L2 Participants Research Articles

Individual differences in L1 and L2 anaphora resolution: effects of implicit prosodic cues and working memory

AbstractThe present experimental studies shed light on effects of implicit prosodic cues on anaphora resolution as well as on how these differ both within and between L1 and L2 speaker groups. In two self-paced reading studies, L1 and L2 participants read poem-like texts that contained anaphoric ambiguity. These stimuli were designed to include a rhyming scheme and meter that were either regular or disrupted. We expected a rhyme cue on a nonsubject pronoun antecedent (in the regularly metered and rhyming version of the texts) to induce competition effects in L1 speakers and cause them to adapt their interpretative preferences and processing strategies; yet, for L2 speakers we hypothesized that effects would either not be observed or that they would be attenuated. Additionally, we examined whether comprehender-dependent factors would modulate effects in each group. We tested both L1 and L2 participants on memory-related tasks. We also measured L1 speakers’ print exposure and L2ers’ proficiency in English. Results revealed L1–L2 dissimilarities in interpretative preferences and reading behavior, as L2 speakers were not equally sensitive to the prosodic cues introduced. The examination of memory-related measures provided evidence of within-group differences and between-group parallels: higher working memory in both groups modulated anaphora resolution, although for L2 speakers there was no additional influence of context.

Developing internet-based Tests of Aptitude for Language Learning (TALL): An open research endeavour

Tests of Aptitude for Language Learning (TALL) is an openly accessible internet-based battery to measure the multifaceted construct of foreign language aptitude, using language domain–specific instruments and L1-sensitive instructions and stimuli. This brief report introduces the components of this theory-informed battery and methodological considerations for developing it into an open research instrument. It also presents the preliminary results from the initial validation of TALL carried out on data collected from Chinese L1 participants ( n = 165) from a university setting who took two rounds of tests (with counterbalanced test items) with a minimum 30-day interval. The results of data analyses at subtest, item, and battery levels suggest that, in general, TALL has satisfactory reliability and can be used to measure aptitude conceptualized in the theoretical frameworks on which it has been developed. This report also highlights the value of TALL as a convenient data collection tool openly accessible to any researcher for free, its potential for facilitating an open data pool for high-quality syntheses of aptitude-related research findings, and its implications for Open Research practices in testing language-related constructs.

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.

Investigating the Correlation between English Spoken Fluency and Working Memory Capacity in both Dialogic and Monologic Presentations

Studies on second language (L2) speech fluency recommend studying fluency in a dialogic context. In response to the researchers' calls, this study introduced monologic and dialogic tasks to investigate the various aspects of speed, breakdown, and repair fluency in the oral performancemost L2 fluency studies have looked at oral fluency in a monologic task. Dialogue is the more authentic and natural way of communication, which is apparent in everyday language use. Currently, there is a scarcity of research examining dialogue fluency in non-native bilingual speakers who share the same L2. The existing body of research on language learning and processing has underscored significant connections between individual differences (IDs) in working memory capacity (WMC) and models of L2 speech production in both first language (L1). Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether variations in WMC are linked to dysfluency in L2 monologue and dialogue. Therefore, this study also aimed to fill this gap in the literature by investigating the correlation between utterance fluency in both monologue and dialogue and WMC. A total of 64 undergraduate Saudi students were given various tasks as part of the study. An argumentative task was presented as a monologue focused on a prevalent topic in the participants’ country. In contrast, during a dialogic discussion task, 32 pairs engaged in exchanging opinions on a popular subject in their country. Additionally, participants underwent two challenging working memory (WM) tests: the Operation Span Test and the Backward Digit Span Test. The findings aligned with prior research, indicating that L2 participants demonstrated greater fluency in dialogue compared to monologue, as evident in speed and breakdown measures of utterance fluency. Interestingly, WMC did not emerge as a robust predictor for variations in L2 oral performances between monologue and dialogue.

