L1 English Speakers Research Articles

Structural priming and cross-linguistic influence in L2 comprehension of Dutch relative clauses and PP-attachments: Differences between German and English learners of Dutch

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: This study investigated cross-linguistic influence and structural priming in L2 learners’ comprehension of Dutch relative clauses (RCs) and PP-attachments. While PP-attachments are structurally ambiguous in all three languages, RCs are structurally ambiguous in Dutch and German, but not in English. Design/Methodology/Approach: L1 speakers of German ( n = 18) and English ( n = 19) completed a structural priming task in their L2 Dutch with a pre-test, a priming phase, an immediate post-test, and a delayed post-test 1 day later. Data and Analysis: The data were analysed using t tests and repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). In the pre-test, L1 speakers of German showed a clear parsing preference for subject RCs and a slight preference for VP-attachment, whereas L1 speakers of English showed a clear parsing preference for object RCs and a slight preference for NP-attachment. The English L1 speakers were sensitive to structural priming, but only when primed with subject RCs and VP-attachments. This priming was still visible 1 day later. The German L1 speakers were not sensitive to the priming manipulation. Findings/Conclusion: The pre-test showed that L1 parsing preferences influence L2 processing; the structural priming effects in the English L1 speakers showed an inverse frequency effect that is based on experiences from both L1 and L2; the delayed post-test showed that structural priming can be seen as a form of implicit learning. Originality: This is the first structural priming study that compared two groups of L2 speakers on two different structures. Significance/Implications: Structural priming can be seen as a form of implicit learning in which experienced frequencies from both L1 and L2 give rise to a developing shared syntax.

Demonstrating active listenership through collaborative turn completion to display epistemic access in multi-party interactions

Recent research on the construct of Interactional Competence (IC) has heightened awareness of the importance of considering language use as a dialogic enterprise. While communicative competence has been conventionally heralded as a predictor of appropriate language use, it has been narrowly concerned with individual speakers’ appropriate and contextually sensitive use of language. IC, however, foregrounds the fact that human interactions are co-constructed and therefore takes as its unit of analysis the way novice and expert language users explore new ways of co-participation by expanding their interactional repertoire. This article builds upon such an understanding of IC and explores how active listenership as a subtle act of co-participation is demonstrated by speakers through collaborative turn completion. Employing conversation analysis as its methodological framework, it reports on a single-case analysis of a multi-party intercultural interaction among L1 and L2 speakers of English and Japanese in an online linguistics course. The findings indicate that participants use active demonstrations of listenership through turn completion to display and defend their epistemic access to the emerging topics in their interactions. The findings are discussed in light of the current understanding of the construct of IC in L1 and L2 interactions.

Divergent semantic integration (DSI): Extracting creativity from narratives with distributional semantic modeling

We developed a novel conceptualization of one component of creativity in narratives by integrating creativity theory and distributional semantics theory. We termed the new construct divergent semantic integration (DSI), defined as the extent to which a narrative connects divergent ideas. Across nine studies, 27 different narrative prompts, and over 3500 short narratives, we compared six models of DSI that varied in their computational architecture. The best-performing model employed Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), which generates context-dependent numerical representations of words (i.e., embeddings). BERT DSI scores demonstrated impressive predictive power, explaining up to 72% of the variance in human creativity ratings, even approaching human inter-rater reliability for some tasks. BERT DSI scores showed equivalently high predictive power for expert and nonexpert human ratings of creativity in narratives. Critically, DSI scores generalized across ethnicity and English language proficiency, including individuals identifying as Hispanic and L2 English speakers. The integration of creativity and distributional semantics theory has substantial potential to generate novel hypotheses about creativity and novel operationalizations of its underlying processes and components. To facilitate new discoveries across diverse disciplines, we provide a tutorial with code (osf.io/ath2s) on how to compute DSI and a web app ( osf.io/ath2s ) to freely retrieve DSI scores.

Second Language Learning via Syntactic Priming: Investigating the Role of Modality, Attention, and Motivation

AbstractWe examined whether input modality and individual differences in attention and motivation influence second language (L2) learning via syntactic priming. In an online study, we compared the primed production of English passives by 235 L2 and native English speakers in reading‐to‐writing versus listening‐to‐writing conditions. We measured immediate priming (producing passives immediately after exposure to passives) and short‐ and long‐term learning (producing more passives in immediate and 1‐week delayed posttests relative to pretests). Both groups showed immediate priming and short‐ and long‐term learning, although L2 speakers produced more passives with immediate priming and showed greater long‐term learning. Learning was unaffected by modality, but immediate priming was greatest in the listening‐to‐writing condition across groups. Individual differences in attention and motivation did not influence priming or learning. Thus, syntactic priming fosters long‐term L2 learning regardless of input modality, but participants may be sensitive to the frequency of passives in spoken versus written language during immediate priming.

