L1 Russian Research Articles

Do L2 learners show attachment preferences? The processing of participial relative clauses in L2 Russian by English–Russian bilinguals

Aims and objectives: This study investigated whether first language (L1) English and second language (L2) Russian bilinguals are sensitive to structural information during L2 processing by testing their attachment preference when reading participial relative clauses with three preceding noun phrases in Russian. Methodology: The participants read sentences containing a participial relative clause preceded by three noun phrases connected by genitive marking and responded to comprehension questions by indicating which noun phrase the participial relative clause modified or that the sentence was ungrammatical. Their reading times and post-reading responses were recorded. Data and analysis: The reading times were log-transformed and fitted to a generalized linear mixed-effects model. Ungrammaticality judgment rates and noun phrase selection accuracy rates were fitted to generalized linear mixed-effects models using a binary logistic distribution. Findings: Reading times and ungrammaticality judgment rates showed that the participants preferred to attach the participial relative clause to the first and the third noun phrases. The second noun phrase was least preferred. These results contrast findings in previous studies, which have shown no attachment preference for L2 learners. We argue that the participants were sensitive to structural information, in that they were constrained by the recency preference and the predicate proximity effects, similar to native speakers. Originality: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that tested L2 learners with relative clauses preceded by three noun phrases and showed that L2 learners are also constrained by the recency preference and predicate proximity effects. Significance/Implications: We argue that our findings deviate from the null attachment preference found in previous studies, which has been used as evidence that L2 processing is fundamentally different from L1 processing. Our findings suggest that L2 learners were influenced by predicate proximity, similar to native Russian speakers, and were also mildly influenced by recency preference, which could be from this L1.

How language teachers can go beyond speech etiquette: Adapting L2 Russian coursebooks to improve pragmatic competence

Within the field of RKI – russkij kak inostrannyj ‘Russian as a Foreign Language/L2 Russian’, so far little attention has been paid to teaching pragmatic competence, as the issues of language in context are traditionally covered by the subject rečevoj ėtiket ‘speech etiquette’, leaving pragmatics an underexplored field.The present study aims to analyze whether and to what extent current L2 Russian textbooks introduce topics related to pragmatics and, if so, how the existing material can be adapted to improve explicit instruction of pragmatic competence.The analysis was conducted on two handbooks of Russian rečevoj ėtiket ‘speech etiquette’ for L2 learners and a series of four textbooks designed for L1 Italian learners. Data analysis confirms the global tendency for textbooks to provide scarce to null meta-pragmatic explanations. The coursebooks were then searched for elements related to the speech act of request, and the materials were adapted to fit explicit pragmatic instruction. The material adaptations proposed in the current study are based on previous research on Russian pragmatics and L2 pragmatics and aim to overcome the ethno-nationalistic perspective of speech etiquette toward a more transnational Russophone context. Implications for teacher education are presented.

Lexico‐Semantic Attrition of Native Language: Evidence From Russian–Hebrew Bilinguals

AbstractNative language (L1) attrition is ubiquitous in modern globalized society, but its cognitive/psycholinguistic mechanisms are poorly understood. We investigated lexico‐semantic L1 attrition in L1 Russian immigrants in Israel, who predominantly use their second language (L2), Hebrew, in daily life. We included Russian monolinguals as a control group. We tested two potential causal mechanisms of attrition: L2 interference versus L1 disuse. Participants completed a fill‐the‐gap task in two conditions: accuracy (producing one exactly matching word) and scope (providing as many synonyms as possible). We expected L2 interference and L1 disuse to lead to the differential reduction of accuracy and scope features, respectively. Lower scores for attriters emerged in the accuracy but not in the scope condition. Moreover, attitude towards L1 influenced attriters’ accuracy—but not scope—performance, with higher L1 preference predicting higher accuracy. We provide evidence for lexico‐semantic attrition in adult immigrants, pointing to L2 interference as the primary cause of impaired lexical retrieval.