The role of multimodal cues in second language comprehension

In face-to-face communication, multimodal cues such as prosody, gestures, and mouth movements can play a crucial role in language processing. While several studies have addressed how these cues contribute to native (L1) language processing, their impact on non-native (L2) comprehension is largely unknown. Comprehension of naturalistic language by L2 comprehenders may be supported by the presence of (at least some) multimodal cues, as these provide correlated and convergent information that may aid linguistic processing. However, it is also the case that multimodal cues may be less used by L2 comprehenders because linguistic processing is more demanding than for L1 comprehenders, leaving more limited resources for the processing of multimodal cues. In this study, we investigated how L2 comprehenders use multimodal cues in naturalistic stimuli (while participants watched videos of a speaker), as measured by electrophysiological responses (N400) to words, and whether there are differences between L1 and L2 comprehenders. We found that prosody, gestures, and informative mouth movements each reduced the N400 in L2, indexing easier comprehension. Nevertheless, L2 participants showed weaker effects for each cue compared to L1 comprehenders, with the exception of meaningful gestures and informative mouth movements. These results show that L2 comprehenders focus on specific multimodal cues – meaningful gestures that support meaningful interpretation and mouth movements that enhance the acoustic signal – while using multimodal cues to a lesser extent than L1 comprehenders overall.

Examining the relationships among motivation, informal digital learning of English, and foreign language enjoyment: An explanatory mixed-method study

AbstractThis explanatory mixed-method study seeks to understand the relationships between second language (L2) motivation (including the ideal L2 self and the ought-to L2 self) and students’ informal digital learning of English (IDLE) and whether such relationships are mediated by the most prominent positive emotion – enjoyment. A total of 391 Chinese university students participated in the survey, and 15 of them were interviewed later. Quantitative analysis revealed a strong positive relationship between the ideal L2 self and participants’ IDLE, which was partially mediated by foreign language enjoyment (FLE), while the hypotheses that the ought-to L2 self significantly predicted FLE and IDLE were rejected. The qualitative data added details to how a vivid and elaborate L2 vision contributed to enhanced English learning enjoyment and served as the most influential motivator for IDLE practices. Meanwhile, the external and instrumental motives could not predict Chinese university students’ enjoyment, disempowering them to invest in productive language learning practices in the informal and digitalized environment. The discussion of these findings and pedagogical implications helps to chart the path for utilizing the power of the ideal L2 self to engage Chinese university students with the extramural and digitalized language learning ecology.

Discourse-based pronoun resolution in non-native sentence processing

Abstract Personal pronouns can potentially be resolved in logical syntax by means of variable binding (VB) or at the discourse-representational level through coreference assignment (CR). Previous research suggests that real-time reference resolution is guided more strongly by discourse-level cues in a non-native language (L2) than in a native language (L1). Here we use the VB/CR distinction to further test this hypothesis. Using eye-movement monitoring during reading and a complementary questionnaire task, we compared L1 German and L1 Russian/L2 German speakers’ resolution of object pronouns. While both our participant groups ultimately preferred CR over VB interpretations, only the L2 participants showed evidence of favouring a sentence-external CR antecedent from early on during processing. Our L1 group, by contrast, favoured a VB antecedent during processing. The observed L1/L2 processing differences reveal divergent antecedent search strategies, with L2 but not L1 speakers being primarily guided by discourse-level cues during real-time comprehension.

Reported Use of Second-Language Speech Accommodation in Everyday Interactions: The Role of Individual Differences.

Proficient speakers of a language often accommodate less proficient speakers during conversation to facilitate comprehension, but information about factors such as personality and language experience that may shape how speakers perceive accommodation is limited. We developed an online questionnaire to clarify the use of speech accommodation in relation to individual differences in anxiety, personality, and English proficiency. Using Qualtrics Panels for recruitment, we surveyed a representative sample of second-language (L2) English speakers (n = 201) and first-language (L1) English speakers (n = 192) across the United States. We report descriptive results in addition to correlations and a factor analysis to assess the perception of accommodation in L2 and L1 speakers. Only a third of L2 participants reported that L1 speakers change their speech when talking to them, and more than half are frustrated when L1 speakers do not accommodate them. Indeed, a majority of our L1 participants reported that they do not change their speech when talking to L2 speakers. For both groups, measures of anxiety, personality, and L2 proficiency modify results, providing novel evidence on factors that influence L2 accommodation. Results suggest that L1 speakers accommodate L2 speakers less frequently than previously reported. The data are discussed under communication accommodation theory.

