Age Constraints on L2 Learners’ Processing of Derivational Morphology

Dami Lee 한국외국어교육학회 2015 Foreign languages education Vol.22 No.1

This study examined how L2 learners of English process morphologically complex words (e.g., bareness) and psuedowords (e.g.,*boilness) to investigate if the L2 processing of derivational morphology is subject to critical period effects. It has been claimed that native speakers rely on procedural memory to process morphologically complex words, while L2 learners tend to utilize declarative memory to process them (Ullman, 2001, 2004, 2005). According to Ullman, L2 learners’ reliance on declarative memory for processing morphologically complex words is due to maturational changes in procedural memory. Two related experiments with a masked priming lexical decision task were conducted with two groups of Korean learners: early and late L2 learners. With regard to the results, early L2 learners showed stem priming effects for morphologically related prime-target pairs, which is indicative of morphological decomposition. On the other hand, late L2 learners did not provide any evidence of stem priming, indicating that they might have processed the morphologically complex word/pseudoword as a whole unit. These data suggest that the L2 processing of late learners is different from that of early learners.

Morphological Processing of a Korean Nominal Suffix -tul by Korean Speakers and Chinese L2 Learners

Hee-Don Ahn,Jung-Yun Choi,Moongee Jeon,Sangki Kim,Jong-Bai Hwang 한국중원언어학회 2021 언어학연구 Vol.- No.59

The comprehension and production of second language (L2) is a key factor in understanding the course of L2 development. Several accounts have been posited to explain the differences in the L1 and L2 processing, including the minimum involvement of morphological parsing and the L1 interference. However, the evidence is not sufficient to be conclusive. This paper investigates and compares L1 and L2 processing of a Korean nominal suffix -tul by Korean L1 speakers and Chinese learners of Korean. Masked and cross-modal priming experiments were performed to examine L1 speakers" and L2 learners" morphological decomposition in processing the target nominal suffix. The results revealed that the L1 processing displayed partial priming effects in the masked priming experiment and full priming effects in the cross-modal priming experiment, while the L2 processing by Chinese speakers showed no priming in the masked priming experiment and partial priming in the cross-modal priming experiment. We conclude that L1 and L2 processing are fundamentally different, and that unlike L1 processing, morphological decomposition is underused or absent in L2 processing.

English L2 Speakers' Processing of Morphologically Simplex and Suffixed Words

한국언어학회 한국언어학회 2015 언어 Vol.40 No.3

Yun, Gwanhi. 2015. English L2 Speakers’ Processing of Morphologically Simplex and Suffixed Words Korean Journal of Linguistics, 40-3, 40-3, 423-448. Recent studies on morphological processing have shown that morphologically complex words such as class II affixed words or regular inflected words are processed by decomposition whereas class I affixed words and irregular inflected words are processed as whole-word units. The present study aims at exploring whether such patterns found for native speakers of English emerge differently in accordance with L2 proficiency. First, the results attained for intermediate proficiency learners show that complex words benefit from more processing efficiency than simplex words, derivational words cost more difficulty processing than inflected words for high-frequency condition, and class II suffixed words suffer heavier processing burden than class I suffixed words. Second, the results for advanced learner group show that simplex words are processed more efficiently than complex words, inflectional words are processed with more difficulty than derivational words in low-frequency words, and class II suffixed words pay more processing cost than class I suffixed words in high-frequency condition. These findings suggest that L2 processing mode for complex words is contingent on proficiency level and surface frequency is mediated in the processing. Furthermore, it is implied that though the extent of dual-route processing is not as strong as that of target language users, L2 learners seem to be under progress towards dual-route processing as the growth of proficiency. (Daegu University)

