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- Volume 11, Issue, 2011
EUROSLA Yearbook - Volume 11, Issue 1, 2011
Volume 11, Issue 1, 2011
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Aptitude, age and cognitive development: The MLAT-E in Spanish and Catalan
Author(s): Maria del Mar Suárez and Carmen Muñozpp.: 5–29 (25)More LessIn the validation studies of the Modern Language Aptitude Test-Elementary (MLAT-E) (Carroll & Sapon 1967) and its Spanish version, the MLAT-ES (Stansfield & Reed 2005), the total scores across grades increase unsteadily. At no point, though, has this increase been discussed. Similar results are found in the present study, which addresses this issue from two viewpoints, age and the supposed stability of language aptitude. The participants in this study are bilingual Catalan-Spanish children in grades from 3 to 7. 325 participants took the MLAT-ES and 304 participants took its Catalan version (MLAT-EC). The analyses of the children’s performance in both tests suggest that the higher the grade, the higher the final score. However, the difference between the means of the total score is consistently larger between grade 3 and 4 than between the other grades. Besides, this increase seems to plateau between grade 6 and 7. Results are discussed in relation to the influence that children’s age and cognitive development in middle childhood seem to have on children’s language aptitude development.
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Can research into the diagnostic testing of reading in a second or foreign language contribute to SLA research?
Author(s): J.Charles Alderson and Ari Huhtapp.: 30–52 (23)More LessLanguage testing researchers have recently shown interest in diagnostic testing. However, diagnostic testing requires a better understanding of language abilities at a less general level than has been normal in language testing, and this has posed challenges to testers to define their diagnostic constructs both theoretically and operationally. In theory, second language acquisition (SLA) should be able to offer insights into the construct of reading in a second or foreign language (S/FL), and testing ought to be able to base diagnostic tests of S/FL reading on theoretical insights from SLA. It is, however, unclear whether this happens in practice. In this paper we examine the potential synergy between second language acquisition and second and foreign language testing, and we report on progress in three inter-related research projects into S/FL reading.
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Guessing and risk attitude in L2 vocabulary tests
Author(s): Dieter Thomapp.: 53–74 (22)More LessGuessing the meaning of unknown words is an essential process in L2 comprehension. At the same time, guessing is considered a nuisance in L2 vocabulary tests. This raises the question of the nature and causes of guessing in L2 vocabulary tests. The traditional claims in language testing are that guessing is (1) a function of proficiency and (2) a function of the test taker’s risk attitude. To investigate these claims in the context of standardized vocabulary testing, 135 advanced EFL learners participated in a computer-based yes/no vocabulary test combined with a translation task and a risk test. Stepwise regression analyses suggest that about 60% of the variation in yes/no test guesses are attributable to inappropriate or lack of semantic word knowledge. However, there was no systematic effect of risk attitude and guessing was largely independent of general lexical proficiency level. Methodological and inferential consequences for L2 vocabulary testing are discussed.
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Developing a lexical profiler for spoken French L2 and Italian L2: The role of frequency, thematic vocabulary and cognates
Author(s): Camilla Bardel and Christina Lindqvistpp.: 75–93 (19)More LessThis study is a follow-up to Lindqvist et al. (to press), where we investigated lexical frequency profiles of learners of French and Italian at different proficiency levels. By analyzing the proportion of low-frequency words used by the learners, we could distinguish proficiency levels that differ significantly at group level and correspond to morphosyntactic proficiency levels. However, some individual results within the groups indicated a need to analyze individual profiles in order to get a better picture of the actual quality of the learner’s vocabulary knowledge. The present study focuses on thematic vocabulary and cognates among the low-frequency words used by learners at different proficiency levels. We suggest that investigating qualitative aspects of learners’ word knowledge is a fruitful complement to traditional lexical profiling analysis. Such a combination can lead to a more complete picture of learners’ lexical profiles. Although we are aware that word frequency is known to be a powerful factor in vocabulary acquisition, our on-going research aims at developing a more general lexical profiler that integrates additional aspects that we have found to be relevant for learnability.
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Gossamer or bindweed?: Association links between common words
Author(s): Paul Mearapp.: 94–114 (21)More LessThis paper reports a single-subject study of word associations in English. The work uses an innovative research methodology which makes it possible to examine very large numbers of associations. From this we can make some reasonably reliable estimates about the global and local structure of the association network of the Subject. The data suggests that this network is more dense than some common metaphorical descriptions of lexical networks imply. Some of the implications of this for models of L2 vocabulary development are briefly explored.
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The nature of variable sensitivity to agreement violations in L2 English
Author(s): Masanori Bannaipp.: 115–137 (23)More LessThis study focuses on the nature of variable sensitivity to violations of subject-verb number agreement in L2 English by examining Japanese-speaking learners’ performance in a self-paced reading task. The results of the experiment indicated that the learners were insensitive to agreement violations deriving from omission of 3rd person singular (3sg)-s, but were highly sensitive to violations deriving from overuse of 3sg-s. Their sensitivity to this type of violation, however, turned out to be non-categorical in that it was adversely affected by an adverb intervening between the subject and the verb. These results are interpreted to indicate that intermediate learners’ implementation of subject-verb agreement is not based on Agree operations, but on the Vocabulary entry for /s/ which is sensitive to the condition of the string of co-occurring terminal nodes as proposed by Hawkins and Casillas (2008).
