L1 English Speakers Research Articles

Patterns of interaction in a paired speaking test: comparing L1 and L2 interactions

The shift of focus from a cognitive to social view has drawn the attention of second language assessment researchers to delve into interactional competence as an intriguing topic in paired oral tests. To fill the gap on how interactional patterns compare across L1 and L2 interactions this study was specifically set to explore and compare 45 paired interactions of L1 English speakers, L1 Persian speakers, and L2 English learners. While the findings indicated that the collaborative pattern was the most common pattern in the three groups less than half of the interactions in total were collaborative. Furthermore, not all the interactional patterns were found in all the groups. The frequency and prominence of the common patterns also varied. The findings could be explained by cultural norms of speech (e.g., in taking turns) and interlocutor effects (e.g., dominating the conversation or adopting a passive role). The findings imply challenges for fair assessment when using paired tasks as assessment tools. Furthermore, the findings call for rubric development and rater training programs to include description and discussion of interactional patterns to help raters improve their understanding and rating of paired interactions.

Pronoun interpretation in intermediate-advanced L2 English speakers: L2 to L1 cross-linguistic effects

Aims and objectives: L2 learners who speak a null subject (L1 Spanish) and a non-null subject language (L2 English) may experience cross-linguistic interference from the L2 on L1 pronoun interpretation. In this study, we test pronoun interpretation in the L1 and L2 of adult learners, in comparison with two groups of monolingual speakers, to assess if L1 pronoun interpretation can change as a result of L2 acquisition at intermediate-advanced levels of L2 proficiency and in the absence of long L2 immersion. Methodology: A group of L2 English speakers (L1 Spanish) participated in two offline sentence comprehension tasks where they interpreted pronouns in the L1 and L2. The results are compared with English and Spanish monolingual speakers. Data and analysis: We find that adult English learners comprehend pronouns in their L1 (Spanish) differently than Spanish monolingual speakers, demonstrating a strong subject bias for interpreting null and overt pronouns. In addition, we show that pronoun interpretation patterns acquired in the L2 explain the changes to L1 interpretation biases. Conclusions: The results of this study significantly advance the understanding of the factors that contribute to bilingual language comprehension, showing the permeability of the L1 comprehension system at the discourse level as soon as the L2 sets in.

An Investigation Into English Learners’ Speech Acts Using a Semi-Automatic Annotation Tool

This paper explores the speech acts most frequently performed by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) through the Dialogue Annotation and Research Tool (DART), a semi-automatic annotation tool. The study used learner corpus research and an English as the first language (L1) speaker corpus as a reference to compare the speech acts performed by the EFL learners. The study involved 90 EFL learners of four nationalities. A spoken learner corpus was built with the dyadic interlanguage English conversation register. The most frequently performed speech acts were generally different for the English L1 speakers and the EFL learners. The speech acts labeled as correctSelf, referProcess, expressNonAwareness, and stateReason were in the top 10 for EFL learners, whereas they were not in the top 10 for the English L1 speakers. This difference was caused by three factors: the English proficiency of the EFL learners, the frequently used formulaic phrases, and the task requirements. Moreover, the corpus annotation has a problem with unrecognized speech acts, primarily due to the redundancies and fragments in the learner discourses. The findings of this study reveal the complementary relationship between grammatical and pragmatic performances.

Verb argument constructions in argumentative essays by college-level Asian learners of English: Exploring the effects of English proficiency, acquisition context, and topic

This study examined the effects of second language (L2) proficiency, acquisition context, and topic on the use of verb argument constructions (VACs) in Asian college-level L2 writers’ argumentative essays. A total of 776 essays written on two topics by 388 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) writers of two L2 proficiency levels were used as data. Six indices informed by large-scale corpora of L1 English speakers were used to gauge the frequency and association strength of the VACs. Results of a series of linear mixed-effects models showed the frequencies of verbs and verb-construction combinations were affected by the interaction between L2 proficiency and acquisition context. L2 proficiency also had a main effect on construction frequency, with more proficient writers using constructions of lower frequency than less proficient writers. No effect of L2 proficiency was found on the association strength of VACs. Additionally, acquisition context affected the directional association strength of VACs, with ESL writers using verbs that associated less strongly with constructions than EFL writers. Finally, topic effects were found on five of the six indices. These findings offered empirical evidence for the developmental trajectories of VACs, and carried practical implications for L2 writing pedagogy.