Gesture use in L1-Turkish and L2-English: Evidence from emotional narrative retellings.

Bilinguals tend to produce more co-speech hand gestures to compensate for reduced communicative proficiency when speaking in their L2. We here investigated L1-Turkish and L2-English speakers' gesture use in an emotional context. We specifically asked whether and how (1) speakers gestured differently while retelling L1 versus L2 and positive versus negative narratives and (2) gesture production during retellings was associated with speakers' later subjective emotional intensity ratings of those narratives. We asked 22 participants to read and then retell eight emotion-laden narratives (half positive, half negative; half Turkish, half English). We analysed gesture frequency during the entire retelling and during emotional speech only (i.e., gestures that co-occur with emotional phrases such as "happy"). Our results showed that participants produced more representational gestures in L2 than in L1; however, they used more representational gestures during emotional content in L1 than in L2. Participants also produced more co-emotional speech gestures when retelling negative than positive narratives, regardless of language, and more beat gestures co-occurring with emotional speech in negative narratives in L1. Furthermore, using more gestures when retelling a narrative was associated with increased emotional intensity ratings for narratives. Overall, these findings suggest that (1) bilinguals might use representational gestures to compensate for reduced linguistic proficiency in their L2, (2) speakers use more gestures to express negative emotional information, particularly during emotional speech, and (3) gesture production may enhance the encoding of emotional information, which subsequently leads to the intensification of emotion perception.

Individual differences in adults' second language fluency development: Motivation and language use

Utterance fluency (UF) in a second language (L2) has been found to be associated with L2 proficiency. Nevertheless, the longitudinal development of UF has been underexamined and its relationship with individual differences such as motivation and L2 use has rarely been investigated simultaneously. The current study investigated L1-Chinese L2-English speakers' changes in UF (speed, pausing, and repair phenomena) before and after 5-month study-abroad and related UF changes to L2 use and motivation. The results showed that participants improved in mean syllable duration and end-clause silent pausing. Individuals' changes in certain UF measures, such as mean syllable duration and mid-clause pause frequency, were positively correlated with daily use of L2. Motivation measures largely did not exhibit significant correlations with UF changes, whereas ideal L2 self and intended effort/commitment demonstrated significant positive relationships with daily L2 use.

Continuous speech segmentation by L1 and L2 speakers of English: the role of syntactic and prosodic cues

We investigated how native and fluent users of English segment continuous speech and to what extent they use sound-related and structure-related cues. As suggested by the notion of multi-competence, L1 users are not seen as ideal models with perfect command of English, and L2 users not as lacking in competence. We wanted to see how language experience affects speech segmentation. We had participants listen to extracts of spontaneous spoken English and asked them to mark boundaries between speech segments. We found that in chunking authentic speech, both groups made the most use of prosody, with L1 users relying slightly more on it. However, the groups did not differ in segmentation strategies and performed alike in efficiency and agreement. Results show that in line with multi-competence, native speakers do not have an advantage over fluent speakers in higher-level speech processes, and that the outcome of natural speech comprehension does not significantly depend on the different language experiences at high levels of fluency. We suggest that research on speech segmentation should take natural continuous speech on board and investigate fluent users independently of their L1s to gain a more holistic view of processes and consequences of speech segmentation.

Characterization and normalization of second language speech intelligibility through lexical stress, speech rate, rhythm, and pauses

While a range of measures based on speech production, language, and perception are possible (Manun et al., 2020) for the prediction and estimation of speech intelligibility, what constitutes second language (L2) intelligibility remains under-defined. Prosodic and temporal features (i.e., stress, speech rate, rhythm, and pause placement) have been shown to impact listener perception (Kang et al., 2020). Still, their relationship with highly intelligible speech is yet unclear. This study aimed to characterize L2 speech intelligibility. Acoustic analyses, including PRAAT and Python scripts, were conducted on 405 speech samples (30 s) from 102 L2 English speakers with a wide variety of backgrounds, proficiency levels, and intelligibility levels. The results indicate that highly intelligible speakers of English employ between 2 and 4 syllables per second and that higher or lower speeds are less intelligible. Silent pauses between 0.3 and 0.8 s were associated with the highest levels of intelligibility. Rhythm, measured by Δ syllable length of all content syllables, was marginally associated with intelligibility. Finally, lexical stress accuracy did not interfere substantially with intelligibility until less than 70% of the polysyllabic words were incorrect. These findings inform the fields of first and second language research as well as language education and pathology.

