Abstract
Based on the Competition Model, the current study investigated how cue availability and cue reliability as two important input factors influenced second language (L2) learners' cue learning of the English article construction. Written corpus data of university-level Chinese-L1 learners of English were sampled for a comparison of English majors and non-English majors who demonstrated two levels of L2 competence in English article usage. The path model analysis in structural equation modeling was utilized to investigate the relationship between the input factors and L2 usage (frequency and accuracy of article cue production). The findings contribute novel and scarce empirical evidence that confirms a central claim of the Competition Model, i.e., the changing importance of cue availability and cue reliability in the frequency and accuracy of production. Cue availability was found to determine L2 production frequency regardless of level of L2 competence. Cue reliability was the input factor that differentiated competence levels. When learners stayed at a relatively lower L2 proficiency, cue reliability played an important role in influencing L2 frequency of usage rather than accuracy of usage. When learners developed increased exposure to and stronger competence in the target language, cue reliability played a significant role in determining learners' success of cue learning. The study is methodologically innovative and expands the empirical applicability of the Competition Model to the domain of second language production and construction learning.
Highlights
The current study is the first corpus-based study that statistically models the contributions of the input variables of cue availability and cue reliability to second language (L2) acquisition of the English article construction
The frequency order among the English majors resembled that of the cue availability order more closely than that of the non-English majors
Similar to what we found about the English major group, the two variables of cue availability and cue reliability explain a considerable proportion of the variance in L2 frequency (R2 = 0.728); the three variables, explain only a minimal amount of variance in L2 accuracy (R2 = 0.016)
Summary
The current study is the first corpus-based study that statistically models the contributions of the input variables of cue availability and cue reliability to second language (L2) acquisition of the English article construction. The study is guided by the theoretical framework of the Competition Model (MacWhinney, 1987, 2012, 2017), which views language as a system of form-function mappings. We represent an article cue in the form of “article function | article form,” following the convention of the model that represents form-function mappings as “X | Y” (the interpretation X given a cue Y). Cues differ in their inherent properties, the two most important of which are availability and reliability. Cue availability is the proportion of times the cue is available over the times it is needed, whereas cue reliability is the proportion of times the cue leads to the intended interpretation over
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