Acquiring L2 sentence comprehension: A longitudinal study of word monitoring in noise
Author
Summary, in English
This study investigated the development of second language online auditory processing with ab initio German learners of Dutch. We assessed the influence of different levels of background noise and different levels of semantic and syntactic target word predictability on word monitoring latencies. There was evidence of syntactic, but not semantic, transfer from the L1 to the L2 from the onset of L2 learning. An initial stronger adverse effect of noise on syntactic compared to phonological processing disappeared after two weeks of learning Dutch suggesting a change towards more automatic syntactic processing. At the same time the L2 learners started to exploit semantic constraints predicting upcoming target words. The use of semantic predictability remained less efficient compared to native speakers until the end of the observation period.
Publishing year
2012
Language
English
Pages
841-857
Publication/Series
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
Volume
15
Issue
4
Full text
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Topic
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
Keywords
- processing
- noise
- automaticity
- crossliguistic influence
- Dutch
- German
- second language
Status
Published
Project
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1366-7289