English Compound Meaning Predictability: An Exploratory Cross-Linguistic Study

Compound words are integral to the development of word knowledge in English. This study explored cross-linguistic similarities and differences in compound-meaning inference, focusing on the semantic relation between the modifier and head in noun-noun compounds. Semantic relation specifies how the meanings of the modifier and head are combined. Although some less-established compounds allow multiple semantic relation, causing ambiguity in meaning, L1 speakers of English typically prefer using semantic relation/meaning. This study investigated whether English L2 students would be able to identify the dominant semantic relation of ambiguous novel compounds (e.g., child art). Two groups of English L2 university students, a Thai L1 group and a Vietnamese L1 group, completed a multiple-choice format, compound-meaning inference task, in which they identified the dominant meanings, as preferred by a group of native speakers of English. Results indicated that the Thai L1 and Vietnamese L1 groups did not differ in their overall mean scores for the dominant meanings, although they demonstrated some differences at the item level. This study discusses the need for more cross-linguistic studies in compound words. Keywords: compound processing; second language; vocabulary; semantics; meaning predictability

An analysis of written English: assessing characteristics of English writing by Japanese university students through perspectives of World Englishes and English as a lingua franca

Abstract This paper investigates distinct characteristics of written English by Japanese L1 (first language) speakers of English and compares them with common features of English as a lingua franca (ELF). Utilizing categories drawn from the literature, I have analyzed 92 writing samples by Japanese university students in order to assess whether there are any distinct characteristics shared among L1 Japanese speakers of English, particularly as to (i) lexico-grammar, (ii) lexis, (iii) semantics, and (iv) pragmatics. I have then examined whether there is any overlap between Japanese characteristics and ELF. The phenomenon of extending a sense of the original English word in Japanese and of then using the extended sense in English has supplied evidence of L1 seeping into L2 (second language) English use. In addition, the use of certain expressions has been found to be tightly connected with the Japanese language and culture (e.g., ‘study society’) in this study. This study has also shown a clear overlap between the writing of Japanese university students and common ELF properties and features, including extra use and regularization – in particular, the extra use of the particle and the pluralization of uncountable nouns – and explicitness and neutrality in word choice.

Formulaic language in L1 and advanced L2 English speech: multiword structures in the speech of two Swedish groups compared to a group of L1 English speakers

Abstract The aim of the study was to compare the use of formulaic language, here called multiword structures, in advanced L2 English speech of two Swedish groups with a group of first language (L1) speakers of English. One Swedish group was resident in London and one in Stockholm, thus implying different degrees of exposure to English. Three categories, notably multiword phrases, multiword utterances and metalinguistic multiword structures, were investigated by comparing quantity and distribution. The groups completed two oral tasks, a role play and a retelling task. The results of the Swedish group resident in London were similar to the L1 English group on all measurements of multiword structures in the role play. In the retelling task multiword phrases were significantly fewer in both second language (L2) groups compared to the L1 English group, although there were L2 individuals within the L1 speaker range. Another question concerned the extent to which the three groups used multiword structures which were equivalents, i.e. transferable between English and Swedish. In the retelling task both Swedish groups produced significantly more equivalents than the L1 speakers. The implications of these findings are discussed.

An Empirical Study of Near-synonym Choice: A Comparison of Advanced EFL Learners to L1 English Speakers

Near-synonyms are words which share certain semantic similarities, yet differ in their contextual usage (e.g. acquire vs obtain, evaluate vs judge). The current study compares lexical preferences and rationalizations for choosing near-synonyms of advanced C1 level non-native speakers of English (n = 45) to those given by native speakers of English (n = 58). The data has been collected using a forced-choice questionnaire which also included a justification section meant to explore respondents’ reasoning behind their lexical choices. The findings of the study suggest that EFL students may lack the depth of vocabulary knowledge necessary to choose the most suitable word from a pair of near-synonyms. Insufficient knowledge of target words resulted in EFL learners’ lexical choices and justifications being statistically different from those given by native speakers. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that EFL teachers increase students’ exposure to various contexts as well as focus on vocabulary depth.

