Languages, Literatures, & Cultures

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Second Language Acquisition

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    SECOND LANGUAGE LEXICAL REPRESENTATION AND PROCESSING OF MANDARIN CHINESE TONES
    (2018) Pelzl, Eric; DeKeyser, Robert; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation investigates second language (L2) speech learning challenges by testing advanced L2 Mandarin Chinese learners’ tone and word knowledge. We consider L2 speech learning under the scope of three general hypotheses. (1) The Tone Perception Hypothesis: Tones may be difficult for L2 listeners to perceive auditorily. (2) The Tone Representation Hypothesis: Tones may be difficult for L2 listeners to represent effectively. (3) The Tone Processing Hypothesis: Tones may be difficult for L2 listeners to process efficiently. Experiments 1 and 2 test tone perception and representation using tone identification tasks with monosyllabic and disyllabic stimuli with L1 and advanced L2 Mandarin listeners. Results suggest that both groups are highly accurate in identification of tones on isolated monosyllables; however, L2 learners have some difficulty in disyllabic contexts. This suggests that low-level auditory perception of tones presents L2 learners with persistent long-term challenges. Results also shed light on tone representations, showing that both L1 and L2 listeners are able to form abstract representations of third tone allotones. Experiments 3 and 4 test tone representation and processing through the use of online (behavioral and ERP) and offline measures of tone word recognition. Offline results suggest weaknesses in L2 learners’ long-term memory of tones for specific vocabulary. However, even when we consider only trials for which learners had correct and confident explicit knowledge of tones and words, we still see significant differences in accuracy for rejection of tone compared to vowel nonwords in lexical recognition tasks. Using a lexical decision task, ERP measures in Experiment 3 reveal consistent L1 sensitivity to tones and vowels in isolated word recognition, and individual differences among L2 listeners. While some are sensitive to both tone and vowel mismatches, others are only sensitive to vowels or not at all. Experiment 4 utilized picture cues to test neural responses tied directly to tone and vowel mismatches. Results suggest strong L1 sensitivity to vowel mismatches. No other significant results were found. The final chapter considers how the three hypotheses shed light on the results as a whole, and how they relate to the broader context of L2 speech learning.
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    The Influences of Aptitude, Learning Context, and Language Difficulty Categorization on Foreign Language Proficiency
    (2015) Wagener, Thomas Robert; Ross, Steven; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This research investigates the ability of predictive measures to differentiate level of language proficiency among learners across languages, language categories, and learning contexts. It fills a gap in the literature pertaining to language categorization and demonstrates differential predictive ability of language learning aptitude measures depending on the language being learned. In addition, it challenges a default assumption that aptitude and other individual difference measures ought to be context independent. This is done through an analysis of the effects of context on the predictive ability of individual difference measures where results show the differing predictive patterns between a foreign language classroom, a domestic intensive instruction setting, and a study abroad program. Finally, several individual difference measures that have shown some past success in differentiating foreign language outcomes for learners are examined to analyze incremental predictive validity. Measures that demonstrate incremental predictive validity are useful in developing selection protocols for language learning programs. Additionally, measures that show differential incremental predictive validity across language categories and contexts may indicate a potential for aligning learners within a category and context to benefit learner outcomes. This research provides evidence to support claims that suggest an interactive role between the learner and context leading to differential learning outcomes based on individual differences. It highlights the fact that predictive models of proficiency are not consistent within language category, nor are they consistent across language category boundaries. It shows that a measure of general cognitive memory may be the best indicator of long term language learning success across languages. Finally, it replicates earlier findings that the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) provides incremental predictive validity in the face of other individual difference measures indicating that it remains a useful predictor of language learning performance.
