Abstract
AbstractMany aspects of a new language, including grammar rules, can be acquired and accessed within minutes. In the present study, we investigate how initial learners respond when the rules of a novel language are not adhered to. Through spoken word-picture association-learning, tonal and non-tonal speakers were taught artificial words. Along with lexicosemantic content expressed by consonants, the words contained grammatical properties embedded in vowels and tones. Pictures that were mismatched with any of the words’ phonological cues elicited an N400 in tonal learners. Non-tonal learners only produced an N400 when the mismatch was based on a word's vowel or consonants, not the tone. The emergence of the N400 might indicate that error processing in L2 learners (unlike canonical processing) does not initially differentiate between grammar and semantics. Importantly, only errors based on familiar phonological cues evoked a mismatch-related response, highlighting the importance of phonological transfer in initial second language acquisition.
Highlights
Second language learners can acquire many aspects of a new language (L2) at surprisingly fast rates
The permutation test identified a difference between vowel mismatch and matched pictures which manifested as a negative cluster at centroposterior electrodes (C6, CP3, CP4, CP6, TP8, P7, P5, P3, P1, Pz, P2, P4, P8, P07, P08, Oz), p = .001, again indicating an N400 response, as well as three positive clusters at anterior electrodes: AF4, F1, Fz, F2, FC3, FC1, FC2, C1, p = .002, F3, F4, Fpz, AF7, AF8, F5, p = .004, and Fp1, Fp2, F6, p =
We investigated how behavioural error detection and neurophysiological error processing proceeded in novice learners
Summary
Second language learners can acquire many aspects of a new language (L2) at surprisingly fast rates. An important facilitating factor during such early stages of second language acquisition (SLA) is transfer To this effect, initial learners often acquire words with native language (L1) morphology and phonology more accurately and quickly than words with unfamiliar morphological and phonological features (Havas, Taylor, Vaquero, de Diego-Balaguer, Rodríguez-Fornells & Davis, 2018; McKean, Letts & Howard, 2013). Initial learners often acquire words with native language (L1) morphology and phonology more accurately and quickly than words with unfamiliar morphological and phonological features (Havas, Taylor, Vaquero, de Diego-Balaguer, Rodríguez-Fornells & Davis, 2018; McKean, Letts & Howard, 2013) This is likely due to a more comprehensive neural processing of L1-like novel words which can draw on fine-tuned L1 networks. We investigate whether the learners respond differently to mismatches that are based on familiar and unfamiliar phonological cues
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