Second Language Swedish Morphosyntactic Instruction and Cross-Language Similarity: An Erp Investigation
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: This small-scale longitudinal experiment evaluated how specific differences among instruction methods, and differences between the first (L1) and second language (L2), interact to influence the beginning stages of L2 learning. Native English speakers learned a miniature version of Swedish according to three methods: contrast and color highlighting (Salience group), contrast and highlighting with grammatical rule explanations (Rule & Salience group), or neither (Control group). Responses to grammatical features that are instantiated similarly in L1 and L2 (demonstrative determiner-noun number agreement), instantiated differently in the two languages (singular definiteness marking), and that only exist in L2 (article-adjective gender agreement) were contrasted with the purpose of examining L1 transfer (e.g., Tokowicz & MacWhinney, 2005). Participants underwent three training sessions on vocabulary and grammar, completed three grammaticality judgment task post-tests, and two L1-L2 sentence translation tasks over a period of approximately three weeks. Grammaticality judgment scores on Swedish sentences: (a) improved across tests for all groups; (b) were lowest for dissimilar features in the Control group; and (c) were highest for similar and unique features, particularly in the Salience and Rule & Salience groups. Event-related potentials showed qualitative neural differences in the three training groups, which differentially varied with cross-language similarity. Sentence translation grammar accuracy was higher for similar and unique features. The findings are consistent with theories that emphasize cross-language similarity (e.g., MacWhinney, 2005) and input salience (e.g., Ellis, 2006; Schmidt, 1990) in L2 learning. Importantly, these results are novel in demonstrating that instruction methods that direct learners' attention to critical aspects of input and provide rule explanations may be particularly helpful in learning L2 features that are distinct from L1.
Author: Leida C. Tolentino
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W200706006