scholarly journals Variable Future-Time Expression in Spanish: A Comparison between Heritage and Second Language Learners

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Ana de Prada Pérez ◽  
Inmaculada Gómez Soler ◽  
Nick Feroce
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Future Time ◽  
L2 Learners

This paper examines the expression of futurity in Spanish, specifically the periphrastic future (PF), the morphological future (MF), and the present indicative (PI) in heritage language learners (HLLs) and second language learners (L2 learners), a comparison that allowed us to explore whether linguistic experience provides HLLs an advantage over L2 learners in the domain of morphosyntax. These forms (PF, MF, and PI) are regulated by certainty, temporal distance, and the presence of temporal adverbials. Previous research showed that L2 learners acquire some of these linguistic constraints and that HLLs tend to reduce the MF to modal uses. Data from a contextualized acceptability judgment task completed by 46 HLLs and 42 L2ers manipulated for verb form, certainty, temporal distance, and adverb and revealed that (i) the PF and the MF were generally rated higher than the PI, (ii) HLLs were sensitive to the three linguistic factors examined, while the L2ers’ sensitivity was modulated by proficiency, and, relatedly, (iii) the two groups differed in the effect of proficiency. For the L2 learners, an increase in proficiency led to a closer pattern to that of monolingual native speakers (only for temporal distance). Differences in exposure to and instruction in Spanish are discussed as possible sources of these differences.

College Chinese Heritage Language Learners’ Implicit Knowledge of Compound Sentences

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihua Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Implicit Knowledge ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Chinese Heritage Language

This preliminary study investigates beginning college Chinese heritage language learners (CHLLs)’ implicit knowledge of compound sentences with pairs of correlatives. Drawing on Valdés’s (2005) categorization of HLLs as L1 speakers and HLLs as L1/L2 users, the study examines CHLLs’ ability to comprehend compound sentences with pairs of correlatives, as well as their comprehension level as compared to native Chinese language speakers and Chinese foreign language learners (CFLLs). The study also examines the characteristics of CHLLs’ implicit knowledge of compound sentences. The data was collected using an acceptability judgment task. The CHL subjects’ overall performance was somewhere between that of native speakers and CFLLs who had studied Chinese for two years. Their performance shows that their comprehension of compound sentences acquired before the onset of learning English at the age of 4 or 5 was retained and even somewhat developed. This is because CHL subjects still received some amount of input from home and community Chinese schools even though they favored English over Chinese. The findings on CHLLs’ linguistic habitus can inform and frame CHLLappropriate pedagogies that exploit their implicit knowledge and systematically build on it.

Attitudes and Motivations of Adult Spanish Language Learners: A Comparison of Heritage Language Learners and Second Language Learners

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet S. Oh ◽  
Bertha A. Nash
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Background Factors ◽  
Learning Success

Research on background factors in adult language learners’ success has largely focused on first-time learners of a second language. In this study, we utilize a well-established second language learner model (the Socioeducational Model; Gardner, 1985a) to compare heritage language and second language learners in a first-semester college Spanish class. Participants (31 heritage language learners; 80 second language learners) completed a survey at the end of the semester assessing their ethnic identity, language backgrounds, attitudes and motivation toward learning Spanish. Course grades were collected as a measure of language learning success. Results indicate that heritage language learners and second language learners are similar on most background factors, but that the background factors predicting each group’s language learning success are quite different. Implications for our understanding of language learners and future research directions are discussed.

Priming and adaptation in native speakers and second-language learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
EUNJIN CHUN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
L2 Learners

Native speakers show rapid adjustment of their processing strategies and preferences on the basis of the structures they have recently encountered. The present study investigated the nature of priming and adaptation in second-language (L2) speakers and, more specifically, whether similar mechanisms underlie L2 and native language adaptation. Native English speakers and Korean L2 learners of English completed a written priming study probing the use of double object and prepositional phrase datives. Both groups showed cumulative adaptation effects for both types of dative, which was stronger for the structure that was initially less frequent to them (prepositional phrase datives for the native English speakers, and double object datives for the L2 learners). This supports models of priming that incorporate frequency-based modulation of long-lasting activation of structures. L2 learners and native speakers use similar processing mechanisms; differences in adaptation can be accounted for by differences in the relative frequency of structures.

Relevance mapping: a study of second language learners’ processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences in English

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Ying
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Contextual Effects ◽  
Procedural Information ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Processing Effort

Forty adult Chinese-speaking learners of English and 20 native speakers of American English participated in a study of second language learners’ interpretation of syntactically ambiguous sentences involving that-clauses that could potentially be interpreted as complements or as relative clause. Two sentence interpretation tasks suggest that the principle of relevance constrained the interpretations. The learners showed a preference for interpreting the that-clause as a complement in the first task, using fewer syntactic nodes because it involved less processing effort. In the second task, however, the learners showed a preference for the relative clause reading, suggesting that the procedural information encoded by preceding referential sentences had the effect of reducing the overall processing effort required and of guiding the second language (L2) learners towards the intended contextual effects.

scholarly journals Comprehension of grammatically modified and nonmodified sentences by second language learners