제2언어로서의 한국어 쓰기 교육의 동향

조용준 ( Yong Joon Cho ) 한말연구학회 2012 한말연구 Vol.- No.31

This paper provides a brief historical sketch of L2 Korean writing research from 2005 to May in 2012. A total of 268 papers have been published during that period, and among them 93 articles are journal articles and 175 articles are MA theses and dissertations. One of notable characteristics of them is that MA theses are more than half of them; its total amounts to 166 papers. It is also notable that theoretically genre-based L2 writing research papers have been of great importance and academic writing among its areas accounts for a great part of them. Like in EFL/ESL writing research, researchers in the field of L2 Korean composition studies replicated many of L1 research studies. However, it has been pointed out that the two areas are different in numerous ways. Especially, some research found salient differences between L1 and L2 writing. First, it is found that composing processes and their subprocesses are different with regard to their planning, transcribing, and reviewing. Secondly, it is also noted that features of written texts are different between L1 and L2 writing. Specifically, their discoursal, morphosyntactic, and lexicosemantic features are various and their fluency, accuracy and quality of written texts are different. In addition, other major issues and the relevant findings from six areas of inquiry into L2 Korean writing are presented:1) the L2 writing process, 2) L2 writing feedback, 3) L2 writing instruction, 4) L2 writing curriculum and syllabuses, 5) genre analyses of L1 & L2 writers` texts, and 6) writing assessment. It is found that L2 writing is quite a complex process which involves participation of various factors and that the rising profile of second language writing and particularly of writing for academic purposes has also led to a proliferation of resources aimed at both teachers and students. Finally, new scope for future research is proposed based on the presented inadequacies of the existing L2 Korean writing instruction research.

Processing Null and Overt Pronoun Subject at Different Proficiency Levels in Korean as a Second Language

Soo Ok Kweon 한국외국어교육학회 2012 Foreign languages education Vol.19 No.1

This study compares how native Korean speakers and English learners of L2 Korean interpret null and overt subject pronouns in complex Korean sentences consisting of a main clause and a subordinate clause. It aims to examine the extent to which the mechanisms that underlie L2 processing differ from those in L1 processing and further to test whether increasing proficiency of L2 learners affects their preferences for antecedents. Two groups of English L1 learners of L2 Korean (20 beginners, and 16 advanced learners and % Korean native speakers participated in a questionnaire survey, which contained four conditions of anaphora (forward/backward anaphora (FIB); null/overt pronoun (N/O)). Results showed that in the forward anaphora with null pronoun (FN) condition, the three groups did not differ significantly in their choice of antecedents. In the FO and BO conditions, beginners were different from the advanced learners and native speakers. In the BN condition, both learner groups were different from the native speakers. 'This suggests that L1-L2 similarities can facilitate processing, whereas L1-L2 differences can cause processing difficulties for L2 learners. Finally, the behavior pattern of the advanced learners in the present study was generally similar to that of native speakers, but different in some conditions.

Exploring Working Memory Capacity as an Independent Contributor to L2 Discourse Comprehension: A Study of Korean EFL Learners

Jeongsoon Joh 서울대학교 언어교육원 2015 語學硏究 Vol.51 No.2

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether and how working memory capacity contributes to discourse comprehension in L2. Participants were 60 Korean college students of various academic backgrounds, and their working memory capacity was measured by a reading span task in L1 and L2. Their L2 knowledge and background knowledge were also measured to examine the relative contribution of working memory capacity to L2 reading. Major findings include the following: there was more overlap between L1 and L2 working memory capacity than between L2 working memory capacity and L2 knowledge, suggesting L2 working memory capacity would be more of memory capacity itself than of L2 knowledge; only composite working memory capacity significantly predicted L2 discourse comprehension, but not storage or processing component alone; composite working memory capacity proved to be an independent contributor to L2 discourse comprehension, though less powerful than knowledge variables

L2 Influence on Korean-English Bilinguals’ L1 Syntactic Processing of Relative Clauses

