{"title":"Sensitivity to derivational morphology as cues to lexical stress among English as second language learners","authors":"Jinglei Ren, Min Wang","doi":"10.1007/s11145-023-10496-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":48204,"journal":{"name":"Reading and Writing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Reading and Writing","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-023-10496-2","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
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.
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.