Measuring Implicit and Explicit Grammatical Knowledge in Second Language Acquisition

Previous research shows that due to non-facilitative first language (L1) transfer, second language (L2) speakers do not develop implicit knowledge of certain grammatical structures. Therefore, the present paper investigates whether L1-Sinhala–L2-English speakers could acquire implicit knowledge of English object pronouns. To achieve this goal, the paper compares data collected via an untimed grammaticality judgment task (untimed GJT) and an oral production task (OPT). The untimed GJT measured explicit knowledge, whereas implicit knowledge was measured by the OPT. The two tasks tested the knowledge of object pronouns by L2 English speakers. The object pronominalization differs in Sinhala and English. Object pronouns are expressed overtly in English. Sinhala has overt and null object pronouns. However, null object pronouns are ungrammatical in English. Under the facilitative transfer from Sinhala, L2 speakers would accept overt object pronouns (grammatical structure). On the other hand, under the non-facilitative transfer, they would accept null object pronouns (ungrammatical structure). A prediction was also made regarding the two tasks. If L2 English speakers had acquired explicit and implicit knowledge of object pronouns, they would be target-like on object pronouns in the two tasks. In the untimed GJT, the L2 speakers differentiated between grammatical and ungrammatical structures. However, they frequently used ungrammatical structures in the OPT. Therefore, the results suggest that implicit knowledge of object pronouns is still unavailable in Sinhala–English interlanguage.

Learning multiple L2 syntactic structures via chat-based alignment: What is the role of learners’ prior knowledge and conscious decisions?

This study investigated whether written chat-based activities foster alignment and learning of multiple simultaneously-targeted second language (L2) syntactic structures. It further examined how these were affected by prior knowledge of the targeted structures and learners' decisions to use or avoid each structure. We tested 47 Spanish first language (L1) speakers learning L2 English. In a chat-based activity with an L1 English speaker, we examined alignment in the production of three target structures that differed in their likely familiarity for participants (genitives, passives and datives) by comparing target structure production after prime versus baseline sentences. We also compared target structure production in a post-test relative to a pre-test to assess learning (increased structure usage) and we asked participants whether they made conscious decisions to use or avoid the structures. The learners experienced chat-based alignment and learning across structures. Although prior knowledge and decisions did not significantly affect alignment and learning, more prior knowledge and choosing to use the targeted structures increased overall target structure production. Thus, chat-based activities are well-suited to support L2 grammar learning, even when they embed multiple structures. However, instructors may need to encourage learners to explicitly use the targeted structures to maximize alignment tasks’ language learning outcomes.

Bilingual processing of verbal and constructional information in English dative constructions: effects of cross-linguistic influence

AbstractThis study investigated the role of cross-linguistic influence in L2 learners’ integration of a verb and a construction during online English sentence processing. In a self-paced reading task, L1-English speakers and Chinese-L1 learners of English read the English double-object and prepositional dative constructions with verbs whose Chinese translation equivalents are either compatible or incompatible with each dative form. When including only a subset of trials for which participants provided expected translations for the target sentences (i.e., translating the English prepositional dative construction into a Chinese prepositional dative sentence and translating the English double-object construction into a Chinese double-object sentence), the effect of cross-linguistic influence emerged only in a certain type of verbs. When including all trials in the analysis, we found the effect of cross-linguistic influence for all verb types. These results provide some evidence that the cross-linguistic activation of verbs can influence verb-construction integration in L2 processing. The study highlights how bilingual co-activation of verbs extends beyond the lexical and structural levels to influence the integration of multiple sources of information.

A comparison of L2 and L1 speakers’ production of adverb positions in the Cardiff variety of Welsh

The grammaticality of adverb positions varies by language. Consequently, L2 and L1 speakers may differ from each other in their acquisition of adverb positions. Given that L2 Welsh speakers outnumber L1 Welsh speakers in Wales, differences in acquisition may change which adverb positions occur in contemporary Welsh. This study compares which adverb positions L2 and L1 speakers produce in the spoken data from Cardiff in the CorCenCC corpus (Knight et al., 2020) in order to identify any differences in acquisition. Comparisons of L2 and L1 English speakers find that L2 speakers consistently acquire novel adverb positions yet they frequently use ungrammatical adverb positions. They also do not acquire additional constraints on adverb positions. This study largely reinforces these findings. First, L2 Welsh speakers produce every adverb position that L1 speakers produce. Secondly, although the definiteness constraint that Borsley et al. (2009: 50) describe is not productive in the sample of Cardiff Welsh speakers, L1 speakers exhibit a heaviness constraint on V-Adv-O that L2 speakers do not. Therefore, L1 transfer neither inhibits the acquisition of adverb positions nor facilitates the acquisition of additional constraints. However, unlike L2 English speakers, L2 Welsh speakers do not produce ungrammatical adverb positions. This likely derives from the lack of transferable adverb positions between Welsh and English rather than a lack of transfer. Therefore, this sample of Cardiff Welsh reinforces the crosslinguistic consistency of L2 speakers’ acquisition of adverb positions. It also suggests that L2 Welsh speakers most likely diverge from L1 speakers in the contexts in which they use adverb positions rather than the adverb positions that they use.