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Feature composition in Differential Object Marking
Author(s): Pedro Guijarro-Fuentespp.: 138–164 (27)More LessIn this paper we examine the acquisition of interpretable features in English L2 learners of Spanish by investigating the personal preposition a in Spanish. The presence of a in direct object NPs relates to the animacy/specificity of the NP, the animacy/agentivity of the subject and the semantics of the predicate (Torrego, 1998; Zagona, 2002); that is, personal a is constrained by the interpretability of semantic features. Forty-nine English L2 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels, and 16 Spanish controls participated in an Acceptability Judgement task. The results showed that L2 learners of Spanish across three proficiency levels behaved differently from native speakers of Spanish. The L2 learners seem to have attained some of the interpretable features (i.e., [±animate]) of the Spanish a-DP direct objects, but reveal delays with others. Nonetheless, our data illustrate partial convergence by advanced learners with the native speakers: some interpretable features are attainable, while others may be less accessible and subject to developmental processes. In analyzing our data we draw on Lardiere’s (2008, 2009) Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, but expanded and extended it in an attempt to critically evaluate and broaden it.
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L1/L2 parametric directionality matters: More on the Null Subject Parameter in L2 acquisition
Author(s): Tiffany Judypp.: 165–190 (26)More LessAssuming transfer of the L1 grammar, in the present study the question of whether all parameters can be reset even with access to UG is examined in light of the subset/superset relationship. Specifically, the resetting of the Null Subject Parameter (NSP) in L2 learners of English (L1 Spanish) is investigated by means of examining the application of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (Montalbetti 1984), a property that clusters with the null subject setting only, as well as acceptance/rejection of null subjects in English. Since English does not syntactically license empty subjects, but Spanish does, the two languages are in a subset/superset relationship such that Spanish is the superset grammar. Therefore, the results stand to shed light on the validity of the Subset Principle (Berwick 1982; Manzini and Wexler 1987; Wexler and Manzini 1987) and its learnability constraints applied to second language acquisition (SLA) where transfer might impede convergence on the narrow syntactic property despite full access to Universal Grammar.
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The syntax and interpretation of embedded null subjects in Chinese, and their acquisition by English-speaking learners
Author(s): Lucy Xia Zhaopp.: 191–217 (27)More LessThis article reports an investigation of embedded null subjects in both L1 and L2 Chinese. Chinese null embedded subjects can refer either to a matrix subject or to a discourse entity. In the Government-Binding (GB) framework, these two possibilities resulted from the null subject being either pro or a variable. Neither pro nor a variable is compatible with the assumptions of the more recent Minimalist Program, however. This article proposes an alternative account for null embedded subjects in Chinese that is consistent with the Minimalist Program: deletion of the anaphor ziji and deletion of a topic under identity with appropriate antecedents. It then reports a study of knowledge of such deletion in the Chinese of L2 speakers. Although the existing literature has found that embedded null subjects are allowed by L2 learners of Chinese at early stages of development, no research has investigated whether they are interpreted in a target-like way by L2 speakers. A picture judgment task and a written interpretation task showed that English-speaking learners of high-intermediate proficiency in Chinese allow an embedded null subject to refer to the matrix subject, but not to a discourse entity. It is only at advanced proficiency that L2 speakers allow co-reference with both a matrix subject and a discourse entity. The implications of these results are discussed.
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Gradient competence at the Syntax-Discourse Interface
Author(s): Roumyana Slabakova, Jason Rothman and Paula Kempchinskypp.: 218–243 (26)More LessIn this article, we present additional support of Duffield’s (2003, 2005) distinction between Underlying Competence and Surface Competence. Duffield argues that a more fine-grained distinction between levels of competence and performance is warranted and necessary. While underlying competence is categorical, surface competence is more probabilistic and gradient, being sensitive to lexical and constructional contingencies, including the contextual appropriateness of a given construction. We examine a subset of results from a study comparing native and learner competence of properties at the syntax-discourse interface. Specifically, we look at the acceptability of Clitic Right Dislocation in native and L2 Spanish, in discourse-appropriate context. We argue that Duffield’s distinction is a possible explanation of our results.
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Beyond canonical order: The acquisition of marked word orders in Italian as a second language
Author(s): Camilla Bettoni and Bruno Di Biasepp.: 244–272 (29)More LessLearners can go a long way in making themselves understood by mapping conceptual arguments such as agent, event and patient straight onto canonical word order. However, in order to optimise communicative intentions they need to go beyond it. We will discuss such notions as canonical order, functional assignment and marked word orders within the framework of Processability Theory. This SLA theory seems particularly suited to do so, having recently expanded its scope by adding a discourse-pragmatically motivated syntactic component to the original morpho-syntactic one. We take Italian as an example, a head-marking, pro-drop language located towards the less configurational end of the typological spectrum, characterised by a rich morphology and a flexible syntax which is highly sensitive to pragmatic and discourse choices. For these typological characteristics Italian is well suited for testing how learners acquire the skills to free up the rigidity of canonical order, and learn to add their own perspective and emphases to the propositional content in order to guide the listener’s attention, e.g., by topicalising and focalising different elements of their message in an unequivocal (that is, grammatically accurate) manner.
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