Constructional Emergence in A1–C1: A Bird’s Eye Perspective and Alignment

This study aims to take a usage–based constructionist approach to observing the emergence of constructions in L2 speakers of English from a bird’s eye perspective and aligns some of them with CEFR levels. To do this, five equally balanced subparts from the EFCAMDAT corpus were compiled and analyzed using TAASSC and SPSS. The findings present strong evidence for and confirm previous studies that speakers at lower proficiency levels use fixed or prototypical expressions and do not deviate as much from conventional ways of combining constructions, i.e., collexemes. As proficiency increases, their constructicon gets lexicogrammatically richer and less prototypical, as such prototypical examples serves as training wheels for further expansion. While there seems to be evidence for low–frequency constructions to follow a developmental path through CEFR levels, high–frequency constructions do not seem to follow this path. In the end, the study presents a set of constructions aligned for each CEFR level, which appears to be in line with the characteristics of CEFR levels described at englishprofile.org.

The Effects of Orthographies, Stress and Consonantal Manners on Syllabification and Acoustic Durations of Intervocalic Consonants with Singleton and Geminate Graphemes by Thai L2 Speakers of English

The Effects of Orthographies, Stress and Consonantal Manners on Syllabification and Acoustic Durations of Intervocalic Consonants with Singleton and Geminate Graphemes by Thai L2 Speakers of English

L2 cognitive construal and morphosyntactic acquisition of pseudo-passive constructions

Abstract Discussion of the theoretical underpinning of pseudo-passive constructions abounds in generative linguistics and comparative typology. However, the cognitive construal of and morphosyntactic acquisition of (un)grammatical English pseudo-passive constructions by Chinese-speaking L2-English users with different proficiency levels have never been investigated. It is worth examining whether proficiency level modulates constructional acceptability and cognitive construal, which would allow us to infer L2-English users’ morphosyntactic acquisition stages of pseudo-passive constructions. To fill this research gap, the study recruited 120 L2-English speakers with different levels of proficiency and 40 native English speakers to complete a grammaticality judgment test with an acceptance judgment scale from −2 to 2 for 40 ungrammatical pseudo-passive sentences and 40 fillers. Proficiency level significantly correlates with a firmer rejection of ungrammatical pseudo-passive sentences and cognitive construal which is more target-like. Significantly asymmetrical acceptance levels between two types of target ungrammatical constructions are also revealed for low (p = 0.002) and medium proficiency (p = 0.000) groups, demonstrating the type effect on grammaticality judgment and morphosyntactic acquisition.

Exploring the effects of intelligent personal assistants on bilingual education teachers’ L2 speaking proficiency

ABSTRACT Communication in a second and foreign language (L2) is regarded as the most challenging and anxiety-inducing language skill for L2 learners and teachers. The emergence of artificial intelligence and automatic speech recognition (ASR) has opened new avenues for enhancing L2 interaction, with intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) showing significant potential. While prior research has predominantly focused on learners, using IPAs for bilingual education (BE) teachers has received relatively little attention. The study investigated the effects of IPAs (i.e. Google Assistant) on BE teachers’ L2 speaking proficiency and their perceptions of IPA-assisted L2 speaking. Thirty Taiwanese BE teachers who were L2 English speakers participated in a semester-long IPA-mediated interaction program. These teachers interacted with Google Assistant in their daily lives. Both quantitative (English speaking proficiency tests) and qualitative data (semi-structured interviews) were collected and analyzed. The results revealed that Google Assistant significantly promoted BE teachers’ English-speaking proficiency. Most teachers confirmed that Google Assistant could establish an authentic environment that facilitates communication, increases English-speaking opportunities, enhances practice frequency, and provides scaffolding and immediate feedback, which contribute to their English speaking proficiency. Integrating Google Assistant into lesson preparation proved valuable, enabling teachers to access curriculum-related information efficiently and increasing their motivation to engage with IPAs.

Impact of Japanese L1 Rhythm on English L2 Speech.

