Language Learning最新文献

This study examined structural priming during online second language (L2) comprehension. In two self-paced reading experiments, 64 intermediate to advanced Chinese learners of English as a foreign language read coordinated noun phrases where the conjuncts had either the same structure or different structures. Experiment 1 showed that the second conjunct was read faster when it had the same structure as the first. This effect occurred for the structurally marked adjective phrases (e.g., a simple to grasp problem) but only showed a numerical trend for the less marked relative clauses (e.g., a problem that was simple to grasp). Experiment 2 compared unmarked adjective phrases and relative clauses (e.g., a simple problem vs. a problem that was simple) and found significant priming for both. Together, the two experiments showed that L2 comprehension priming could occur without repetition of the lexical head. Moreover, this priming was susceptible to inverse frequency effects, with the less frequent structure exhibiting greater priming.

A central question in multilingualism research is how multiple languages interact. Most studies have focused on first (L1) and second language (L2) effects on a third language (L3), but a small number of studies dedicated to the opposite transfer direction have suggested stronger L3 influence on L2 than on L1 in postpuberty learners. In our study, we provide further support for stronger L3-to-L2 than L3-to-L1 influence and show that it extends to (a) phonetics and the lexicon and (b) childhood learners. Fifty Spanish–Basque–English trilingual adults who had acquired Spanish from birth and Basque between 2 to 4 years of age through immersion participated in a speeded trilingual switching task measuring production of voice onset time and lexical intrusions. Participants experienced more phonetic and lexical crosslinguistic influence from L3 English during L2-Basque production than during L1-Spanish production. These findings show that even highly proficient early bilinguals experience differential influence from a classroom-taught L3 to L1 and to L2.

This article presents the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) project that offers data on English reading and listening comprehension from 7,338 university-level advanced learners and native speakers of English representing 19 countries. The database also includes estimates of reading rate and seven component skills of English, including vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, as well as rich demographic and language background data. We first demonstrate high reliability for ENRO tests and their convergent validity with existing meta-analyses. We then provide a bird's-eye view of first (L1) and second (L2) language comparisons and examine the relative role of various predictors of reading and listening comprehension and reading speed. Across analyses, we found substantially more overlap than differences between L1 and L2 speakers, suggesting that English reading proficiency is best considered across a continuum of skill, ability, and experiences spanning L1 and L2 speakers alike. We end by providing pointers for how researchers can mine ENRO data for future studies.

This study investigated how much practice is necessary for learners to attain durable second language (L2) grammar knowledge. Using digital flashcards, 119 participants practiced translating 12 sentences into an artificial language, followed by feedback, until they had typed all sentences correctly. Participants repeated this activity in one, two, three, or four relearning sessions on consecutive days. After a 14-day delay, all groups scored highly on a receptive test. However, scores on a productive test were substantially higher for groups with three or four relearning sessions. Accuracy tended to peak on the 3rd day of training. An analysis by individual training performance revealed that participants attained durable productive knowledge if they completed two sessions without errors, regardless of how many sessions they had performed in total. The findings provide a timeframe for processes described in skill retention theory (Kim et al., 2013) and suggest a performance benchmark to indicate when learners have gained procedural L2 grammar knowledge.

Chinese learners of English often experience difficulty with English tense presumably because their native language is tenseless. We showed that this difficulty relates to their incomplete conceptual representations for tense rather than their poor grammatical rule knowledge. Participants made acceptability judgments on sentences describing two-event sequences that were either temporally plausible or misaligned according to verb tense (time clash). Both upper-intermediate Chinese learners of English and native English speakers were able to detect time clashes between events, showing that Chinese participants could apply tense rules explicitly. However, a predicted modulation of the N400 event-related brain potential elicited by time clashes in English-speaking participants was entirely absent in Chinese participants. In contrast, the same Chinese participants could semantically process time information when it was lexically conveyed in both languages. Thus, despite their mastery of English grammar, high-functioning Chinese learners of English failed to process the meaning of tense-conveyed temporal information in real time.

In their article, Marsden and Morgan-Short argue that “open research is indeed a large part of our future, and most—if not all—challenges are surmountable, but doing so requires significant changes for many aspects of the research process.” We share Marsden and Morgan-Short's premise that open research practices will play an important role in the future but that many questions about how to implement them successfully are still open and need to be discussed. Taking up and extending their thoughts on the cultural embeddedness of open research practices, this commentary argues that open research can only be the future if there is a cultural change based on changes in practices. We ask why and how change can occur from a praxeological perspective.

Marsden and Morgan-Short's article identified and comprehensively reflected on the opportunities and challenges of open research. This makes it a wonderful starting point for exposing practices in science and the prevailing inequalities of the science system. Therefore, to reduce inequalities in an open research culture, researchers must continue to engage in a critical reflection and analysis of open science practices.

Since its first adoption as a computational model for language learning, evidence has accumulated that Rescorla–Wagner error-correction learning (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) captures several aspects of language processing. Whereas previous studies have provided general support for the Rescorla–Wagner rule by using it to explain the behavior of participants across a range of tasks, we focus on testing predictions generated by the model in a controlled natural language learning task and model the data at the level of the individual learner. By adjusting the parameters of the model to fit the trial-by-trial behavioral choices of participants, rather than fitting a one-for-all model using a single set of default parameters, we show that the model accurately captures participants’ choices, time latencies, and levels of response agreement. We also show that gender and working memory capacity affect the extent to which the Rescorla–Wagner model captures language learning.