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana C. Issidorides ◽  
Jan H. Hulstijn
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
State Of Affairs

ABSTRACTAt issue in the present research is whether native speakers' “simplified” or modified utterances, as in foreigner-talk (FT), actually facilitate comprehension for nonnative speakers hearing such utterances. It was hypothesized that (grammatical) Dutch inversion sentences (AdvVSO) that have proven to be problematic in studies on Dutch second language (L2) acquisition - as reflected both in the (ungrammatical) output of L2 learners and in the (ungrammatical) FT input to L2 learners - would not be problematic in terms of comprehension, when compared with modified, ungrammatical AdvSVO and AdvSOV sentences, as long as such sentences do not express an implausible state of affairs. Three subject groups participated in the experiment: 20 English and 22 Turkish L2 learners of Dutch and 30 Dutch native speakers (control group). Subjects heard and interpreted declarative Dutch sentences, in which word order (NVN, VNN, NNV) and animacy configurations (Al [i.e., animate/inanimate], AA, LA) were systematically manipulated. Subjects had to name the noun (first or second) that functions as actor/subject of the sentence. Positive evidence was found for the hypotheses. It is concluded from the present study, as well as from a previous study (Issidorides, 1988), that linguistically more complex input will not necessarily impede comprehension. The fact that normative speakers have difficulties in producing a certain grammatical structure (e.g., the AdvVSO structure) does not imply that such a structure is also more difficult to understand in the speech of others.

“I Think That Sounds Right”

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-368
Author(s):  
Laura Walls
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Implicit Knowledge ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Spanish Classroom

Many studies have demonstrated the benefits of learner-learner interactions in the second language classroom; however, despite the growing number of heritage language learners (HLLs) that enroll in language courses, only recently have researchers begun to examine interactions among second language learners and HLLs. Still, HLL-HLL interactions go unexamined. The present study fills this gap in the literature by analyzing HLL-HLL interactions during collaborative writing activities in a Spanish classroom. Results indicate that learners resolve lexical, grammatical, and orthographic issues accurately in most cases. It also shows that learners rely heavily on their strengths in Spanish and thus, utilize their implicit knowledge of the language. Their intuition enables them to critically assess the appropriateness of certain words and structures according to their needs and intentions; however, it also means that they tend to not fully utilize the resources at their disposal. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Access to UG and language transfer: a study of L2 learners' interpretation of reconstruction in Chinese

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Ying
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
English Speaking

Twenty-seven English-speaking learners of Chinese (the experimental groups) and 20 native speakers of Chinese (the control group) participated in a study that investigated second language learners' knowledge of reconstruction (NP and predicate fronted sentences with ziji ‘self’) in Chinese. Results of a sentence interpretation task indicate that English-speaking learners of Chinese had knowledge of ambiguity of antecedence of ziji inside a moved predicate, and lack of ambiguity of antecedence of ziji inside a moved NP, although such information is not directly available in English. While the experiment produced evidence that they appeared to have access to Universal Grammar, English-speaking learners of Chinese bound ziji in non-movement sentences to an embedded subject, indicating that they mapped the narrower setting of reflexives in English onto a wider parameter setting of ziji in Chinese.

Animacy affects the processing of subject–object ambiguities in the second language: Evidence from self-paced reading with German second language learners of Dutch

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARRIE N. JACKSON ◽  
LEAH ROBERTS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
Auxiliary Verb ◽  
Grammatical Roles ◽  
Reading Study

ABSTRACTThe results of a self-paced reading study with German second language (L2) learners of Dutch showed that noun animacy affected the learners' on-line commitments when comprehending relative clauses in their L2. Earlier research has found that German L2 learners of Dutch do not show an on-line preference for subject–object word order in temporarily ambiguous relative clauses when no disambiguating material is available prior to the auxiliary verb. We investigated whether manipulating the animacy of the ambiguous noun phrases would push the learners to make an on-line commitment to either a subject- or object-first analysis. Results showed they performed like Dutch native speakers in that their reading times reflected an interaction between topichood and animacy in the on-line assignment of grammatical roles.

scholarly journals Specific and generic subjects in the Italian of German–Italian simultaneous bilinguals and L2 learners

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 736-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
TANJA KUPISCH
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Value Judgment ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Truth Value ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

This study investigates definite articles in specific and generic subject nominals in Italian spoken by adult simultaneous bilinguals (2L1ers) and second language learners (L2ers). The study focuses on plural and mass DPs, in which German and Italian differ. The aims are to (i) compare acquisition outcomes between the weaker and the stronger language in 2L1 acquisition, (ii) see in a comparison with L2ers whether the phenomenon under investigation, which is typically acquired late (after age 6;0), lacks age of onset effects, and (iii) discuss predictions for the directionality of cross-linguistic influence. Twenty German–Italian 2L1ers and 15 advanced L2ers of Italian with German as their native language were tested in an acceptability judgment task and a truth value judgment task. The results show clear differences between Italian as the weaker and as the stronger language in 2L1 acquisition, and similarities between Italian as L2 and as the weaker language in 2L1 acquisition.

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