Multi-word expressions for Russian L2 learners: corpora-based selection with expert verification

The article describes the experience of creating a corpus-based list of the most relevant multi-word expressions for Russian L2 learners, distributed across the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) from A1 to C1. Modern linguistic and cognitive research shows that our speech is patterned and largely consists of stable segments. This fact is supported by the linguodidactic idea of teaching not isolated language units but their combinations of different nature. However, the selection and ranking of multi-word expressions based on language proficiency levels is constrained by the difficulty of automatically extracting them from a corpus of texts and estimating their frequency, as well as disagreements in defining the boundaries, linguistic nature, and terminology of multi-word expressions. This article describes the experience of compiling a list of the most valuable fixed-type multi-word expressions from various sources: two types of existing CEFR-graded vocabulary lists for Russian L2 learners – lexical minimums for the TORFL (Test of Russian as a Foreign Language) system and Russian KELLY (KEywords for Language Learning for Young and adults alike); the most frequent n-grams from the RuFoLa – Russian L2 textbook corpus and from the Russian Web corpus of internet texts; list of discourse formulas from the «Pragmaticon» project. The CEFR level of each multi-word expression is predicted using the frequency-based Max Delta measure, and its effectiveness is subsequently validated through annotation by multiple experts. The resulting list of multi-word expressions contains 1645 entries from A1 to C1 levels. The proposed version of the list has been implemented into an automated text analysis system for learners of Russian as a Foreign Language and can be useful for a wide range of professionals in the preparation of educational content for foreign language learners. The suggested Max Delta measure has demonstrated a high degree of agreement with expert evaluations within proficiency levels A1-B1. This signifies the importance of further exploring its potential in addressing related practical tasks and in selecting language learning content derived for other languages.

Интонационные ошибки в японской речи русских обучающихся на примере вопросительных высказываний

The article presents a description of different types of interrogative intonation errors in the Japanese speech of L1 Russian learners of Japanese. The material for the research includes recordings of Japanese interrogative phrases uttered in spontaneous dialogues by speakers whose native language is Russian. Acoustic analysis of these realizations has revealed a few intonation errors, which may be considered when developing a national-oriented teaching approach for learners of Japanese intonation.

Cross-linguistic effects in grammatical gender assignment and predictive processing in L1 Greek, L1 Russian, and L1 Turkish speakers of Norwegian as a second language

The present study examines grammatical gender knowledge in offline production (gender marking on indefinite articles) and online gender processing (visual world paradigm) in adult second language (L2) learners of Norwegian with three different first languages (L1s): Greek, Russian, and Turkish. In particular, it investigates the role of the following factors: (1) presence vs. absence of grammatical gender in L1 (Norwegian, Greek and Russian have gender, whereas Turkish does not), (2) lexical gender congruency, (3) structural similarity between L1 and L2 in the realization of gender, and (4) proficiency in L2. In offline production, no difference was found between the three L2 groups: they all overused the default gender (masculine). However, L1 effects were observed in the eye-tracking task, where the high-proficiency L1 Greek and L1 Russian speakers showed earlier and more prominent signs of predictive gender processing compared to the high-proficiency L1 Turkish speakers. There were no effects of lexical gender congruency or structural similarity. This suggests that, when it comes to predictive gender processing, what matters is proficiency and the presence vs. absence of grammatical gender in the L1. We interpret the findings in the context of current approaches to predictive processing emphasizing the role of cue reliability and utility.

Acquisition of modal readings of the Imperfect tense in L2 Spanish

ABSTRACT The Imperfect/Preterite aspectual contrast is one of the most studied topics in Spanish as a second language research. However, there are few works focused on describing the acquisition of modal uses of the Imperfect by L2 speakers. This paper investigates the L1 Russian L2 Spanish speakers’ mastery of politeness, evidential and nonfactual modal values of the Imperfect. Based on a Timed Acceptability Judgments Task (TAJT), this study examines the degree of acceptability of Imperfect forms in modal contexts in three groups of advanced level L2 Spanish learners. The results show that only the Imperfect of politeness achieves acceptance rates similar to those of native speakers at the most advanced levels of proficiency. The high degree of lexicalization of some imperfect forms, which function as pragmatic routines in certain communicative situations, is alleged to facilitate this tendency. In contrast, the evidential and nonfactual Imperfect forms present greater challenges for the L2 Spanish speakers. The results of our study indicate that (i) the imperfect forms are not recognized as legitimate alternatives for marking evidentiality and nonfactuality and (ii) reflect a partial form-function mapping of learners’ knowledge of the Imperfect and its associated values.

Word order and context in sentence processing: evidence from L1 and L2 Russian.

