Second Language Processing Research Articles

Lexical Factors in L2 English Vocabulary Learning of Korean 6th Graders

A multitude of factors are involved in the process and outcome of second language (L2) learners’ vocabulary learning. One relevant area of research concerns the identification of semantico-syntactic and morpho-phonological features related to a word’s learnability. The present study attempts to investigate how far such factors influence the ability of Korean elementary students to recognize and produce L2 English words. Participants from 12 classrooms in 3 different schools carried out a variant of Wesche and Paribakht’s (1996) Vocabulary Knowledge Scale, consisting of 39 words selected from the word list that they had learned in the previous year. Although the students had been taught in different learning contexts with varying materials, sequences, and input frequencies, they showed a largely shared pattern of acquisition. In order to assess the relationship between a word’s lexical properties and its learning difficulty, a set of formand meaning-related factors proposed in earlier works were taken into account. It was found that semantic factors such as meaning specificity and context-sensitive polysemy exerted a significant effect on learnability while phonological factors such as number of syllables, foreign phonemes, foreign consonant clusters, and incongruent sound-spelling pairings did not.

Parallel morpho-orthographic and morpho-semantic activation in processing second language morphologically complex words: Evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals

Objectives/research questions:The present study focused on the performance of Chinese learners of English to investigate the activation of morpho-semantic information in the early processing of second language (L2) morphologically complex words when participants’ first language (L1) and L2 are typologically different.Methodology:We used forward masked priming paradigm to compare the priming effect in three prime conditions, semantically transparent, semantically opaque and semantically related. In Experiment 1, the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was 40 milliseconds (ms), while, In Experiment 2, the SOA was extended to 80 ms.Data and analysis:Reaction time and comprehension accuracy data were analysed using the linear mixed-effects model.Findings/conclusions:In Experiment 1, we only found a priming effect in the semantically transparent condition. In Experiment 2, we found a reliable priming effect in the semantically opaque condition, but not in the semantically related condition. These results suggest e...

A Model for Speech Processing in Second Language Listening Activities

<p>Teachers’ understanding of the process of speech perception could inform practice in listening classrooms. Catford (1950) developed a model for speech perception taking into account the influence of the acoustic features of the linguistic forms used by the speaker, whereby the listener ‘identifies’ and 'interprets' these linguistic forms based on the association between them and the context of speech. This paper critically reviews Catford’s model and proposes an alternative one distinguishing between two levels of perceiving speech: word recognition and utterance comprehension. Smith and Nelson (1985) refer to these as 'intelligibility' and 'comprehensibility’, respectively. The proposed model could inform classroom practice as well as curriculum and material design.</p>

Discriminação fonêmica na aquisição de segunda lingua em adulto - estudo de caso

O objetivo é investigar a discriminação fonêmica para a segunda língua de um adulto falante de espanhol como língua materna e em aquisição do português brasileiro como segunda língua, a partir da percepção do próprio falante. Foi desenvolvido a partir de um estudo de caso, por meio da análise de conteúdo de uma entrevista semiestruturada. Após a transcrição ortográfica da entrevista, foi realizada leitura exaustiva e flutuante dos dados, buscando analisar o que se repetia no discurso do paciente. Evidenciaram-se alguns determinantes que apontaram para categorias discursivas de análise. Foram criadas cinco categorias e selecionadas 11 sequências discursivas para discussão. A partir destas sequências discursivas, evidenciou-se o importante papel da discriminação fonêmica no aprendizado da segunda língua, bem como a dificuldade em desenvolvê-la quando se trata de uma segunda língua em idade tardia, pois ela torna-se restrita, não natural. A discriminação fonêmica parece ser facilitada por algumas características do interlocutor, que tornam os traços acústicos mais salientes. Além disto, a alteração nesta habilidade pode gerar circunstâncias complexas na interação entre os pares. Quando há melhora na discriminação fonêmica, há melhora na produção e na compreensão da fala, evoluindo o domínio da língua e consequentemente a interação social. Os resultados permitiram observar que o melhor desenvolvimento da segunda língua parece acontecer quando a exposição a esta ocorre nos anos iniciais, pois ainda há grande plasticidade das habilidades auditivas e a discriminação fonêmica não está restrita sendo um indicativo de que o ensino formal da segunda língua e as habilidades de percepção deveriam ser estimuladas nesta fase.