The production of English monophthong vowels by Saudi L2 speakers

Abstract This study aims to describe the production of English monophthongs by nonnative Saudi speakers. It acoustically examined the production of English monophthongal vowels by Saudi second language (L2) speakers. Sixteen L2 participants produced twelve English monophthongs in carrier words. Comparable data were obtained in native Saudi Arabic and native Southern Standard British English to aid interpreting the L2 results. Formant frequencies and durations were measured for all vowels. Similar to Saudi Arabic, the English vowels produced by the Saudi L2 speakers occupied a smaller vowel space than the vowels produced by the native English speakers. There was overlap between many of the English vowel categories produced by the L2 speakers. However, the L2 speakers were found to employ similar durational characteristics to those employed by the native English speakers. L1 influence seems to play a major role in the L2 learners’ production of English vowels. The limited vowel space of the L2 speakers’ L1 appears to have limited their ability to produce the more acoustically peripheral English vowels.

LexCHI: A quick lexical test for estimating language proficiency in Chinese.

A prominent methodological issue in cognitive research on bilingualism is the lack of consistency in measuring second language (L2) proficiency. To reduce the inconsistency in L2 proficiency measurements, brief and valid vocabulary tests have been developed as an objective measure of proficiency in a variety of languages (e.g., English, French, Spanish). Here, we present LexCHI, a valid lexical test to measure Chinese proficiency. This freely available short test consists of 60 two-character items presented in simplified Chinese. Although it only takes a few minutes to complete LexCHI, the LexCHI scores in two studies correlated significantly with L2 participants' performance in a translation task and a cloze test. We believe that LexCHI is a useful tool for researchers who need to objectively measure Chinese proficiency as part of their investigations.

Second language word processing in sentence contexts: pre-lexical prediction versus post-lexical integration

This study investigated the effects of sentence contexts on the second language (L2) word recognition process. It aims at finding whether second language (L2) learners of English perform similar to English native speakers in terms of using the sentence context to predict upcoming word in their L2. A group of L2 participants and a control group of native speakers (L1) participants performed a cross-modal priming task in which they were asked to make a lexical decision on a visually presented word while listening to a semantically related or non- related English sentence. The test was conducted to determine whether both groups of participants were able to predict an upcoming word based on the context of the preceding sentence that is auditorily presented. The study is conducted using PsychoPy software whereas the data was analyzed using linear-mixed effects modeling in RStudio software. The results showed that the L1 speakers were able to predict an upcoming word based on the context of the preceding sentence. That is, a significantly faster recognition of the related word was observed compared to the less related words. On other hand, the English second language participants were not as able to predict an upcoming word as quickly as the English native speaker participants were. However, the L2 participants showed post-access lexical processing or what is called an integrating process of the presented word to the previous sentence context. That is, an effect of the sentence context was observed with L2 participants, yet only after reading the presented word, they decide whether it is appropriate to the preceding sentence context or not. Acknowledgments The author is thankful to the Deanship of Scientific Research at Najran University for funding this work under the National Research Priorities funding program.

Functions, sociocultural explanations and conversational influence of discourse markers: focus on zenme shuo ne in L2 Chinese

Abstract This study explores the ways that L2 learners develop their knowledge in understanding the pragmatic functions of a Chinese discourse marker (DM), zenme shuo ne (‘how to say’), and examines three interrelated aspects in pragmatic knowledge of this DM. Using metapragmatic interviews, emic data are collected from sixteen L2 Chinese learners and nineteen L1 Chinese speakers. The data are analysed using both qualitative methods and computational models. The findings reveal that L2 learners identify a different range of DM functions from L1 speakers. They attribute their function identification to concerns about self-face and speaker-centred interpersonal relationships, in contrast to L1 speakers, who refer to moral norms and indirect interpersonal relationships between the hearer and a third party. The different interpretations that L1 and L2 participants develop for the DM have given rise to different expectations of conversational directions. L2 learners are consistently more optimistic about upcoming conversations than L1 speakers.

You Had Better Check the Facts: Reader Agency in the Identification of Machine-Generated Medical Fake News

During the COVID-19 pandemic, much fake news emerged in the medical field (Naeem et al., 2020: 1). Nowadays, computers can generate text considered to be more trustworthy than text written by a person (Zellers et al., 2019). This means that laypeople are able to produce disinformation; however, they may not understand the implications. This study revealed the most reliable clues as guidance to spot machine writing. While natural-language processing (NLP) research focuses on L1 speakers, studies in second language acquisition demonstrate that L1 and L2 speakers attend to different aspects of English (Scarcella, 1984; Tsang, 2017). In this study, social media users completed a Turing-test style quiz, guessed whether news excerpts were machine generated or human written (Saygin et al., 2000) and identified errors that guided their decision. Quantitative analysis revealed that although both L1 and L2 speakers were equally able to defend themselves against machine-generated fake news, L2 participants were more sceptical, labelling more human-written texts as being machine generated. This is possibly due to concern about the stigma associated with being fooled by a machine due to lower language levels. However, factual errors and internal contradictions were the most reliable indicators of machine writing for both groups. This emphasises the importance of fact-checking when news articles prioritise exaggerated headlines, and NLP tools enable production of popular content in areas like medicine.

