The effects of prior knowledge on explicit rule formation among L2 Spanish learners receiving structured input through guided-inductive instruction

Abstract

Based on qualitative analyses, recent research hypothesizes that the information structure of an explicitly declared grammatical rule is related to an L2 learner's processing and accurate interpretation of the respective target structure Malovrh and Lee (2022). The present study tests that hypothesis by quantitatively analyzing a more robust data set. It examines L2 Spanish learners' (N = 63) formulation of explicit grammar rules regarding the Spanish true passive after exposure to input containing eight exemplars of the target structure, each followed by a picture-matching interpretation task, and then followed by corrective feedback. Using structured guided-inductive prompts, participants were instructed to write a rule explaining the appropriate assignment of semantic to grammatical roles in true-passive sentences, and first were prompted to consider the grammatical marker ‘por’, and then the gender marking of the verb participle. Logistic regression analyses revealed that participants' prior knowledge of the target structure predicted the information structure of their grammatical rules in terms of rule completeness and the order in which linguistic structure was mentioned (p = .001); as prior knowledge increased, so did the number of features included in a rule. Results are discussed in terms of the effect of prior knowledge on variable information structure and its relationship with subsequent learning outcomes.