scholarly journals Processing subject–verb agreement in a second language depends on proficiency

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
NORIKO HOSHINO ◽  
PAOLA E. DUSSIAS ◽  
JUDITH F. KROLL
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
First Language ◽  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Speech Planning ◽  
Grammatical Number ◽  
The Way

Subject–verb agreement is a computation that is often difficult to execute perfectly in the first language (L1) and even more difficult to produce skillfully in a second language (L2). In this study, we examine the way in which bilingual speakers complete sentence fragments in a manner that reflects access to both grammatical and conceptual number. In two experiments, we show that bilingual speakers are sensitive to both grammatical and conceptual number in the L1 and grammatical number agreement in the L2. However, only highly proficient bilinguals are also sensitive to conceptual number in the L2. The results suggest that the extent to which speakers are able to exploit conceptual information during speech planning depends on the level of language proficiency.

scholarly journals Conceptual effects on agreement: A corpus study of mismatch in English copular constructions

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Cecily Jill Duffield
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
Grammatical Number ◽  
Verb Number ◽  
Conceptual Relationship

Research on the production of subject-verb agreement has focused on the features of the subject rather than the larger construction in which subject-verb agreement is produced or how the conceptual relationship between subjects and predicates may interact in affecting subject-verb agreement patterns. This corpus study describes subject-verb number agreement mismatch in English copular constructions which take the frame of (SEMANTICALLY LIGHT) N + [REL] + COP + (SPECIFIC) PRED NOM, where the copula reflects the grammatical number of the predicate. Results suggest that speakers make use of conceptual information from the entire construction, and not just the subject, when formulating agreement morphology.

Meta-analysis of the neural representation of first language and second language

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 799-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAJANI SEBASTIAN ◽  
ANGELA R. LAIRD ◽  
SWATHI KIRAN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
First Language ◽  
Likelihood Estimation ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
Meta Analyses

ABSTRACTThis study reports an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of published functional neuroimaging studies of bilingualism. Four parallel meta-analyses were conducted by taking into account the proficiency of participants reported in the studies. The results of the meta-analyses suggest differences in the probabilities of activation patterns between high proficiency and moderate/low proficiency bilinguals. The Talairach coordinates of activation in first language processing were very similar to that of second language processing in the high proficient bilinguals. However, in the low proficient group, the activation clusters were generally smaller and distributed over wider areas in both the hemispheres than the clusters identified in the ALE maps from the high proficient group. These findings draw attention to the importance of language proficiency in bilingual neural representation.

First language effects on the identification and evaluation of second language speech

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-194
Author(s):  
Anne-France Pinget
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Aptitude ◽  
Content Type ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
Language Effects

Abstract In Belgium, Dutch as spoken by Francophone learners is relatively frequent in political, commercial or educational contexts. While the characteristics of this second language (L2) variety have been studied extensively, there is to date no systematic report of how it is evaluated by either native speakers of Dutch or non-natives. Previous studies conducted in other language contexts have found that non-natives tend to be very critical towards L2 accents similar to their own. The main goal of the present study is to investigate the extent to which the listener’s first language (L1) impacts ratings of the fluency, accentedness and comprehensibility of L2 Dutch as spoken by Francophone learners and how it impacts the identification of the speakers’ L1. Specifically, we compared ratings by three groups of listeners: Francophone learners of Dutch, native speakers of Belgian Dutch and native speakers of Netherlandic Dutch. Moreover, the extent to which three additional cognitive and environmental factors influence L2 ratings is examined: listeners’ familiarity with the L2 variety, their language aptitude and language proficiency. The results show that the majority of native and non-native listeners recognized the speakers’ L1 (French). Non-native listeners perceived L2 speech as less fluent, less comprehensible and more accented than natives did, which corroborates the previously reported critical attitudes towards a shared L2 accent. Moreover, subtle differences in accent and fluency ratings were found between the Netherlandic Dutch and the Belgian Dutch listeners. No clear effects of other cognitive and environmental factors appeared in the ratings.

Leerlingkenmerken en Taalvaardigheid in Het Turks en Het Nederlands

1990 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert Driessen ◽  
Kees de Bot
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Second Language Proficiency ◽  
Global Factor ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Proficiency Scores

Evaluation of the effect of mother tongue teaching to migrant children in the Netherlands. Data are presented on first- and second-language proficiency of the Turkish sample (n=368). The aim of the investigation was to find out to what extent learner characteristics influence proficiency scores. It is concluded that the correlation between first and second-language proficiency is particularly low, which does not support Cummins' interdependency hypothesis. Interestingly parents' interest in school is an important global factor. Age on arrival appears to be of little importance for scores on the first-language tests. This suggests that children who have lived in the Netherlands for most of their lives, still show a continued development of their mother tongue.