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    Pre-task planning time and working memory as predictors of accuracy, fluency, and complexity
    (2012) Nielson, Katharine Brown; DeKeyser, Robert; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Working memory, which accounts for the ability to process information in the face of interference, is critical to second language acquisition (SLA) and use. The interaction of working memory capacity (WMC) with specific pedagogical interventions is a logical place for empirical SLA research, both to examine the cognitive processes underpinning second language performance and to identify instructional treatments that may differentiate learners based on their WMC. A good candidate for such an examination is planning time, a pedagogical intervention that has been the subject of extensive empirical research, which has, thus far, been largely unrelated to WMC. The study undertaken here considers WMC along with two different types of pre-task planning time (guided and unguided) as predictors of the accuracy, fluency, and complexity of learners' discourse. Ninety-two intermediate ESL students from seven classes at a community college participated in this study by completing two different working memory span tasks as well as two different "there-and-then" oral story-telling tasks. The treatment condition of the story-telling tasks was manipulated so that learners' performance could be considered in terms of provision of pre-task planning (± planning), type of planning (guided vs. unguided), and order of planning (planning first or planning second). The results demonstrate that the relationship among type of planning time, order of planning time, and WMC is complex. Task order had a clear effect on learners' production, regardless of the provision of planning time. When learners began the series of story-telling tasks under the + planning condition, their output on the subsequent, unplanned task varied according to whether they had first received guided or unguided planning time. In addition, guided planning time and unguided planning time also have very different effects on learners' production, with guided planning time promoting a focus on accuracy at the expense of complexity and unguided planning time fostering fluency. Finally, this study indicates that task conditions can affect learners with high and low WMC in different ways. Learners with high WMC are more likely to comply with complex story-telling instructions, improving their focus on grammatical form at the expense of fluency, whereas learners with low WMC are more likely to improve their fluency as a result of task repetition, regardless of the task conditions.
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    Mix and Switch Effects in Bilingual Language Processing
    (2012) Koeth, Joel Todd; Jiang, Nan; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study utilized a novel task design in an effort to identify the source of the second language processing advantage commonly reported in mixed language conditions, investigate switch cost asymmetry in non-balanced bilinguals, and identify task-related variables that potentially contribute to inconsistent results across studies with similar participant populations. Seventy highly-proficient Korean-English bilinguals completed modified picture naming, semantic categorization, and lexical decision tasks, as well as a cognitive control task designed to examine the potential relationship between lexical control and general cognitive control. While no significant relationship was found between lexical control and general cognitive control, several key task-related variables emerged with respect to mix and switch effects. Specifically, verbal production requirements and increased second language repetition effects significantly influenced results. Furthermore, this study revealed potential effects of semantic load as well as script differences in receptive tasks. Results from this study highlight several key variables that contribute to bilingual mix and switch effects, as well as task design-related considerations for future bilingual mix and switch studies.
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    Grammatical Gender Representation and Processing in Advanced Second Language Learners of French
    (2009) Vatz, Karen L.; DeKeyser, Robert; Michael, Erica B; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    One of the most difficult challenges of learning French as a foreign language is mastering the gender system. Although there are theories that account for how French native speakers (NSs) master their gender system, it is not fully understood why second language (L2) learners are unable to do the same. The goal of the present study was to investigate this difference in ability between French NSs and non-native speakers (NNSs), specifically, how L2 learners of French store grammatical gender knowledge, and how their storage system relates to processing of grammatical gender in terms of the ability to realize accurate gender agreement throughout a sentence. First, a gender priming task investigated whether advanced L2 learners have developed a gender-nodal system in which gender information is stored as an inherent property of a noun. Second, an online grammaticality judgment task addressed L2 learners' gender agreement ability during processing, while taking into account (a) the role of gender cues available to the participant, and (b) non-linguistic processing constraints such as working memory (WM) through manipulating the distance of an adjective from the noun with which it must agree. In order to investigate the role of a learner's native language (L1) in gender representation and processing, participants included learners of French from three L1 groups: Spanish, whose gender system is congruent to that of French; Dutch, whose gender system is incongruent to that of French; and English, whose gender system is minimal, relative to French. A group of NS controls also participated. Results from the gender priming task indicate that the NNSs in the current study have not developed a native-like gender-nodal system, regardless of L1-L2 gender-system similarity. At-chance accuracy on the grammaticality judgment task indicates L2 gender agreement is far from native-like, even for advanced learners. Whereas the presence of gender cues was beneficial, neither WM nor L1-L2 similarity facilitated performance. The results from this study confirm previous findings on the difficulty of L2 gender agreement, and shed light on the nature of L2 gender representation as a possible explanation for this processing difficulty.