Cue strength in second-language processing: an eye-tracking study.

This study used eye-tracking and grammaticality judgement measures to examine how second-language (L2) learners process syntactic violations in English. Participants were native Arabic and native Mandarin Chinese speakers studying English as an L2, and monolingual English-speaking controls. The violations involved incorrect word order and differed in two ways predicted to be important by the unified competition model [UCM; MacWhinney, B. (2005). A unified model of language acquisition. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 49-67). Oxford: Oxford University Press.]. First, one violation had more and stronger cues to ungrammaticality than the other. Second, the grammaticality of these word orders varied in Arabic and Mandarin Chinese. Sensitivity to violations was relatively quick overall, across all groups. Sensitivity also was related to the number and strength of cues to ungrammaticality regardless of native language, which is consistent with the general principles of the UCM. However, there was little evidence of cross-language transfer effects in either eye movements or grammaticality judgements.

How Trainee Translators Analyse Lexico-Grammatical Patterns

Abstract: In this study, we examine the ability of advanced students of specialised translation to identify and analyse 'generic collocations' in a corpus of specialised multilingual texts (mostly technical or scientific texts in English, French and German). In general, we find that our students attach much importance to frequently-occurring 'clusters' or 'n-grams'. However the students find it difficult to see these fragments as productive patterns of wording, or to assign a rhetorical function to them. This rather fixed view of phraseology suggests that there may be shortcomings in the way that we as teachers conceptualise and problematise the concept of the 'lexicogrammatical pattern' for our students. In the second part of this study, we suggest a different way of identifying and conceptualising phraseological phenomena using the metalanguage of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG).Keywords: Discourse Function, Generic Collocation, Lexico-Grammatical Pattern, Phraseology, Systemic Functional GrammarIntroductionFor many years now, an increasing number of linguists and educationalists have argued the case for a 'corpus-informed' approach to language learning, based on the analysis of large-scale text archives. Following this trend, a more central place has been given to the study of idiomatic phrases, collocational patterns and other regularities of wording, as encapsulated by the term 'phraseodidactics' (Gonzalez Rey, 2005; 2008). Although phraseology as a subject has not yet become a central feature of the language syllabus, it is certainly the case that some key notions such as 'collocation' have become very widespread, most notably in areas such as second-language acquisition (Hasselgren, 2002), textbased terminology (Pavel, 1993) and Natural Language Processing (Williams, 1998; 2003). One of the reasons for the relative success of 'collocation' in these areas must lie in the way the notion is conceptualised. We would suggest that there are essentially two approaches to the notion within the field of phraseology: the phraseoriented and the pattern-oriented approach. For the phrase-oriented approach (adopted by many mainstream phraseologists, lexicologists and analysts who are interested in language as system), the key units of analysis are 'idiomatic phrases,' 'proverbs' or 'stereotypes', that is to say exceptional or idiosyncratic sequences which are pragmatically 'marked' can thus often be easily identified in a given text. Such phraseological units clearly have an important rhetorical role to play in a variety of text-types belonging to the general language (horoscopes, popular journalism, film titles, etc.). In contrast, for the pattern-oriented approach (adopted by many corpus linguists, lexicographers and those concerned with language as discourse), the key units of analysis are 'collocational frameworks', 'lexical patterns', 'clusters' and so on. In contrast to idiomatic expressions, these constructions are often routine formulae and fragments of expressions which often attract little attention, but which often make up the most typical wording of a particular genre or texttype (for a review of this approach, see for example Hunston and Francis, 2000; Frath and Gledhill, 2005; Legallois and Francois, 2006).We would suggest that it is this second, patternoriented, approach to phraseology has particular relevance to a range of applied and academic contexts, most notably in courses on language engineering, terminology, technical communication and so on. Let us take a specific example from our own teaching context: at the Universite Paris Diderot, we teach phraseology and corpus linguistics to first year and second students who are for the most part being trained to work in the language industries (including document design, text mining, technical writing, specialised translation, etc.). (The course we are referring to here is usually known by its French abbreviation: M2 ILTS, Industries de la langue et traduction specialisee = 'Language industries and specialised translation'). …