Turtles all the way down: Micro-cues and piecemeal transfer in L3 phonology and syntax

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832094103
Author(s):  
John Archibald
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
The One ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
The Way

There are several theories which tackle predicting the source of third language (L3) crosslinguistic influence. The two orthogonal questions that arise are which language is most likely to influence the L3 and whether the influence will be wholesale or piecemeal (property-by-property). To my mind, Westergaard’s Linguistic Proximity Model (LPM) is preferable to other theoretical models (say Rothman’s Typological Primacy Model) insofar as it is consistent with many aspects of L2/L3 phonological learnability that I am familiar with. Westergaard proposes a structure-based piecemeal approach to the explanation of third language acquisition (L3A). The model is driven by parsing and dictates that the first language (L1) or second language (L2) structure which is hypothesized to be most similar to the L3 structure will be the one to transfer.

Improving the Quality of Second Language Writing by First Language Use

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moussa Ahmadian ◽  
Sajjad Pouromid ◽  
Mehdi Nickkhah
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
L1 Use ◽  
Development Structure

The role of the learners’ first language (L1) in learning second language (L2) writing has recently become a focus in SLA research. There have been many studies focusing on different aspects of this phenomenon. The results of these studies have shown how L1 use may play facilitative roles in producing writing in the second language. Many variables, such as task type and language proficiency, have also been studied in this regard. Yet, there seems to be a paucity of research on whether L1 use can significantly improve the quality of written productions in L2. The present study was therefore designed to peruse this question and find what aspects of writing may improve with L1 use. To this end, the written productions of 36 Persian-speaking intermediate English learners writing an argumentative paragraph were analyzed. 6 of the 12 groups were asked to collaborate in their first language and the others were limited to using the second language in their collaborations. The results of statistical comparisons between the first language and second language groups revealed that L1 use can significantly improve the overall score gained by the L2 writers. It was also found that L1 use improves the quality of L2 written productions in terms of organization/unity, development, structure, and mechanics.

Cross-linguistic transfer in second language reading

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiko Koda ◽  
Pooja Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
First Language ◽  
Second Language Reading ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Skills Transfer ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Cognitively Demanding Tasks

Research on reading skills transfer has taken shape in two major disciplines: second language (L2) acquisition and reading. Inevitably, its evolution reflects major conceptual shifts in their respective research sub-fields. In L2 research, as a case in point, transfer was initially viewed as interference stemming from first language (L1) structural properties. This view, however, was significantly altered by the subsequent postulation that the language proficiency underlying cognitively demanding tasks, such as literacy and academic learning, is largely shared across languages, and therefore, once acquired in one language, it promotes literacy development in another (Cummins 1979). Reflecting the latter view, the current conceptualizations of transfer uniformly underscore the facilitative nature of previously learned competencies as resources available to L2 learners (e.g. Genesee et al. 2007; Koda 2008).

Understanding text in a second language: a psychological approach to an SLA problem

1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Jenkin ◽  
Suzanne Prior ◽  
Richard Rinaldo ◽  
Ann Wainwright-Sharp ◽  
Ellen Bialystok
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
First Language ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Psychological Approach ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
The Way

The study is an attempt to assess the way in which second language learners form mental representations of information they read. Subjects were asked to read passages in their first and second languages and to demonstrate comprehension of the information by using it to make a judgement of a visual display of the same information. Following this there was a surprise recognition task to determine whether or not they still had access to verbatim representations of the passages. The results showed that information read in a second language is represented differently from the same information read in subjects' first language.

MANAGING TRANSITION: TEACHER ACCOMMODATION STRATEGIES IN AN ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-66
Author(s):  
Blandina Makina
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Intermediate Phase ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Slow Development ◽  
And Function

The South African Language in Education Policy (LiEP) makes provision for learners to be taught in their first language in the first three years of schooling. In accordance with this language policy, in most public schools, learners are taught in their home language in the first three years of school. In grade 4, which is the beginning of the intermediate phase, English - the second language (L2) – becomes the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) across all subjects except the mother tongue. Contrary to expectations, by grade 4, learners in disadvantaged environments have barely developed sufficient reading and writing skills in their home language to make a successful transition and function effectively in the L2. This paper is based on insights from lesson observations and interviews of three Grade 4 teachers of English as a Second Language. It documents the accommodation strategies used to help learners manipulate the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). Findings indicate that the translanguaging processes involved in making English part of the learners’ linguistic repertoire are heavily embedded in the home language, resulting in very slow development of the learners’ language proficiency in English. Recommendations are made on how to enable teachers to assist their learners to bridge this transition gap.

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