The illusion of language acquisition

O’Grady, William

doi:10.1075/lab.3.3.01ogr

Cited by 55 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 60 publications

(38 reference statements)

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“…Given the additional cost associated with this interpretation, it is not surprising that Korean speakers strongly prefer the all > not reading and that this preference is manifested even in very young learners (Han, Lidz, & Musolino, ; O'Grady, ).…”

Section: Additional Examples Of Internal Processing Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The scope interpretation facts for second language learners reveal a further striking contrast. Whereas Korean‐speaking learners of English initially transfer the dominant all > not interpretation of their language to English, English‐speaking learners of Korean do not transfer the preferred not > all interpretation of English to Korean (O'Grady, ). This developmental asymmetry is summarized in Table .…”

Section: Additional Examples Of Internal Processing Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Processing considerations provide a plausible explanation for the facts if we make a simple assumption: Learners have a propensity to transfer the entrenched routines of their first language to a second language, but only if that does not increase processing cost in the second language (O'Grady, 2012, ; O'Grady, Kwak, Lee, & Lee, ; see also Filipović & Hawkins, ). The two outcomes reported in Table now follow.…”

Section: Additional Examples Of Internal Processing Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Processing Determinism

O’Grady

2015

Language Learning

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I propose that the course of development in first and second language acquisition is shaped by two types of processing pressures—internal efficiency‐related factors relevant to easing the burden on working memory and external input‐related factors such as frequency of occurrence. In an attempt to document the role of internal factors, I consider a series of case studies involving contrasts that are rarely instantiated in the input, yet show early mastery. I conclude with some general remarks about the nature of development and the possibility that it unfolds more uniformly than often suggested.

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Section: Additional Examples Of Internal Processing Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Additional Examples Of Internal Processing Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Additional Examples Of Internal Processing Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Processing Determinism

O’Grady

2015

Language Learning

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“…In the standard view, the grammar is time-independent whereas the parser and the producer are time-dependent systems. Second, according to O'Grady (2005O'Grady ( , 2013, there is no grammar but only the parser. The parser maps a form onto a semantic representation without building syntactic representations.…”

Section: Linguistic Competence and Psycholinguistic Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling linguistic competence by facilitating performance

Kim

2015

Language Acquisition

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This dissertation looks at the question of whether the source of language learners' poor performance is a deficit in knowledge or a performance problem. Two constructions are examined, both being cases in which learners have been reported to show deficits in linguistic competence: (1) Korean OSV (e.g., Elmo-lul Big Bird-ka anayo. 'Elmo, Big Bird is hugging.'), where knowledge of both scrambling and case markers is necessary for target performance; (2) the English tough construction (English TC; e.g., The doll i is easy to see e i ), where knowledge of tough movement is necessary for target performance (i.e., the object interpretation only). If poor performance (operationalized as chance performance or below) is due to a failure to apply knowledge rather than the absence of knowledge, good performance (i.e., significantly-above-chance performance) should emerge with the effective manipulation of non-grammatical factors to facilitate learners' application of knowledge. I experimentally tested this hypothesis in two studies, employing both (a) sentence-internal manipulations and (b) sentence-external manipulations. The Korean OSV study collected data from Korean Heritage children (KHC) (n = 31) as well as two groups of native Korean-speaking children, a younger group (n = 21) and an older group (n = 23). The English TC study collected data from native Korean-speaking adult L2ers of English (n = 49) and native Korean-speaking child L2ers of English (n = 30), along with adult native speaker controls (n = 10). Study 1:Knowledge of scrambling and case in Korean was assessed, first, via picture-selection comprehension tasks that (a) manipulated the prosodic salience of case markers and (b) manipulated context to make the direct object a natural scrambled topic, and, second, via a production task eliciting case markers. The results suggested three possible sources of poor performance. Many participants showed good performance only in the manipulation conditions (vs. the baseline condition), suggesting that their poor performance in the baseline condition could be due to a performance problem (e.g., perception failure or a heavy processing load). Some participants showed absence or errors of case in the production task, which suggests that their poor performance could come from a deficit in knowledge of case or from a mapping problem between a Case feature and case morphology. Comparisons between the Korean and the English TVJT results revealed a strong subject-interpretation bias in both languages for lower proficiency adult and child L2ers but only in Korean for higher proficiency adult L2ers, which suggests that L2ers do transfer their L1 subject interpretation but can subsequently unlearn it--despite an (ostensible) absence of negative evidence. However, (most of) the high proficiency adult L2ers still showed (below) chance performance in the error-inducing conditions, which suggests that non-grammatical factors can conceal knowledge of the English TC that some of them actually have.The two studies show that p...

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“…Very few sentences containing a negated verb and a universally quantified direct object occur in parental speech in either Korean or English (O'Grady, 2013). Yet scopal interpretations appear to develop in a systematic way, following a particular (but different) course in each language.…”

Section: Kim-i Motun Yenphil-ul An Sa-ss-tamentioning

confidence: 98%

Language Development: Emergentist Theories

O’Grady

2015

International Encyclopedia of the Social &Amp; Behavioral Sciences

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The illusion of language acquisition

Cited by 55 publications

References 60 publications

Processing Determinism

Processing Determinism

Unveiling linguistic competence by facilitating performance

Language Development: Emergentist Theories

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