Korean English L2ers’ Sensitivity to Information Structure: An ERP Study

Abstract

This paper examined the event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by information structure among Korean L2 English learners. Participants read a wh-question, followed by an it-cleft answer sentence in English. We hypothesized that L2 proficiency would modulate native-likeness or L2-uniqueness in L2 focus processing. For the L1 and high- and low-proficiency L2 groups, word-long positive shifts reflect the processing of NPs receiving constructional focus, compared to other non-focal phrases in cleft sentences. Second, as for the processing of incorrectly vs. correctly assigned focus, while the L1 group in Cowles et al. (2007) recorded N400, in our experiments the high-proficiency L2 group registered anterior P600, but the low-proficiency L2 group yielded right anterior negativity. This points to a modulatory correlation between L2 proficiency and native-likeness/L2-uniqueness of processing focus assignment in information structure.