Journal of Psycholinguistic Research最新文献

Previous studies on L2 (i.e., second language) Chinese compound processing have focused on the relative efficiency of two routes: holistic processing versus combinatorial processing. However, it is still unclear whether Chinese compounds are processed with multilevel representations among L2 learners due to the hierarchical structure of the characters. Therefore, taking a multivariate approach, the present study evaluated the relative influence and importance of different grain sizes of lexical information in an L2 Chinese two-character compound decision task. Results of supervised component generalized linear regression models with random forests analysis revealed that the orthographic, phonological and semantic information all contributed to L2 compound processing, but the L2 learners used more orthographic processing strategies and fewer phonological processing strategies compared to the native speakers. Specifically, the orthographic information was activated at the whole-word, the character and the radical levels in orthographic processing, and the phonological information at the whole-word, the syllable, and the phoneme levels all exerted contributions in phonological processing. Furthermore, the semantic information of the whole words and the constituents was accessed in semantic processing. These findings together suggest that the L2 learners are able to use cues at all levels simultaneously to process Chinese compound words, supporting a multi-route model with a hierarchical morphological structure in such processing.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the best approaches to teaching a foreign language to older people to help them achieve the desired results and explore their benefits. This review strictly follows the PRISMA methodology for systematic reviews and meta-analyses to identify the core experimental studies that deal with the topic of foreign language learning approaches among the older generations. Altogether eight studies detected were included in the systematic review. The available sources were found in Web of Science and Scopus. The findings indicate that foreign language learning can promote seniors' welfare and successful aging despite their learning outcomes, which means that the key benefit for third-age foreign language learners while learning a foreign language is not the achieved proficiency level, but the feeling of subjective satisfaction. This can be a good incentive to achieve better learning outcomes, provided that learners have been offered a pleasant and safe learning environment, using suitable learning approaches during which they can build on their acquired knowledge and experience, as well as discuss the topics they are interested in. Thus, foreign language teachers play an important part in seniors' educational process because their teaching methods and materials when adapted to the elderly's educational needs can have a positive impact on the maintenance and possibly, enhancement of the older people's cognitive functions and on the improvement of their mental activity, which consequently maintains their healthy aging.

This article investigates the verbalization mechanisms of the 'family' concept within the Kazakh, Russian, and English linguistic cultures. The research aims to examine the verbal representation mechanisms of the 'family' concept within the linguistic worldviews of the aforementioned cultures. The research material comprises dictionary definitions of the primary lexemes as presented in explanatory dictionaries and synonym dictionaries, proverbs and sayings, phraseological units, and data derived from an associative experiment. The employed analysis methods include component analysis, the descriptive method, the experimental method (psycholinguistic experiment), and the statistical method. This article furnishes a thorough analysis of the linguistic representation methods of the 'family' concept, illuminating its intricate and multidimensional nature. The authors endeavored to identify the concept's structure and describe linguistic units via the interpretation of semantic components. Based on the data procured from the psycholinguistic experiment, the components and layers of the 'family' concept, identified during the analysis, substantiate the theory that this concept plays a fundamental role in the shaping of society and individuals.

Wh-words have been analysed as existential quantifiers (Chierchia in Logic in grammar: polarity, free choice, and intervention. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013; Fox, in Sauerland U, Stateva P (eds) Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics (Palgrave studies in pragmatics, language and cognition). Palgrave MacMillan, Houndmills, pp 71-120, 2007; Liao in Alternative and exhaustification: non-interrogative uses of Chinese wh-words. Harvard University, 2010) or universal quantifiers (Nishigauchi, in: Theoretical and applied linguistics at Kobe Shoin 2, Kobe Shoin Institute for Linguistic Sciences, 1999). These two accounts have distinct predictions on how children initially interpret wh-words. The universal account predicts that children should initially interpret wh-words as universal quantifiers, whereas the existential account anticipates that children should start out with the existential interpretation. To adjudicate between the two accounts, the present study was designed to explore pre-schoolers' semantic knowledge of wh-quantification. Specifically, it investigated the interpretation of the wh-word shenme 'what' with 4-and 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children and a control group of adults. Using a Truth Value Judgment Task (Crain and Thornton in Investigations in universal grammar: a guide to experiments on the acquisition of syntax and semantics. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998), Experiment 1 evaluated whether children interpret the wh-word shenme 'what' as closer in meaning to the polarity sensitive item renhe 'any' or the universal quantifier suoyou 'all' in the antecedent of ruguo 'if' conditionals. Using a Question-Answer Task, Experiments 2 & 3 respectively investigated whether children interpret shenme 'what' as closer in meaning to renhe 'any' or suoyou 'all' in two types of questions: yes-no questions with the particle ma and A-not-A questions. It was found that both children and adults interpret shenme 'what' as closer in meaning to renhe 'any' than suoyou 'all'. The findings suggest that Mandarin-speaking pre-schoolers already have adult-like semantic knowledge of wh-quantification: wh-words are existential quantifiers rather than universal quantifiers. Due to the paucity of primary linguistic input, children's early mastery of the non-interrogative wh-words appear to support the biolinguistic approach to language acquisition (Chomsky in Aspects of the theory of syntax. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1965; Pinker in Language learnability and language development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1984; Crain et al. in Language acquisition from a biolinguistic perspective. Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.09.004 ).