The study aimed to examine whether L1 speech rhythm affects L2 speech by assessing how the speech rhythm of Japanese L2 English speakers differed from native speakers. We chose Japanese and English because they differ markedly in the phonological properties that likely contribute to speech rhythm. Speech rhythm was measured by the variability of vowel and consonant intervals using rate-normalized rhythm metrics (VarcoV and VarcoC; nPVI-V and nPVI-C) and %V. The study utilized recordings of spoken sentences in English by 10 native Australian English speakers; and in English and also in Japanese by 10 native Japanese speakers (who had limited experience in speaking English). Experiment 1 compared the rhythm of L1 English (by measuring 1,750 vowels and 3,093 consonants from 20 sentences) and L1 Japanese (1,923 vowels and 2,097 consonants from 10 sentences). The results showed that for all measures, Japanese had reduced durational variability in both consonant and vowel intervals compared with English. In Experiment 2, we examined the rhythm characteristics of L1 and L2 English using 40 sentences (including the 20 in Experiment 1). The results showed that vowel and consonant intervals were less variable in L2 (Japanese English) than in L1 (Australian English) speech, mirroring the results of Experiment 1. Overall, the results are consistent with the proposal that L1 (Japanese) speech rhythm influenced L2 (English) speech.

Is the Suppliance of L2 Inflectional Morphology Subject to Covert Contrasts? An Analysis of the Production of L2 English Third Person Singular Agreement by L1 Bengali Speakers

The cause(s) of missing inflectional morphology in obligatory contexts by adult speakers of second language (L2) English is subject to ongoing discussion. Whatever the specific theory, however, the apparent asymmetrical production of the morpheme ‘-s’ in the marking of number on plural nouns versus that on third person singular agreement has to be accounted for. This study adopts the theoretical approach put forward by the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis, whereby the prosodic representation of inflectional morphology in the first language (L1) can, to some extent, account for differences in the suppliance of inflectional morphology in L2 English within and across L1s. It is in this context that the production of third person singular agreement, and, for contrastive purposes, number on plural nouns, by L1 Bengali speakers of L2 English, is considered in relation to available prosodic representation in the L1, as well as against phonological processes attested in L1 acquisition. More specifically, covert contrasts. An inspection of spectrograms from instances of the omission of inflection by L1 Bengali speakers of L2 English at Beginner to Intermediate proficiency levels does not, however, indicate that learners are covertly supplying agreement on the third person singular (or plural number on nouns). This finding does not necessarily rule out the occurrence of covert contrasts in L2 production of inflectional morphology; alternative techniques may detect a systematic difference between bare verbs and non-audible (to the listener) inflection.

Variable effects of speakers’ visual cues and accent on L2 listening comprehension: A mixed-methods approach

Few studies have explored the influence of a speaker’s accent and visual (facial and gestural) cues on second-language (L2) listening comprehension. The current mixed-methods between-groups design investigated: (1) the effects of accent and visual cues on Arab students’ comprehension of recorded lectures delivered by two speakers: first language (L1) American English and second language (L2) English (strong Vietnamese accent), (2) students’ assessments of the comprehensibility and English nativelikeness of the accents, and (3) students’ perceptions of and preferences for visual cues in communication. A total of 120 Arab university students were distributed across three stimulus conditions: auditory-visual (AV)-gesture-face, AV-face, and A-only within two accent conditions (L1, L2 English). Materials included: a listening comprehension task, 9-point rating scales for comprehensibility and nativelikeness of accent, and a speaker’s accent and visual cues (SAVC) questionnaire. ANCOVAs were conducted on listening comprehension scores and the ratings, with students’ listening proficiency as the covariate. Students with higher listening proficiency received higher comprehension scores and tended to recognize the L1 English accent as nativelike; however, proficiency was not significantly related to their comprehensibility ratings of either accent. The L1 English speaker’s gestures were associated with higher comprehensibility ratings; the L2 English speaker’s gestures were associated with a stronger nonnativelike accent, which students found frustrating to comprehend. Although SAVC responses revealed a general preference for facial cues and gestures in daily communication, the L2 English speaker’s gestures in the study were not considered helpful. Thematic analysis of interviews emphasized: (1) the variable effectiveness of visual cues, (2) the important role of topic and accent familiarity, (3) the relationship between listening proficiency and interlocutor/instructor preference, and (4) strategies to deal with unfamiliar accents. Pedagogical implications include increased awareness of variability in visual cues across speakers and the need to build familiarity with various accents and gesture patterns.

Modeling lexical abilities of heritage language and L2 speakers of Hebrew and English in Israel and the United States: a network approach.

