The multiword processing by low-proficiency Japanese English learners: Meaningfulness and constructions

Recent psycholinguistic research underscores the significance of multiword units in language processing and acquisition, aligning with the Chunk-and-Pass framework. In this study, 55 low-proficiency Japanese English learners and 27 native English speakers undertook a phrasal decision task featuring two trigram types: syntactically and semantically complete (send me letters) and fragmental (send me two) across four construction types (phrasal verb, simple transitive verb, caused-motion verb, and ditransitive verb constructions). Results revealed that while native speakers distinguished between the trigram types, Japanese learners did less so. Additionally, Japanese learners struggled more with the ditransitive construction compared to other types, a challenge not faced by native speakers. This indicates that Japanese English learners may lack native-like multiword chunking skills and that the learners’ processing efficiency differs by construction.