임남실 한국중원언어학회 2014 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.33

This study examines L2 influence on L1 in processing Korean relative clause sentences from Korean-English bilinguals in EFL context. Transfer patterns in processing ambiguous relative clauses were compared with those identified in Korean monolinguals. This study tests Linguistic Tuning, which posits that parsers’ initial analysis of an ambiguous construction is influenced by their previous encounters with ambiguities. This study aims to examine Linguistic Tuning to see whether bilinguals' L2 parsing routines can be permeated into L1 comprehension. 17 Korean-English bilinguals completed online self-paced reading task with ambiguous relative clauses in Korean. The results from reading time data revealed that bilinguals showed a different processing pattern to Korean monolinguals. Given a prolonged L2 exposure in an L2 environment, bilinguals’ processing routines seem to be affected by L2 experiences, hence carrying L2 processing strategies to L1 processing. This study provides another piece of evidencefor Dussias and Sagarra (2007) that permeability of L1 is a natural consequent of L2 exposure and L1 is likely to be influenced and to change.

L2 morphological processing of Korean nominal narker -ka: evidence from masked and cross-modal priming with advanced Chinese learners

( Hee Don Ahn ),( Yong Joon Cho ),( Jong Bai Hwang ),( Moon Gee Jeon ),( Ki Sud Jeong ) 경희대학교 언어연구소 2014 언어연구 Vol.31 No.2

This paper reports results from masked and cross-modal priming experiments which investigate L1 and L2 processing of Korean nominal marker -ka in native speakers of Korean and advanced Chinese L2 learners of Korean. In both the masked and cross-modal priming experiments, partial priming effects were found for L1, and full priming effects for L2. The results indicate that L1 speakers of Korean make less use of morphological decomposition on the processing of the nominal marker -ka than Chinese L2 learners of Korean. The results that there was no difference between masked and cross-modal priming either in L1 or in L2 also indicate that the observed L1/L2 difference cannot be confined to either level of processing, at the early stages of form-level access or at the central level of lexical entries. (Konkuk University)

The Role of L2 Proficiency on Processing Relative Clauses in Late Learners of English

Namsil Lim 한국중원언어학회 2016 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.38

The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to investigate whether L2 Korean learners (n = 30) of English would show a similar processing pattern with that of native speakers of English (n = 7), and 2) to examine whether there is any variability between the two different L2 proficiency groups -- highly-advanced (n = 16) vs. intermediate (n = 14) in regard to the effect of L2 proficiency on L2 syntactic processing. For data collection, this study employed a survey questioning the participants’ demographic informations and a self-paced reading task with ambiguous relative clauses. For the research purposes, I compared the performances of the task by the two Korean groups with those by English monolinguals. The results of this study showed that even highly proficient L2 learners are not always processing ambiguous relative sentences similarly to English monolinguals and that they are showing an effect of L1 transfer. Also, L2 proficiency seems to partially play a role on L2 syntactic processing. At the end of this study, were made some significant suggestions for further research.

L2 Influence on Korean-English Bilinguals’ L1 Syntactic Processing of Relative Clauses

Namsil Lim 한국중원언어학회 2014 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.33

This study examines L2 influence on L1 in processing Korean relative clause sentences from Korean-English bilinguals in EFL context. Transfer patterns in processing ambiguous relative clauses were compared with those identified in Korean monolinguals. This study tests Linguistic Tuning, which posits that parsers’ initial analysis of an ambiguous construction is influenced by their previous encounters with ambiguities. This study aims to examine Linguistic Tuning to see whether bilinguals" L2 parsing routines can be permeated into L1 comprehension. 17 Korean-English bilinguals completed online self-paced reading task with ambiguous relative clauses in Korean. The results from reading time data revealed that bilinguals showed a different processing pattern to Korean monolinguals. Given a prolonged L2 exposure in an L2 environment, bilinguals’ processing routines seem to be affected by L2 experiences, hence carrying L2 processing strategies to L1 processing. This study provides another piece of evidence for Dussias and Sagarra (2007) that permeability of L1 is a natural consequent of L2 exposure and L1 is likely to be influenced and to change.