Sensitivity to derivational morphology as cues to lexical stress among English as second language learners

IF 2 2区 教育学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Reading and Writing Pub Date : 2023-12-12 DOI:10.1007/s11145-023-10496-2
Jinglei Ren, Min Wang
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Abstract

Derivational suffixes are known to play a crucial role in assigning stress to multi-syllabic words among native English speakers. However, it is unclear whether second language (L2) learners of English can effectively use derivational suffixes as stress cues in written words. To address this gap, we studied if native Chinese-speaking adults learning English as an L2 can use derivational cues to correctly assign lexical stress, and whether the frequency of these suffixes and their L2 language proficiency moderate this sensitivity. Utilizing a written stress assignment and a stress production task, participants saw a series of written stems and their derived forms and were asked to either choose a syllable to assign the stress (Experiment 1) or read it aloud (Experiment 2). Results showed that L2 learners are sensitive to derivational cues to lexical stress in English. Moreover, the strength of this sensitivity is dependent upon the suffix class, frequency, and L2 language proficiency. Specifically, in both experiments, participants made more correct stress shifts in derived forms with high compared to low nonneutral suffix frequency; however, it did not differ between high and low neutral suffix frequency. In addition, as participants’ English proficiency increased, their correct stress shifts increased significantly greater in those derived nonwords with nonneutral than neutral suffixes in the stress assignment task. These findings make a significant contribution to the limited literature on L2 learners' sensitivity to morpho-orthographic cues to lexical stress and support the proposed statistical learning mechanism, that is, L2 learners can implicitly learn statistical regularities from linguistic materials.

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英语作为第二语言学习者对派生词词形作为词汇重音线索的敏感性
衍生后缀在多音节单词的重音分配中起着至关重要的作用。然而,第二语言(L2)英语学习者是否能够有效地使用衍生后缀作为书面单词的重音线索尚不清楚。为了解决这一差距,我们研究了母语为汉语的成年人在学习英语作为第二语言时是否可以使用衍生线索来正确分配词汇重音,以及这些后缀的频率和他们的第二语言水平是否会调节这种敏感性。利用书面重音分配和重音产生任务,参与者看到一系列书面词干及其衍生形式,并被要求选择一个音节来分配重音(实验1)或大声朗读(实验2)。结果表明,第二语言学习者对衍生线索敏感。此外,这种敏感性的强弱取决于后缀的类别、使用频率和第二语言的熟练程度。具体来说,在这两个实验中,参与者在衍生形式中高非中性词缀频率比低词缀频率做出更正确的应力转移;中性词词频高低无明显差异。此外,当被试的英语熟练程度提高时,他们在重音分配任务中对非中性衍生非词的正确重音转移的提高显著高于中性衍生非词。这些研究结果对目前有限的关于二语学习者对词法正字法线索对词汇重音的敏感性的研究做出了重大贡献,并支持了提出的统计学习机制,即二语学习者可以隐性地从语言材料中学习统计规律。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
5.20
自引率
16.00%
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0
期刊介绍: Reading and writing skills are fundamental to literacy. Consequently, the processes involved in reading and writing and the failure to acquire these skills, as well as the loss of once well-developed reading and writing abilities have been the targets of intense research activity involving professionals from a variety of disciplines, such as neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics and education. The findings that have emanated from this research are most often written up in a lingua that is specific to the particular discipline involved, and are published in specialized journals. This generally leaves the expert in one area almost totally unaware of what may be taking place in any area other than their own. Reading and Writing cuts through this fog of jargon, breaking down the artificial boundaries between disciplines. The journal focuses on the interaction among various fields, such as linguistics, information processing, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, speech and hearing science and education. Reading and Writing publishes high-quality, scientific articles pertaining to the processes, acquisition, and loss of reading and writing skills. The journal fully represents the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of research in the field, focusing on the interaction among various disciplines, such as linguistics, information processing, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, speech and hearing science and education. Coverage in Reading and Writing includes models of reading, writing and spelling at all age levels; orthography and its relation to reading and writing; computer literacy; cross-cultural studies; and developmental and acquired disorders of reading and writing. It publishes research articles, critical reviews, theoretical papers, and case studies. Reading and Writing is one of the most highly cited journals in Education, Educational Research, and Educational Psychology.
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