Many excellent corpus-based language learning resources (e.g., concordancers) have been freely available on the Internet for some time. Google assisted language learning (GALL) is also gaining increasing acceptance. These tools are a potential resource for English as an additional language (EAL) university students who want to independently improve their academic writing. However, many Australian universities have been remarkably slow to integrate these tools into English language support operations. In this study, Australian EAL university students were trained in Internet-based tools and techniques for language learning and subsequently surveyed on their attitudes and behaviour. Students' competence in using the tools and techniques to correct errors in their writing was also measured. The results revealed that students are enthusiastic and reasonably competent users of Internet-based tools and techniques for independent language learning. It is argued that Internet-based corpus tools and techniques are undervalued by Australian universities, but could be promoted and used to support EAL university student writers.
This study investigated whether second language (L2) learners of English could learn to produce stranded prepositions through structural priming. Structural priming is the tendency for speakers to repeat the structure of previously experienced sentences, without intention or conscious awareness of such behaviour, and is thought to be associated with implicit learning of syntactic structure. The syntactic structure chosen for this study was the stranded preposition in English relative clauses, a structure which is known to be difficult for L2 learners to acquire, and which is often replaced by a related ungrammatical interlanguage variant: null preposition (null prep). It was hypothesized that, during and just after a structural priming treatment, learners would produce more sentences containing stranded prepositions and fewer null prep sentences than before the treatment. The results revealed that learners indeed produced more stranded prepositions during and after priming than before and we interpret this behaviour as a possible indication of implicit learning of an L2 structure. However, learners did not produce significantly fewer null preps during and after priming than before. We discuss the findings in terms of second language acquisition theory, interlanguage processes, and possible pedagogical implications.
This study compared production of modal perfect sentences by native English speakers and advanced non-native English speakers from Asian L1 backgrounds in discourse and discourse-free contexts. In experiment 1, native and non-native speakers reconstructed modal perfect sentences from sentential anagrams under time pressure. Both speaker groups were faster to construct modal perfect sentences than closely matched control sentences. In experiment 2, native and non-native speakers read and responded orally to stories designed to elicit modal perfect. The results revealed that non-native speakers produced significantly fewer modal perfect sentences than native speakers. Taken together, the findings suggest that although non-native speakers from Asian L1 backgrounds have the syntactic capability to produce modal perfect under constrained conditions in a sentential anagram task, they are less likely than native speakers to produce such constructions in particular discourse contexts, perhaps as a result of differences in cultural background. Implications for English language instruction are discussed.
This study investigated sentence-processing strategies adopted by advanced nonnative speakers (NNSs) and native speakers (NSs) of English in the context of an English structure with which NNSs reportedly have an acquisition difficulty (e.g., Swan & Smith, 2001)—namely, modal perfect (MP). Participants read MP sentences such as He could have worked at the shoe factory and closely related analogous sentences (e.g., He could have work at the shoe factory), and reading times and errors were measured in an online grammaticality-judgment task. It was hypothesized that NSs would have a processing preference for MP sentences compared to the analogues, reflecting the primacy of syntactic information in NS processing and a preference for late closure, whereas NNSs would show no such preference because they rely less on syntactic information when processing sentences. The results revealed, however, that both NSs and NNSs read MP sentences more quickly and with fewer errors than the closely related analogues, consistent with a processing preference for MP sentences. Both groups were also influenced by word-category frequency information, which moderated, but did not fundamentally alter, their syntactic preference for MP. The significance of these findings is discussed in terms of models of second-language sentence processing and NNSs’ reported MP acquisition difficulty.
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