In this paper, we studied how native (L1) speakers of Russian and speakers of Mandarin Chinese learning Russian as a foreign language (L2) process Russian sentences with different word orders. We compared SVO (canonical) and OVS (non-canonical) orders in isolation and in context. Experiments focusing on the L2 processing of different word orders are still not very numerous, and those using context are extremely rare. In Experiment 1, target sentences were presented in isolation. In Experiment 2, one-sentence contexts introduced one NP mentioned in the target sentence, either the first (so that given information preceded new information, which is characteristic for Russian and many other languages) or the second. As a result, two factors could be compared: the syntactic (word order) and the contextual (whether the context is appropriate from the information-structural perspective). We used different measures to capture online and offline effects: word-by-word reading times, question-answering accuracy and sentence rating on a 1 to 5 scale (for L1 participants). In both experiments, RTs and question-answering accuracy data showed that non-canonical orders were difficult for L2 participants, but not for L1 participants. However, L1 participants gave non-canonical orders lower ratings in isolation, presumably because in naturally occurring texts, they are used only in particular contexts. As for the context factor in Experiment 2, some effects were the same for L1 and L2 processing: all participants read given NPs faster than new ones and preferred sentences with a 'given - new' word order. The latter may reflect the universal principles of narrative coherence. However, unlike native speakers, L2 readers are not sensitive to more subtle contextual requirements of different word orders.

The processing of Russian Idioms in Heritage Russian Speakers and L2 Russian Learners

The use of idioms differentiates native speakers (NSs) from second language (L2) learners, whereas the use of idioms by heritage speakers (HSs) might resemble both groups at the same time. This study examines the processing of idioms in heritage Russian speakers (N = 16) and L2 Russian learners (N = 16), comparing them to Russian native speakers as a control group (N = 23). Heritage speakers acquire Russian similarly to the first language acquisition in their family. This enables them to have a more natural approach to language than L2 learners. However, heritage speakers are also similar to L2 learners since their Russian language competence is still not native-like due to insufficient language input. To test whether idiom processing in HSs resembles that of L2 learners or rather in NSs, we conducted a self-paced reading experiment. The idioms were divided into three categories based on the cross-language influence factor: having full English equivalents, semi-equivalents, or no-equivalents. Our findings show no significant difference in idiom processing in HSs and L2 learners, whereas their processing significantly differed from that by NSs of Russian. Also, we found different processing for full and semi-equivalent idioms (in the HS and L2 groups). Full and no-equivalent idioms were also processed differently in all the three groups.

Who does it better?

Abstract This study addresses the acquisition of second language (L2) Spanish grammatical gender by native speakers of two typologically different languages: English (n = 39) and Russian (n = 37). We aim to explore if the presence or absence of gender features in the first language (L1) influences the acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender. Participants completed an acceptability judgment task consisting of 40 sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical Spanish Determiner Phrases (DPs). They included masculine and feminine Ns (Nouns) with transparent or opaque endings. Our findings show that (1) both groups are sensitive to gender non-matching structures, although L1 Russian speakers gave the lowest scores to ungrammatical structures in Spanish; (2) higher rating scores to masculine matching DPs point to the use of masculine as default by both L2 groups; (3) Ns with transparent endings act as cues for L2 Spanish learners, since both groups of participants rated the non-matching DPs with transparent Ns more accurately than those with opaque Ns. Therefore, our findings suggest that gender in L2 Spanish can be acquired regardless of the presence or the absence of these grammatical property in the L1, although its presence in the L1 seems to accelerate this process.

The Acquisition of Copula Alternation Ser/Estar and Adjective in L1 Russian, Spanish Heritage Speakers

Spanish copula choice ser/estar and the semantic and pragmatic distinctions that derive from their alternation in predicate adjective constructions have been discussed in several studies focused on the features of Spanish as a heritage language, usually focusing on the lack of equivalence between English and Spanish. The aim of this study is to determine the competence of a group of heritage speakers of Spanish that were born and raised in Russia in adjective copula selection for ser and estar and to what extent it differs from that of L2 speakers. A group of second-generation heritage Spanish-Russian speakers (n = 29) and a group of L1 Russian learners of Spanish as foreign language (n = 23) performed a translation recognition task in Spanish based on extracts from contemporary Spanish literary works. From a crosslinguistic perspective, a partial correspondence can be established between long forms of the Russian adjective with ser, and short forms of the Russian adjective with estar. Taking this cross-language relationship into account, we considered congruent and non-congruent cross-language scenarios. The results confirm that the heritage speakers outperformed the L2 Spanish speakers. This suggests a possible benefit of earlier exposure and use of Spanish. The facilitative effect of L1 can be traced in the ser-preferred scenarios but it fades away in the estar-preferred contexts for both groups.