The island/non-island distinction in long-distance extraction: Evidence from L2 acceptability

Experimental studies regularly find that extraction out of an embedded clause (“long-distance extraction”) results in a substantial degradation in acceptability but that the degradation is much greater when the embedded clause is an island structure. We explore these two facts by means of a series of acceptability experiments with L1 and L2 speakers of English. We find that the L2 speakers show greater degradation than L1 speakers for extraction out of non-islands, even though the two groups behave very similarly for extraction out of islands. Moreover, the L2 degradation with non-islands becomes smaller and more L1-like as exposure to the language increases. These initially surprising findings make sense if we assume that speakers must actively construct environments in which extraction out of embedded clauses is possible and that learning how to do this takes time. Evidence for this view comes from cross-linguistic variation in long-distance extraction, long-distance extraction in child English, and lexical restrictions on long-distance extraction. At a broader level, our results suggest that long-distance extraction does not come “for free” once speakers have acquired embedded clauses and extraction.

“I ONLY READ A PAGE OR TWO”: NARRATIVE FROM TWO DIFFERENT LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Literacy is not only defines as the ability of reading and write but also it is the ability to think critically and cultivate information. This study aims to analyze the literacy experiences of L1 and L2 English speakers. This study interviewed two language speakers, J a native English speaker, and K a non-native English speaker. The result showed that despite the differences in learning English as L1 and L2, some similarities are discovered. The interview, showed that learning English as L1 and L2, both are required cognitive skills and learning strategies. However, for L2 learners, it demands more than just studying the language. To get maximum results, the language should be practiced outside of the classroom. One of the techniques is by practicing extensive reading has been shown to expand vocabulary knowledge and grow motivation in second language learning. Thus, some implications for English teachers in EFL contexts are carried out. Keywords: second language literacy; second language learner

English to Urdu Transliteration AS A Major Cause of Pronunciation Error in L1 and L2 Urdu Speakers of English: A Pedagogical Perspective

This study aims to investigate the internalization of the transliterated English words in Urdu by Urdu speakers. In Urdu, words are spelt the same as they are pronounced. Consequently,everyday Urdu speakers presume the same as holding true also for English pronunciation and its orthography. Hence, the study explores the ways and processes influencing the pronunciation of certain English words by fresh undergraduate L1 and L2 Urdu speakers at university or college levels. A comprehensive list of 197 English words has been listed, along with the transcription of deviant as well as Standard British English. It can evidently be observed that educated L1 and L2 Urdu speakers articulate the words in a different or, in some cases,incorrect way. No doubt, they may be influenced by the negative transfer of features from L1. However, a considerable negative role is also found due to the transliteration of English words into Urdu.

The source of the that-trace effect: New evidence from L2 English

Recent approaches to the that-trace phenomenon in English include syntactic analyses based on the principle of Anti-locality and a sentence production analysis based on the Principle of End Weight. These analyses have many similarities, but they differ in their predictions for second language (L2) speakers. In an Anti-locality analysis, we expect L2 speakers to show a pattern very similar to first language (L1) speakers, with substantial degradation in acceptability for extraction of a subject from an embedded clause with that. In the Principle of End Weight analysis, we expect L2 speakers to display this same subject extraction degradation whether or not the embedded clause has that. A sentence acceptability experiment with L1 English speakers and two groups of L2 English speakers (L1 Korean and L1 Spanish) confirm the prediction of the Principle of End Weight analysis: the L1 speakers show degradation with subject extraction from a that-clause, while the L2 speakers do the same with clauses with and without that. These results form an interesting contrast with studies of island effects, which have generally found substantial L1~L2 similarities, and show how L2 data can be used as evidence to decide between competing analyses of L1 phenomena.