This paper examines the productive vocabulary skills of five groups of English-Hebrew bilinguals in Israel and the United States. The juxtaposition of these five groups allows us to simultaneously compare performance across dominance profiles, acquisition contexts (L2 learned in school, HL maintained at home, immigration and immersion), and countries (Israel and the USA). A total of 185 participants took part in study: Hebrew-dominant heritage English speakers, Hebrew-dominant L2-English speakers, English-dominant heritage Hebrew speakers, and English-dominant L2-Hebrew speakers in the US and in Israel. They were all administered the MINT assessment in both languages, as well as background questionnaires. We then employ network modeling based on a secondary data analysis of background questionnaires to consider how each group's lexical proficiency ties in to reported input factors. The MINT results indicate clear language dominance in all the groups except Hebrew-dominant heritage English speakers, who show balanced proficiency in both their languages. The network models indicate key distinctions between the groups as a function of linguistic context, and we assess our findings in the context of recent work on quantifying the bilingual experience.

Language Dependency of /s/ Production: Native Dutch Versus Non-Native English.

With forensic recordings being collected in multiple languages increasingly often, this study investigates the language dependency of the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ in speakers of native (L1) Dutch and non-native (L2) English. Due to phonetic similarity between the languages, Dutch learners of English may exhibit language-independent /s/ acoustics, making it an interesting feature for multilingual forensic speaker comparisons (FSCs). However, the findings show that out of the four spectral moments, center of gravity, standard deviation (SD), skewness, and kurtosis, only SD remained stable across the languages; the other measurements were language-dependent. The results were largely independent of the /s/ tokens' contexts, although an interaction between language and context was found for skewness and kurtosis: With a labial right phonetic neighbor, language dependency was largely reduced. The findings have implications for FSCs: as /s/ is language-dependent in speakers of L1 Dutch and L2 English, it shows limited potential for cross-linguistic speaker comparisons in forensic casework.

A narrative inquiry of a Chinese international student’s language experiences and identities in a multilingual university in Germany

ABSTRACT This study employs a narrative inquiry approach to explore the language experiences and identity formation of an international student from China within a multilingual university in Germany. Drawing on the poststructuralist theory of identity, critical ethnographic sociolinguistic (CES) studies, and language ideologies, the study reveals that her language practices and identity construction evolve across diverse contexts. Her narratives also highlight the significant mediating role of language ideologies in shaping her situated identity construction and language practices, including the relationship between English proficiency and L1 speakers of English, English as a lingua franca (ELF), the association between language and ethnicity, as well as the relationship between German proficiency and the local/foreign student separation. This study advances our comprehension of the intricate interplay between identity formation, language practices and different language ideologies as they manifest in the lived experiences of international students amidst the backdrop of multilingualism.

Event Boundaries Stretched and Compressed by Aspect: Temporal Segmentation in a First and a Second Language

AbstractEvent segmentation tests have shown substantial overlaps in how adults recognize starts and endpoints as events unfold. However, far less is known about what role different language systems play in the process. Variations in grammatical aspect have been shown to influence event processing. We tested how closely first language (L1) speakers of Mandarin and English versus Mandarin learners of English as a second language (L2) align event boundaries with event‐internal changes. We used two event boundary marking tasks (online/offline) and a sorting task. Participants saw 60 animations; their task was to indicate starts and endpoints. For punctual events (e.g., breaking a wall), Mandarin L1 speakers and Mandarin learners of English L2 were significantly further from event transitions than English L1 speakers. This pattern was replicated in the untimed experiment but not in sorting transitions, jointly suggesting that Mandarin L1 and Mandarin learners of English L2 may be less attentive to segmentation of phases surrounding transitions than English L1 speakers. We argue that this variation reflects L1‐specific encoding of ongoingness.

Testing for proficiency effects and crosslinguistic influence in L2 processing: Filler-gap dependencies in L2 English by Jordanian-Arabic and Mandarin speakers

AbstractThis study expands on previous research into filler-gap dependency processing in second language (L2) English, by means of a replication of Canales’s (2012) self-paced reading study. Canales, among others, found that advanced L2-English speakers exhibited the same processing behavior that Stowe (1986) found for native English processing: On encountering a filler, they posited gaps in licensed positions and avoided positing gaps in grammatically unlicensed island positions. However, the previous L2 studies focused on advanced-level L2 proficiency and did not test specifically for first language (L1) influence. The present study compares two groups of intermediate-level L2-English speakers with contrasting non-wh-movement L1s, Jordanian Arabic and Mandarin, to investigate the effects of L1 influence and individual differences in proficiency. Our results provide evidence that at intermediate level, too, L2 filler-gap processing adheres to grammatical constraints. L1 did not affect this behavior, but proficiency effects emerged, with larger licensed filled-gap effects at higher proficiency.

