An Event-Related Potentials Study on the Syntactic Transfer Effect of Late Language Learners.

Taiping Deng,Dongping Deng,Qing Feng

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.777225

Taiping Deng, Dongping Deng + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.777225

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Abstract

This study explored the syntactic transfer effect of the non-local subject-verb agreement structure with plural head noun after two intensive phases of input training with event-related potentials (ERP). The non-local subject-verb agreement stimuli with the plural head nouns, which never appeared in training phases, were used for the stimuli. A total of 26 late L1-Chinese L2-English learners, who began to learn English after a critical period and participated in our previous experiments, were asked back to take part in this syntactic transfer experiment. Results indicated that a significant ERP component P600 occurred in the key region (the verb) of the sentences with syntactic violations in the experimental group, but none occurred in the control group. This demonstrated that there was a significant transfer effect of the input training. The possible theoretical explanation was provided and also the malleability of the late L2 learners was discussed.

Highlights

The Input Factor and L1 Representation EntrenchmentIn the L1 field of syntactic acquisition, cognitive grammar theory such as the usage-based models advocates that input is an important factor in representation entrenchment
The results showed that, at the high proficiency phase after input training, the implicit training group showed native-like processing paradigm with an anterior positivity followed by P600 component, which indicated the important role of the input and input type in syntactic acquisition
Can the experimental group who had been trained with the non-local subject-verb agreement structure show sensitivity to the similar forms of subject-verb agreement structure violations? Was the entrenched representation limited to the subject-verb agreement structure with singular head noun trained, or could it be extended to the similar structure in different expression? What would happen if the experimental group encountered the grammatically violated sentence such as “The girls of the family was very beautiful and polite”? The present study aimed to explore this question about the syntactic transfer within L2 context

Summary

Introduction

The Input Factor and L1 Representation Entrenchment. In the L1 field of syntactic acquisition, cognitive grammar theory such as the usage-based models advocates that input is an important factor in representation entrenchment. The students were tested on comprehension and recall of complex NP sentences. The results indicated that great differences existed in the comprehension performances with the LAA group performing much worse. One subgroup received memory training and the other group received comprehension training which involved explicit instruction and the practice session. The results of the new complex NP sentences comprehension showed that memory training led to only improvement in recall task and comprehension training led to improvement on both recall task and comprehension task. The results from this research suggested the important role of input or experience especially on particular grammatical structures

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