Previewing Novel Words Before Reading Affects Their Processing During Reading: An Eye‐Movement Study With First and Second Language Readers

AbstractIn this study, we examined the effect of previewing unfamiliar vocabulary on the real‐time reading behavior of first language (L1) and second language (L2) readers. University students with English as their L1 or L2 read passages with embedded pseudowords. In a within‐participant manipulation, definitions of the pseudowords were either previewed before reading or reviewed after reading. Previewing significantly affected reading behavior on early and late eye‐movement measures, and the patterns of change on the first three contextual encounters with the pseudowords differed for L1 and L2 readers. On the multiple‐choice cloze posttest, encountering novel words in reading followed by definitions resulted in somewhat more accurate responses for L1 but not L2 participants. The learning condition did not affect the results of the meaning recall posttest. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between vocabulary support approaches and the reading behavior of L1 and L2 readers when they encounter unfamiliar words in texts.

Learning and Well-Being in Multilingual Adolescents with Italian as L2: A Comparison with Monolingual Peers with and without a Learning Disorder

The current exploratory study aimed to offer a description of the learning skills and well-being of multilingual adolescents with Italian as L2, a population regarded as vulnerable with respect to their academic achievements and psychosocial profile. We compared the performance of L2 participants with that of their monolingual peers with and without Specific Learning Disorders on a range of tests and questionnaires to define their learning skills and well-being within the school context. Results confirm greater reading difficulties in the L2 group compared to monolingual peers with Specific Learning Disorders. This pilot study offers one of the first investigations into the learning skills and well-being of a scarcely studied population, namely L2 adolescents. Additionally, it discusses practices that can be implemented within the classroom to promote inclusion.

Is L1 Transfer Operative at the Syntax-Discourse Interface? The Acquisition of Null and Overt Subjects in L2 Turkish

Recent studies on L2 acquisition focus on how interface-related properties are acquired at the end state grammars. Proposed as part of this theme, the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace & Filiaci, 2006; Sorace, 2011) claims that the syntax-discourse interface is particularly challenging to acquire, irrespective of the L1 and L2 of the speakers. On the other hand, the Full Transfer / Full Access Hypothesis (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996) predicts that L2 acquisition is L1-constrained and UG is directly accessed. This study tests these assumptions on the acquisition of null and overt subjects in L2 Turkish to understand whether L1 transfer operates in the domain that needs the mapping of syntax on the discursive knowledge. This was tested in a study on advanced Korean and Japanese L2 Turkish speakers (n=27) by employing contextualized grammaticality judgment task (CGJT). In this task, participants were asked to judge whether the contextualized sentences they read were pragmatically odd or not (for each condition n=4). The discursive constraints (topic continuity and topic shift) on the use of null and overt subjects were not violated in the first two conditions. However, the latter two conditions violated the discursive constraints, rendering unacceptable null and overt subject constructions. The results of the CGJT revealed that the L2 participants were insensitive to the discourse of null and overt subject distribution. Since the very same constraints that regulate the null and overt subject distribution hold both in the L1 and L2 of the speakers, this finding suggests that L1 transfer is not operative at the syntax-discourse interface, which is in line with the claim that the properties at this interface cannot be fully acquired as postulated by the Interface Hypothesis.

Interpersonal perception of emotional intensity by English first (L1) and foreign (LX) language users in audio(visual) communication

ABSTRACT Many studies have revealed multilinguals’ reduced emotionality of a foreign language (LX) compared to a first language (L1). Contrary to the bulk of research so far, which has focused on multilinguals’ own emotion experience or emotion processing, this study focuses on interpersonal communication and investigates how one perceives the intensity level of someone else’s emotional experience. Data were collected via an online survey. A total of 557 L1 users and 811 upper-intermediate to advanced LX users of English rated the intensity of the emotional experience of a British actress enacting different emotional events in six audiovisual or audio-only clips in English. Overall, audiovisual stimuli yielded higher intensity ratings than audio-only stimuli. More surprisingly, the L1 participants’ intensity ratings were lower than the LX participants’ ratings in both conditions. English proficiency was not significantly correlated with intensity ratings among L1 and LX users, which suggests that paralinguistic skills develop independently from linguistic skills.

