language involves at least two individuals. Some studies have focused on the interaction between senders in communicative situations and how the knowledge about the speaker can bias language comprehension. However, the mere effect of a face as a social context on language processing remains unknown. In the present study, we used event-related potentials to investigate the semantic and morphosyntactic processing of speech in the presence of a photographic portrait of the speaker. In Experiment 1, we show that the N400, a component related to semantic comprehension, increased its amplitude when processed within this minimal social context compared to a scrambled face control condition. Hence, the semantic neural processing of speech is sensitive to the concomitant perception of a picture of the speaker’s face, even if irrelevant to the content of the sentences. Moreover, a late posterior negativity effect was found to the presentation of the speaker’s face compared to control stimuli. In contrast, in Experiment 2, we found that morphosyntactic processing, as reflected in left anterior negativity and P600 effects, is not notably affected by the presence of the speaker’s portrait. Overall, the present findings suggest that the mere presence of the speaker’s image seems to trigger a minimal communicative context, increasing processing resources for language comprehension at the semantic level.

Morphological Processing in a Second Language: Behavioral and Event-related Brain Potential Evidence for Storage and Decomposition

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Hahne ◽  
Jutta L. Mueller ◽  
Harald Clahsen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Brain Potential ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Anterior Negativity ◽  
Dual Mechanism

This study reports the results of two behavioral and two event-related brain potential experiments examining the processing of inflected words in second-language (L2) learners with Russian as their native language. Two different subsystems of German inflection were studied, participial inflection and noun plurals. For participial forms, L2 learners were found to widely generalize the -t suffixation rule in a nonce-word elicitation task, and in the event-related brain potential experiment, they showed an anterior negativity followed by a P600-both results resembling previous findings from native speakers of German on the same materials. For plural formation, the L2 learners displayed different preference patterns for regular and irregular forms in an off-line plural judgment task. Regular and irregular plural forms also differed clearly with regard to their brain responses. Whereas overapplications of the -s plural rule produced a P600 component, overapplications of irregular patterns elicited an N400. In contrast to native speakers of German, however, the L2 learners did not show an anterior negativity for -s plural overapplications. Taken together, the results show clear dissociations between regular and irregular inflection for both morphological subsystems. We argue that the two processing routes posited by dual-mechanism models of inflection (lexical storage and morphological decomposition) are also employed by L2 learners.

Examining second language development using event-related potentials

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Gabriele ◽  
Robert Fiorentino ◽  
José Alemán Bañón
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Structural Distance

This cross-sectional study examines the role of L1-L2 differences and structural distance in the processing of gender and number agreement by English-speaking learners of Spanish at three different levels of proficiency. Preliminary results show that differences between the L1 and L2 impact L2 development, as sensitivity to gender agreement violations, as opposed to number agreement violations, emerges only in learners at advanced levels of proficiency. Results also show that the establishment of agreement dependencies is impacted by the structural distance between the agreeing elements for native speakers and for learners at intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency but not for low proficiency. The overall pattern of results suggests that the linguistic factors examined here impact development but do not constrain ultimate attainment; for advanced learners, results suggest that second language processing is qualitatively similar to native processing.

PROCESSING FOCUS STRUCTURE IN L1 AND L2 FRENCH

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert V. Reichle ◽  
David Birdsong
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Focus Condition ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Focus Marking ◽  
L1 And L2

This study examined the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by focus processing among first language (L1) speakers and second language (L2) learners of French. Participants read wh-questions containing explicit focus marking, followed by responses instantiating contrastive and informational focus. We hypothesized that L2 proficiency would modulate nativelikeness in L2 processing. For the L1 and L2 groups, widespread word-long positive shifts reflected the processing of nouns receiving informational and contrastive focus. Nouns receiving contrastive focus showed an increased anterior negativity compared to informational focus for both groups. Second language proficiency modulated the amplitude of this negativity effect, and subgroup analyses of low- and high-proficiency L2 learners showed no significant effect of focus condition among low-proficiency learners. This modulatory relationship between L2 proficiency and nativelikeness of processing is consistent with the dynamic sequence of L2 ERPs observed for morphosyntactic processing and extends those findings to the syntax-pragmatics interface phenomenon of focus processing.

Processing a second language: late learners' comprehension mechanisms as revealed by event-related brain potentials

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Hahne ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Anterior Negativity

Sentence comprehension in second language (L2) learners was examined using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Native Japanese speakers who had learned German as a second language after puberty listened to German sentences which were either correct, semantically incorrect, syntactically incorrect or both semantically and syntactically incorrect. Brain responses were registered while participants listened to these sentences. Grammaticality judgments required after each sentence revealed that their overall performance was not perfect but clearly above chance. When comparing the L2-learners' brain responses to those of native listeners, a variety of differences were observed. Whereas semantically incorrect sentences showed an ERP pattern similar to that of native listeners (a centro-parietal N400-effect), correct sentences elicited a greater positivity in L2-learners than in native listeners, possibly in reflection of greater difficulties in syntactic integration. For sentences containing a phrase structure violation, L2-learners did not show significant modulations of the syntax-related ERP components usually seen in native listeners (i.e. the early anterior negativity and the P600). Furthermore, sentences containing a pure semantic or a combined syntactic and semantic violation elicited a late right anterior-central negativity, an effect which has not been observed for native language processing. The topography of the effect may suggest that these additional processes are based on conceptual-semantic rather than on lexical-semantic aspects.

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