Inclusive and accessible teaching of Russian L2 to absolute beginners

The current study aims at investigating to what extent different models are suitable for teaching L2 Russian to absolute beginners in an inclusive and accessible environment. Our research involved an Experimental Group, which received Task-based Learning (TBL) instruction, and a Control Group, which experienced a more traditional presentation-practice-production (PPP) approach; both groups included learners with special educational needs (SEN), among whom some were visually impaired. As most literature advocates for TBLT over traditional teaching, we hypothesised that the Experimental Group would have acquired a better command of the taught structures. We tested our hypothesis by conducting a post-test on speaking and writing abilities, as well as listening comprehension, and reading comprehension skills. Quantitative analysis on the results of the post-test reveals how both approaches were effective. Furthermore, the group that received TBLT had statistically significant better scores than the PPP-group with regard to writing skills.

Corrigendum: The Aspect Hypothesis and L2 Russian

Corrigendum: The Aspect Hypothesis and L2 Russian

Exploring collocational complexity in L2 Russian: A corpus-driven contrastive analysis

Objective: The objective of this article is to discuss the pedagogical and practical need for automated assessment tools that enable teachers, researchers, and other language practitioners to relatively quickly and automatically assess the general proficiency of second language (L2) speakers according to a number of different linguistic parameters, specifically the use of collocations. Introduction: The Introduction discusses existing approaches to the concept of collocation and its role in L2 corpus studies. Methods: In the main part, Toward the automatic detection of collocational strength, we describe an approach to assessing collocations in Russian L2 written production, which is based on the corpus-driven contrastive analysis. In brief, this approach proposes ranking L2 collocations in accordance with the “collocational scores” of bigrams extracted from a reference (L1) corpus, with the assumption that the greater number of native-like bigrams in an L2 text and the higher collocational scores associated with them, the more proficient is the learner who created the text. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of experiments based on an L1 reference corpus and split the L2 datasets into four proficiency groups (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior). Results and evaluation: The findings, presented in the section Results and evaluation of the methods, established an empirical minimum and maximum of mean reciprocal rank (MRR) values, and the variation of the MRR across the four proficiency levels. In the last sections, we discuss shortcomings of the methods and propose further steps for overcoming them. We believe that the proposed method for assessing the collocational skill of Russian L2 writers can be successfully integrated into a bigger system capable of multifaceted automatic assessment of Russian learner texts.

Mapping models in novel metaphors and their effect on gaze behavior and default interpretations in native and target languages

In the study, we address the problem of existing differences in reading and understanding novel metaphors in the text fragments in native and target languages (L1 and L2), with these differences potentially attributed to both the specifics of forming analogies in native and target languages, and the mapping characteristics of metaphors. The study identifies the contingency effects of several primary metaphors onto the gaze behavior and default interpretation of textual novel metaphors in L1 (Russian) and L2 (English). To proceed, we use the text fragments in L1 and L2 containing novel metaphors appearing in more and less focal syntactic positions in a two-stage oculographic experiment. We obtain the participants’ gaze metrics values and the participants’ responses specifying the target domains of the novel metaphors, which further allows us to disclose the contingencies. Methodologically, the study is grounded in the metaphor processing theories developed in cognitive psychology, which explore the structure of analogical reasoning and associative fluency as manifesting potentially different effects in L1 and L2. To validate it, we also address the cognitive linguistic theories which provide the framework for identifying the primary metaphor models (here the models PATIENT (OBJECT) IS AGENT, PARTS ARE WHOLE, CONCRETE IS ABSTRACT) and for testing their effect onto information construal. We hypothesize that reading and understanding metaphors will proceed differently in L1 and L2, which is attributed to associative fluency in metaphor mapping in native and target languages. The experiment results do not show the differences in understanding the mapping model PATIENT (OBJECT) IS AGENT in L1 and L2, whereas these differences appear in understanding the models PARTS ARE WHOLE and CONCRETE IS ABSTRACT with higher default interpretation index in L1. The model PATIENT (OBJECT) IS AGENT is also found to stimulate higher gaze costs. The results suffice to claim that there are differences in the cognitive costs produced by primary metaphor models, which allows us to range and specify their role in information construal in L1 and L2.