CELER: A 365-Participant Corpus of Eye Movements in L1 and L2 English Reading.

We present CELER (Corpus of Eye Movements in L1 and L2 English Reading), a broad coverage eye-tracking corpus for English. CELER comprises over 320,000 words, and eye-tracking data from 365 participants. Sixty-nine participants are L1 (first language) speakers, and 296 are L2 (second language) speakers from a wide range of English proficiency levels and five different native language backgrounds. As such, CELER has an order of magnitude more L2 participants than any currently available eye movements dataset with L2 readers. Each participant in CELER reads 156 newswire sentences from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), in a new experimental design where half of the sentences are shared across participants and half are unique to each participant. We provide analyses that compare L1 and L2 participants with respect to standard reading time measures, as well as the effects of frequency, surprisal, and word length on reading times. These analyses validate the corpus and demonstrate some of its strengths. We envision CELER to enable new types of research on language processing and acquisition, and to facilitate interactions between psycholinguistics and natural language processing (NLP).

The effects of L1, task, and classifier type in Chinese-L2 learners’ use of classifiers

AbstractThis study explores three potential factors that influence Chinese L2 learners’ classifier use in a classroom setting: L1 background, task, and classifier type. We developed a picture-prompted test, including composition, free cloze, and multiple-choice cloze questions to elicit the use of classifiers. Participants were 50 Chinese L2 learners from Arabic, English, and Japanese L1 backgrounds. Although Japanese L1 participants performed numerically better than their Arabic and English counterparts, statistical analysis suggests that L1 was not a significant predictor of test performance. The composition task was shown to be conducive to the use of test-taking strategies, and it revealed a higher classifier accuracy than the more constrained multiple-choice task. Meanwhile, there was an interaction between L1 and task, suggesting that L1 influence may be conditioned by task type. Moreover, our logistic model predicts different levels of accuracy for classifier use by type, which potentially suggests a developmental path of acquiring classifiers licensed by the most prominent noun feature they are associated with, with shape being the earliest, followed by animate, inanimate, and concept.

L2 Learners Do Not Ignore Verb's Subcategorization Information in Real-Time Syntactic Processing.

This study addressed the question of whether L2 learners are able to utilize verb’s argument structure information in online structural analysis. Previous L2 research has shown that L2 learners have difficulty in using verb’s intransitive information to guide online syntactic processing. This is true even though L2 learners have grammatical knowledge that is correct and similar to that of native speakers. In the present study, we contrasted three hypotheses, the initial inaccessibility account, the intransitivity overriding account, and the fuzzy subcategorization frame account, to investigate whether L2 learner’s knowledge of intransitive verbs is in fact ignored in L2 online structural analysis. The initial inaccessibility account and the fuzzy subcategorization frame account predicted that L2 learners cannot access intransitivity information in building syntactic structures in any situation. The intransitivity overriding account predicted that intransitivity information is accessed in L2 parsing, but this process is overridden by the strong transitivity preference when a verb is followed by a noun phrase. Importantly, the intransitivity overriding account specifically predicted that L2 learners would be able to use intransitive information in online syntactic processing when a noun phrase does not appear immediately following a verb. We tested the three accounts in an eye-tracking reading experiment using filler-gap dependency structures. We manipulated verb’s transitivity information and lexically based plausibility information and tested English native speakers as a control L1 group (N = 29) and Japanese-English L2 participants (N = 32). The results showed that L2 learners as well as native speakers processed sentences differently depending on the subcategorization information of the verb, and adopted transitive analysis only when the verb was optionally transitive, providing support for the intransitivity overriding. The results further demonstrated that L2 learners had strong expectations for the transitive structure, which is consistent with the view proposed by the hyper-active gap-filling hypothesis. In addition, the results showed that the semantic mismatch in the incorrect transitive analysis facilitated native speaker’s processing but caused difficulty for L2 learners. Together, the current study provides evidence that L2 learners use intransitive information of the verbs to guide their structural analysis when there are no overriding constraints.