English is widely regarded as a global language, and it has become increasingly important for global communication. As a result, the demand for English language education has been on the rise. In China, a significant number of individuals are engaged in learning the English language. However, many English learners in China encounter challenges when it comes to developing their speaking skills. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing the speaking skills of English learners in China. Employing a mixed-methods approach, data were collected through a questionnaire from 455 college students from three different courses (arts, science & business, and commerce) in China. The study findings identified several factors impacting the speaking skills of English learners in China, including limited opportunities for speaking practice, fear of making mistakes, limited exposure to English-speaking environments, inadequate teacher training, and the influence of the Chinese language on English pronunciation. Additionally, the study highlighted that learners who have greater exposure to English-speaking environments and more opportunities for speaking practice tend to demonstrate better speaking skills. The novelty of this study lies in its valuable insights into the factors influencing the speaking skills of English learners in China. Based on the findings, it is recommended that English teachers receive enhanced training to effectively teach speaking skills, and learners should be provided with increased opportunities for speaking practice, such as participating in group discussions or engaging in speaking activities.

The mechanisms underlying the processing of the temporal reference of a sentence are still unexplored. Most of the previous psycholinguistic studies used the temporal concord violation between deictic time adverbs and tense marking on the verb to investigate this issue. They found that processing past tense marking is more difficult than non-past tense, indicated by lower accuracy rates and/or longer reaction time. However, it is not clear whether this complexity is due to tense marking or the temporal reference it denotes. This paper examines this issue with a judgment acceptability experiment in Taiwan Mandarin, which is analyzed as a tenseless language. The two modal auxiliary verbs you and hui were placed after deictic past time adverbs (grammatical with you but not with hui) and deictic future time adverbs (grammatical with hui but not with you). The temporal concord violation of the auxiliary verb you led to higher acceptability rates but longer reaction time than hui, reflecting higher processing difficulties. This paper argues that these complexities are due to the existential-assertive meaning of you, which interplays with the meaning of the event described by the verb rendering the situation more or less likely to occur in the future. The computation of the temporal concord of hui, displaying a future sense meaning, is more straightforward and therefore easier to process. This suggests that the mechanisms responsible for temporal reference processing are of different nature depending on the semantics of the temporal marker in the sentence.

Despite the significance of grit and motivational regulation strategies (MRS) to language learning, limited research has been conducted on their longitudinal interplay. The present study explores the relationship between these two constructs in an English as a second language (L2) learning context through a longitudinal design. This study utilizes repeated measures of L2 grit and MRS at two time points (T1 and T2) to investigate the direction of influence between them and proposes and evaluates four models: an autoregressive model, two unidirectional models, and a bidirectional model. Using questionnaire data from 205 Chinese university students to evaluate the models, results from model assessment revealed that L2 grit at T1 positively predicted L2 grit at T2 and that MRS at T1 positively predicted MRS at T2. While L2 grit showed stability, MRS developed over time. The unidirectional model with L2 grit at T1 as a predictor of MRS at T2 was identified as the model of best fit, indicating that L2 grit at an earlier time unidirectionally influenced MRS at a later time. Based on these findings, we conclude that there is a unidirectional influence between L2 grit and MRS: the former plays an influential role in shaping MRS in L2 learning over time. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics between the two constructs, which in turn impacts language learning persistence and success, offering valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and researchers striving to optimize language learning environments and interventions.

This study aims to expand our understanding of the relations of oral reading fluency at word, sentence, and passage levels to reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking secondary school-aged students. In total, 80 participants (46 males and 34 females) ranging from 13 to 15 years old joined this study and were tested on tasks of oral reading fluency at three levels, reading comprehension, and nonverbal IQ. Our results showed a clear relationship from fluency at the level of the word to the sentence and then the passage in oral reading fluency as well as both the direct and indirect importance of word-level oral reading fluency in reading comprehension. Only the indirect effect from word-level oral reading fluency to reading comprehension through passage-level oral reading fluency was significant. Our findings suggest that sentence-level oral reading fluency is the crucial component to reading comprehension in Chinese. Additionally, recognition of the potential value of unique features, such as syntactic awareness and word segment accuracy, that happen at the sentence level should be integrated into instructional activities for reading.