Analysis of Prefabricated Chunks Used by Second Language Learners of Different Levels

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to examine whether English finite morphology has the potential to differentiate children with and without language impairment (LI) from Spanish-speaking backgrounds and different levels of English proficiency in comparison to Hispanic English speakers and (b) to investigate the extent to which children who are bilingual exhibit differences in their grammatical performance because of cross-linguistic influence from their first language. Seventy-one children between the ages of 4 years, 5 months and 6 years, 5 months were distributed into the following five groups: English as a first language (EL1) speakers with typical language development (TLD), EL1 speakers with LI, Spanish–English bilinguals with TLD, Spanish–English bilinguals with LI, and English as a second language (EL2) learners with TLD were compared on regular verb finiteness and nominative subject use using spontaneous narrative samples. The EL1 children with LI had significantly lower verb accuracy rates than the EL1 controls with TLD. Verb finiteness marking was also a significant discriminator for the bilinguals with LI. There was no evidence of cross-linguistic influence, however. The analysis indicated no significant differences between EL1 and bilingual children on subject or verb use. The EL2 group only presented difficulties with finite verb use. The typological differences between English and Spanish for overt subject use did not seem to affect the performance of either typical or atypical bilingual learners. The findings underscore the need for addressing language dominance in future bilingual studies.

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Embodied Cognition Processing and Representation of Power Words by Second Language Learners with Different Proficiency levels

Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1515/cjal-2016-0030 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 39 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Wang Qian

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

English Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

The Body ◽

Space Representation ◽

Metaphorical Thinking ◽

Level 3 ◽

Different Levels

AbstractConceptual Metaphor Theory believes that sensorimotor information should be an integral element in representing abstract concepts and can be activated as the way of abstract conceptual processing. Metaphor can be a bridge between the abstract concept of power and the body perception experience since embodiment serves as a basis for metaphorical thinking. Using E-PRIME experimentation, the present study investigated the features in vertical space representation of English power words of second language learners with different levels of proficiency. The statistics indicated that: 1) For such learners, the representation of power words would trigger the vertically spatial metaphor, which brings about “word-space” interaction effect, 2) Chinese English learners with different levels in L2 demonstrate stronger representation abilities in L1 than that of L2, regardless of their L2 proficiency level. 3) Learners’ second language proficiency exerts influence upon the representation of the English power words.

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OBSERVING THE EMERGENCE OF CONSTRUCTIONAL KNOWLEDGE

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263119000202 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 41 (5) ◽

pp. 1089-1110 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ute Römer ◽

Cynthia M. Berger

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Comparable Data ◽

Proficiency Levels ◽

Proficiency Level ◽

English Usage ◽

Reference Corpus ◽

Different Levels ◽

English Verb

AbstractBased on writing produced by second language learners at different proficiency levels (CEFR A1 to C1), we adopted a usage-based approach (Ellis, Römer, & O’Donnell, 2016; Tyler & Ortega, 2018) to investigate how German and Spanish learner knowledge of 19 English verb-argument constructions (VACs; e.g., “V with n,” illustrated by he always agrees with her) develops. We extracted VACs from subsets of the Education First-Cambridge Open Language Database, altogether comprising more than 68,000 texts and 6 million words. For each VAC, L1 learner group, and proficiency level, we determined type and token frequencies, as well as the most dominant verb-VAC associations. To study effects of proficiency and L1 on VAC production, we carried out correlation analyses to compare verb-VAC associations of learners at different levels and different L1 backgrounds. We also correlated each learner dataset with comparable data from a large reference corpus of native English usage. Results indicate that with increasing proficiency, learners expand their VAC repertoire and productivity, and verb-VAC associations move closer to native usage.

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