Prediction and integration in native and second-language processing of elliptical structures

According to recent views of L2-sentence processing, L2-speakers do not predict upcoming information to the same extent as do native speakers. To investigate L2-speakers’ predictive use and integration of syntactic information across clauses, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from advanced L2-learners and native speakers while they read sentences in which the syntactic context did or did not allow noun-ellipsis (Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.) Both native and L2-speakers were sensitive to the context when integrating words after the potential ellipsis-site. However, native, but not L2-speakers, anticipated the ellipsis, as suggested by an ERP difference between elliptical and non-elliptical contexts preceding the potential ellipsis-site. In addition, L2-learners displayed a late frontal negativity for ungrammaticalities, suggesting differences in repair strategies or resources compared with native speakers.

Experimental Study of Information Processing Application in Second Language to Computer Interface of Brain

The computer how to identify the language? How the brain controls the brain computer interface (BCI) equipment? Reading in a second language (L2) is a complex task that entails an interaction between L2 and the native language (L1). Previous studies have suggested that bilingual subjects recruit the neural system of their logographic L1 (Chinese) reading and apply it to alphabetic L2 (English) reading. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to visualize Japanese-Chinese bilinguals’ brain activity in phonological processing of Japanese Kanji (L1) and Chinese characters (L2) and application to BCI, two written languages with highly similar orthography. In the experiment, the subjects were asked to judge whether two Japanese Kanji (or Chinese characters) presented at the left and right side of the fixation point rhymed with each other. A font size decision task was used as a control task, where the subjects judged whether the two Japanese Kanji (or Chinese characters) had an identical physical size. Subjects indicated a positive response by pressing the key corresponding to the index finger and a negative response by pressing the key corresponding to the middle finger of their right hand. The result showed that our bilingual Japanese subjects have large overlaps in the neural substrates for phonological processing of both native and second language. Our results are application to brain computer interface.

Morphosyntactic processing in advanced second language (L2) learners: An event-related potential investigation of the effects of L1–L2 similarity and structural distance

Different theoretical accounts of second language (L2) acquisition differ with respect to whether or not advanced learners are predicted to show native-like processing for features not instantiated in the native language (L1). We examined how native speakers of English, a language with number but not gender agreement, process number and gender agreement in Spanish. We compare agreement within a determiner phrase ( órgano muy complejo ‘[DP organ-MASC-SG very complex-MASC-SG]’) and across a verb phrase ( cuadro es auténtico ‘painting-MASC-SG [VP is authentic-MASC-SG]’) in order to investigate whether native-like processing is limited to local domains (e.g. within the phrase), in line with Clahsen and Felser (2006). We also examine whether morphological differences in how the L1 and L2 realize a shared feature impact processing by comparing number agreement between nouns and adjectives, where only Spanish instantiates agreement, and between demonstratives and nouns, where English also instantiates agreement. Similar to Spanish natives, advanced learners showed a P600 for both number and gender violations overall, in line with the Full Transfer / Full Access Hypothesis (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1996), which predicts that learners can show native-like processing for novel features. Results also show that learners can establish syntactic dependencies outside of local domains, as suggested by the presence of a P600 for both within and across-phrase violations. Moreover, similar to native speakers, learners were impacted by the structural distance (number of intervening phrases) between the agreeing elements, as suggested by the more positive waveforms for within-phrase than across-phrase agreement overall. These results are consistent with the proposal that learners are sensitive to hierarchical structure.