Anticipatory processing of cataphora is constrained by binding principles in L2 English

Abstract Language processing studies show that native speakers anticipate linguistic elements before their occurrence. However, it is debated to what extent second language (L2) learners do the same. To address this question, this study examines the processing of cataphora by Chinese-speaking L2 English learners. Additionally, we query whether L2 learners’ expectations of upcoming antecedents are modulated by first language (L1) influence and constrained by Principle B of the Binding Theory (Chomsky, 1981). Two self-paced reading studies show that L1 English speakers’ anticipation of upcoming referents is active and strictly constrained by Principle B. Crucially, L2 English learners also actively predict upcoming referents and are sensitive to Principle B. However, L2 processing patterns suggest that Principle B competes with semantics at later processing stages. Together with data from L1 Chinese and English control participants, these results support the view that anticipatory processing in English is not fundamentally different between monolinguals and bilinguals.

The influence of cross-language similarity and transparency on idiom knowledge in non-immersed L2 speakers

Idioms are frequently used by native speakers but pose challenges for L2 learners. In this study, we aimed to identify the key psycholinguistic properties that predict L2 idiom knowledge among non-immersed speakers. A total of 53 Chilean L2 English speakers participated in an online idiom knowledge test, requiring them to recognize the figurative meanings of 99 English idioms and rate their transparency. The results showed that cross-language similarity and transparency, in conjunction with familiarity, significantly predicted L2 idiom knowledge. Conversely, literal plausibility, decomposability, frequency, and predictability did not significantly impact L2 idiom knowledge. Our findings support the Parasitic Hypothesis of vocabulary development and suggest that non-immersed L2 learners heavily rely on their L1 lexical and conceptual networks. The study underscores the importance of semantic transparency and cross-language similarity in L2 idiom acquisition, particularly for learners in non-immersive environments. Our findings advocate for a proficiency-tailored ESL instruction approach. Initially, focus on teaching transparent idioms and those similar to the learners' native language for better comprehension and retention. As proficiency increases, gradually introduce idioms without cross-language parallels to enhance comprehensive linguistic mastery. This approach offers practical insights for language education and applied linguistics.

Intensification strength in speech: language-specific preferences and differences between native and learner language

In this article we analyse the use of intensification in the spoken productions of French-speaking learners of Dutch and English. We compare the strength of intensifiers used by learners in their first language (L1) and in their additional language (AL), and contrast these results with data from control groups of L1 speakers. Our corpus results indicate that L1 English speakers tend to intensify more frequently but opt for weaker intensifiers, while L1 French speakers intensify less frequently but use stronger intensifiers. L1 Dutch speakers take the middle position in both aspects. The analysis of the learner corpora reveals overall more similarities between AL English and L1 English than between AL Dutch and L1 Dutch, confirming the trends observed in previous studies on the same learners (Hendrikx, 2019).

Differences in prominence-related acoustic measurements in L2 read speech as a function of L1 framing typology

Speech production in a non-native language is often influenced by their first language’s (L1) phonology. One factor that might affect their production prosodically is typological differences in event construal, specifically motion events. Building on this concept, prior studies on gestures and spontaneous speech show that how speakers frame motion events in their L1 can transfer to their second language (L2) through grammatical patterns. However, no study has looked at how L1-L2 differences in framing motion events may affect speakers’ L2 production prosodically. To explore whether those differences affect how L2 speakers prosodically produce motion events, this study collected read speech from two spoken corpora of L2 English learners. We chose L2 learners from different L1 backgrounds that differ in the way they grammatically construct motion events. English production from Korean and Turkish L1 speakers (which are typologically similar) were compared to that of L1 German speakers (which is typologically similar to English), along with productions by L1 English speakers. Duration and various acoustic measurements of pitch and intensity were extracted and analyzed. Results indicated some similarities among learners of the same typology along with differences between the L1 and L2 English speakers. Implications on conceptual transfer will be discussed.