D1 Türkçe / D2 Rusça Olan Yetişkinlerin Rusçada Sıfatlara Eklenen ve Bölünmüş Ad Öbeklerinde Sıfat Uyuşmasını Sağlayan Biçimbilgisel Eklerin Edinimi

This enquiry aims to examine whether L2 Russian adjectival morphology and adjective agreement in split contexts are acquirable by adult L1 Turkish learners at higher proficiency levels. Unlike Turkish, the Russian adjective is specified for case, number, and grammatical gender. The respective features, along with splitting, are not operational in Turkish. The Bottleneck Hypothesis Updated (Slabakova, 2019) predicts a full acquisition of this domain albeit it poses the highest level of challenge constituting a microparameter with complicated L1-L2 mapping, whereas the Interpretability Hypothesis (Tsimpli and Mastropavlou, 2007) claims it cannot be acquired. The research instrument is a Semantic Entailments task with short- and long-distance NP split d-linked wh-questions designed for the participants to assign the wh-word to either dative or accusative noun, respectively. The data came from adult L1 Turkish/L2 Russian learners and L1 Russian control group. The obtained findings suggest that functional morphology and adjective agreement in split contexts are successfully acquirable by the L2 population.

Russian L2 Learners' and Teachers' Perceptions of Learning Affordances

Russian L2 Learners' and Teachers' Perceptions of Learning Affordances

The Aspect Hypothesis and L2 Russian

IntroductionNumerous studies have been conducted regarding the second language acquisition of tense-aspect morphology. A prevailing principle in this area is the Aspect Hypothesis, which predicts that learners are influenced by lexical aspect when applying tense- aspect markers (specifically, that learners will associate perfective/past markers with telic verbs and imperfective/past markers with atelic verbs). The Aspect Hypothesis has been widely tested in the acquisition of English, several Romance languages, Japanese, and Chinese. However, few studies have explored the second language acquisition of aspect in Slavic languages, which tend to have morphologically rich and complex tense-aspect systems. Additionally, few studies address the potential impact of task modality (for example, written vs. oral tasks) on the production of aspect.MethodsThe present study addresses these gaps by investigating how second language learners of Russian at varying proficiency levels use aspectual markers in the past tense when producing oral and written narratives. Data from written narratives (N= 42) and oral narratives (N= 42) were analyzed for lexical aspect and tense-aspect marking.ResultsThe results indicate that the Aspect Hypothesis is supported to varying degrees depending on the task: the activity involving lower planning levels (oral narratives) was more supportive of the Aspect Hypothesis, compared to the written narrative task, which involves a higher level of planning. However, the results also show that the aspectual production of beginning-level Russian learners is not consistent with certain predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis.DiscussionThe study concludes by discussing the role of instruction and the L1 as possible explanations for this inconsistency.

The effects of binge-watching and spacing on learning L2 multi-word units from captioned TV series

ABSTRACT The present study explores the effects of distributed practice by extending this area of research to L2 learning from audiovisual input. A total of 96 L1 Russian elementary to advanced learners of English watched five episodes of captioned TV series under three viewing distribution conditions: longer spacing of viewing once per week; shorter spacing of viewing once per day; and massed binge-watching of viewing all the episodes in one session. The participants’ knowledge of 25 target multi-word units was tested via the Vocabulary Knowledge Test before and after the intervention. The analyses considered learners’ viewing conditions, proficiency level and feeling of learning as factors. The results indicated that the participants significantly improved their knowledge of the target multi-word units regardless of their viewing condition, but there was a benefit of longer spacing compared to the other two groups. Although binge-watching is an enjoyable everyday activity for many viewers, it might be advisable for L2 learners to space their viewing sessions to achieve better outcomes.

Vague Language in L2 Corpora of Russian

Vague language has been explored in a variety of languages, including Russian. There is also a growing body of research into vague language used by L2 speakers, predominantly of English. Vague language of Russian L2 learners has not yet been addressed.
 The present study focuses on the use of vague language by Italian-speaking learners of Russian based on the data of 2 learner corpora. It deals with main categories of vague language: vague nouns (вещь ‘thing’), approximators (около десяти ‘around ten’), and general extenders (и так далее ‘and so on’). The aim of the study is to identify how extensively and in what contexts Italian learners of Russian resort to vague language and to compare the findings to the use of vague language by native speakers and learners with a different linguistic background (English L1).