Reactivity of concurrent verbal reporting in second language writing

This paper reports an empirical study designed to explore whether concurrent verbal reporting has a reactive effect on the process of second language writing. Ninety-five Chinese EFL learners were randomly assigned to an argumentative writing task under three conditions: metacognitive thinking aloud (MTA), nonmetacognitive thinking aloud (NMTA), and no thinking aloud (NTA), after they completed a similar baseline writing task. Their essays were analyzed in terms of linguistic fluency, complexity, accuracy, and overall quality to examine if there were any significant between-group differences that could be taken as evidence of reactivity. After controlling for baseline differences, analyses revealed no traces of reactivity left on a majority of measures except that: (a) the two think-aloud conditions significantly increased dysfluencies in participants’ essays; (b) they also tended to reduce syntactic variety of the essays; and (c) MTA significantly prolonged time on task and retarded the speed of written production. These negative effects are interpreted in light of Kellogg's (1996) cognitive model of writing as suggesting no serious interference with L2 writing processes and are taken as cautions for, rather than counterevidence against, the use of the think-aloud method to obtain L2 writing process data.

Embodiment and second-language: Automatic activation of motor responses during processing spatially associated L2 words and emotion L2 words in a vertical Stroop paradigm

Converging evidence suggests that understanding our first-language (L1) results in reactivation of experiential sensorimotor traces in the brain. Surprisingly, little is known regarding the involvement of these processes during second-language (L2) processing. Participants saw L1 or L2 words referring to entities with a typical location (e.g., star, mole) (Experiment 1 & 2) or to an emotion (e.g., happy, sad) (Experiment 3). Participants responded to the words’ ink color with an upward or downward arm movement. Despite word meaning being fully task-irrelevant, L2 automatically activated motor responses similar to L1 even when L2 was acquired rather late in life (age >11). Specifically, words such as star facilitated upward, and words such as root facilitated downward responses. Additionally, words referring to positive emotions facilitated upward, and words referring to negative emotions facilitated downward responses. In summary our study suggests that reactivation of experiential traces is not limited to L1 processing.

Does bilingual fluency moderate the disruption effect of cultural cues on second-language processing?

Zhang et al. (1) argue that cultural priming disrupts bilinguals’ second-language (L2) processing because of interference from first-language (L1) structures that are activated by heritage-culture images. Although these findings are compelling, we have some concerns about the study. First, Zhang et al. (1) measured English fluency by words spoken per minute after extraneous words (e.g., repetitions and self-corrections) were pruned. Despite the assumed effectiveness of this technique, speech-rate analysis that focuses solely on temporal qualities cannot adequately capture the multifaceted nature of fluency (2), which entails not only speed fluency (i.e., speech rate) but also breakdown fluency (e.g., mean length of pauses) and repair fluency (e.g., … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: sy98{at}cornell.edu or hjyang{at}smu.edu.sg. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Reply to Yang and Yang: Culturally primed first-language intrusion into second-language processing is associative spillover, not strategy

Yang and Yang (1) raise important questions about our studies (2) showing that priming with heritage-culture visual cues can disrupt second-language performance. Because the studies combine methods from different fields of psychology in a unique way, this is a valuable opportunity to explain our methodological choices more fully.

Heritage-culture images disrupt immigrants’ second-language processing through triggering first-language interference

For bicultural individuals, visual cues of a setting's cultural expectations can activate associated representations, switching the frames that guide their judgments. Research suggests that cultural cues may affect judgments through automatic priming, but has yet to investigate consequences for linguistic performance. The present studies investigate the proposal that heritage-culture cues hinder immigrants' second-language processing by priming first-language structures. For Chinese immigrants in the United States, speaking to a Chinese (vs. Caucasian) face reduced their English fluency, but at the same time increased their social comfort, effects that did not occur for a comparison group of European Americans (study 1). Similarly, exposure to iconic symbols of Chinese (vs. American) culture hindered Chinese immigrants' English fluency, when speaking about both culture-laden and culture-neutral topics (study 2). Finally, in both recognition (study 3) and naming tasks (study 4), Chinese icon priming increased accessibility of anomalous literal translations, indicating the intrusion of Chinese lexical structures into English processing. We discuss conceptual implications for the automaticity and adaptiveness of cultural priming and practical implications for immigrant acculturation and second-language learning.

