Theres Grüter

Grammatical Gender in L2: A Production or a Real-Time Processing Problem?.

Mastery of grammatical gender is difficult to achieve in a second language (L2). This study investigates whether persistent difficulty with grammatical gender often observed in the speech of otherwise highly proficient L2 learners is best characterized as a production-specific performance problem, or as difficulty with the retrieval of gender information in real-time language use. In an experimental design that crossed production/comprehension and online/offline tasks, highly proficient L2 learners of Spanish performed at ceiling in offline comprehension, showed errors in elicited production, and exhibited weaker use of gender cues in online processing of familiar (though not novel) nouns than native speakers. These findings suggest that persistent difficulty with grammatical gender may not be limited to the realm of language production, but could affect both expressive and receptive use of language in real time. We propose that the observed differences in performance between native and non-native speakers lie at the level of lexical representation of grammatical gender and arise from fundamental differences in how infants and adults approach word learning.

Relative language exposure, processing efficiency and vocabulary in Spanish–English bilingual toddlers

Research with monolingual children has shown that early efficiency in real-time word recognition predicts later language and cognitive outcomes. In parallel research with young bilingual children, processing ability and vocabulary size are closely related within each language, although not across the two languages. For children in dual-language environments, one source of variation in patterns of language learning is differences in the degree to which they are exposed to each of their languages. In a longitudinal study of Spanish/English bilingual children observed at 30 and 36 months, we asked whether the relative amount of exposure to Spanish vs. English in daily interactions predicts childrens relative efficiency in real-time language processing in each language. Moreover, to what extent does early exposure and speed of lexical comprehension predict later expressive and receptive vocabulary outcomes in Spanish vs. English? Results suggest that processing skill and language experience each promote vocabulary development, but also that experience with a particular language provides opportunities for practice in real-time comprehension in that language, sharpening processing skills that are critical for learning.

Vocabulary does not equal language, but neither does morphosyntax

The study of bilingual development has been, and must be, an interdisciplinary endeavor; Carroll (Carroll) presents us with a perspective from within one particular discipline, that of generative linguistics. From this vantage point, she provides us perhaps most importantly with the reminder that language is not a unitary construct, and cautions against extrapolating from findings on the learning of one particular aspect of language, such as vocabulary, to language acquisition more broadly. I wholeheartedly agree (for a similar point, see Paradis & Gruter, 2014). I do not agree, however, with Carrolls implication that such unwarranted extrapolation is characteristic of current research on input and bilingual development. A number of recent studies have looked specifically at the differential relation between input (in a wide sense) and bilingual childrens acquisition of different linguistic phenomena. Unsworth (2014), for example, reported different effects of input variation on Dutch–English bilingual childrens acquisition of grammatical gender versus indefinite object scrambling.

Categorical perception of Mandarin tones by Chinese-native, English-native and Chinese-as-a-second-language English listeners

Previous research found that native-Chinese listeners perceive tones more categorically than listeners with no knowledge of a tonal language (naive listeners; Halle et al., 2004). This study examined tone perception by 26 native-English adult learners of Mandarin (L2ers) in comparison to 30 naive and 30 native-Chinese listeners. Identification and AXB discrimination tasks tested monosyllables (/pi/, /pa/) with 9-step F0 continua between all possible Mandarin tone pairs. Native listeners showed more categorical identification (steeper slopes) than naive listeners. The L2 group showed significantly shallower identification slopes than native listeners (p<0.01) and steeper slopes than naive listeners (p<0.01). L2 proficiency (listening test plus self-report) positively correlated with identification performance (r = 0.36, z=-2.56, p<0.01), suggesting higher proficiency may lead to more native-like tone identification. However, although L2ers’ discrimination accuracy (0.90) was significantly higher than nativ...