IMPLICIT LEARNING IN SLA AND THE ISSUE OF INTERNAL VALIDITY

There is a growing theoretical, empirical, and methodological debate in the SLA field as to whether unawareness plays a role during attention to or processing of new incoming second language (L2) data. Indeed, studies that have methodologically addressed the construct of unawareness in their research designs offer both empirical support (e.g., Leung & Williams, 2011, 2012; Williams, 2004, 2005) and no empirical support (e.g., Faretta-Stutenberg & Morgan-Short, 2011; Hama & Leow, 2010; Leow, 2000) for implicit learning. This article takes a critical look at one recent study (Leung & Williams, 2011) and questions the level of internal validity with respect to the claim that their study provided empirical evidence of implicit learning. It concludes by providing specific criteria that need to be considered in any study purporting to address the construct of awareness or lack thereof in L2 learning.

The word frequency effect in first- and second-language word recognition: A lexical entrenchment account

We investigate the origin of differences in the word frequency effect between native speakers and second-language speakers. In a large-scale analysis of English word identification times we find that group-level differences are fully accounted for by the individual language proficiency scores. Furthermore, exactly the same quantitative relation between word frequency and proficiency is found for monolinguals and three different bilingual populations (Dutch-English, French-English, and German-English). We conclude that the larger frequency effects for second-language processing than for native-language processing can be explained by within-language characteristics and thus need not be the consequence of "being bilingual" (i.e., a qualitative difference). More specifically, we argue that language proficiency increases lexical entrenchment, which leads to a reduced frequency effect, irrespective of bilingualism, language dominance, and language similarity.

J024012 日本語-中国語バイリンガルの第一・二言語の意味処理に関するfMRI研究([J024-01]視覚聴覚と脳機能)

J024012 日本語-中国語バイリンガルの第一・二言語の意味処理に関するfMRI研究([J024-01]視覚聴覚と脳機能)

The role of individual differences in L2 writing

Although the role of individual differences in second language (L2) speech has been extensively studied, the impact of individual differences on the process of second language writing and the written product has been a neglected area of research. In this paper, I review the most important individual difference factors that might explain variations in L2 writing processes and discuss the influence of these factors on how L2 learners exploit the language learning potential of writing tasks. First, the role of cognitive factors will be explored, and recent research investigating the relationship between writing performance and aptitude and working, and phonological short memory, will be presented. Next, the potential role of motivational factors, such as language learning goals, self-efficacy beliefs, and self-regulatory capacities that influence the psycholinguistic mechanisms of L2 writing and the way students learn about the target language through writing, will be explored. The article concludes with a summary of the role of individual differences in L2 writing processes and in learning through writing, and with an outline of a research agenda for future studies.

Semantic processing in native and second language: Evidence from hemispheric differences in fine and coarse semantic coding

Previous studies suggest that whereas the left hemisphere (LH) is involved in fine semantic processing, the right hemisphere (RH) is uniquely engaged in coarse semantic coding including the comprehension of distinct types of language such as figurative language, lexical ambiguity and verbal humor (e.g., Chiarello, 2003; Faust, 2012). The present study examined the patterns of hemispheric involvement in fine/coarse semantic processing in native and non-native languages using a split visual field priming paradigm. Thirty native Hebrew speaking students made lexical decision judgments of Hebrew and English target words preceded by strongly, weakly, or unrelated primes. Results indicated that whereas for Hebrew pairs, priming effect for the weakly-related word pairs was obtained only for RH presented target words, for English pairs, no priming effect for the weakly-related pairs emerged for either LH or RH presented targets, suggesting that coarse semantic coding is much weaker for a non-native than native language.

The inseparability of cognition and emotion in second language learning

The scholarly literature about the process of second language (L2) learning has focused to a considerable extent on cognitive processes. Left aside are questions about how emotions fit into an understanding of L2 learning. One goal of this plenary is to demonstrate that we have limited our understanding of L2 learning by failing to take into account the roles played by emotions. A perspective which brings together cognition and emotion is that of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (SCT) of mind. Vygotsky saw the two as being inextricably interconnected. However, many in the Western world who have taken up Vygotsky's ideas, myself included, have focused on the cognitive side of learning and development. The second goal of this plenary is therefore to redress this imbalance.