Is Acquiring Knowledge of Verb Subcategorization in English Easier? A Partial Replication of Jiang (2007) /PacSLRF2016
Tamura, Y. (2016). Is acquiring knowledge of verb subcategorization in English easier? A partial replication of Jiang (2007). Paper presented at PacSLRF2016. Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan.
production • Unconsciously activated • With minimal cognitive resource • With no or less attention to accuracy • Integrated knowledge <-> automatized performance Brief overview of Jiang (2007) 7
and adult’s L2 acquisition • Some structures are more likely to be fossilized or less likely to be integrated • ESL learner’s knowledge of inflectional morphology never reaches at the level of native speakers • No matter what process it might be, integration of linguistic knowledge has to be selective • Ease of integration depends on linguistic structures Brief overview of Jiang (2007) 9
as possible • Focus on meaning • Native speakers take longer time to read when they encounter grammatical errors. • Even without instruction • Even when the errors do not prevent comprehension • The delay is the evidence of possessing integrated knowledge Brief overview of Jiang (2007) 11
monitor during the task • Whether or not the learners have integrated knowledge can be measured as whether there is a delay in reading Brief overview of Jiang (2007) 12
Native speakers of English (N = 26) • Materials • plural morphemes : 32 items • verb subcategorization: 32 items • SVO + NP (10 items) • The mayor promised to offer/*keep the returning advisor a better position soon. • SVO + to infinitives (12 items) • The teacher wanted/*insisted the students to start all over again. • SVO + PP (6 items) • Her parents later married/*found her to a millionaire in Thailand. • SVO + adj (2 items) • Everyone considered/*believed the girl innocent after they had heard the story. Brief overview of Jiang (2007) 13
Native speakers of English (N = 26) • Materials • plural morphemes : 32 items • verb subcategorization: 32 items • SVO + NP (10 items) • The mayor promised to offer/*keep the returning advisor a better position soon. • SVO + to infinitives (12 items) • The teacher wanted/*insisted the students to start all over again. • SVO + PP (6 items) • Her parents later married/*found her to a millionaire in Thailand. • SVO + adj (2 items) • Everyone considered/*believed the girl innocent after they had heard the story. Brief overview of Jiang (2007) 14
• Why? • L1 influence • Teachability Hypothesis (Pienemann, 1989) • Weak Interface Hypothesis (R. Ellis, 1997) • Starting age (DeKeyser, 2000) • Frequency (N. Ellis, 2002) • However, none of the above factors can fully explain the results Brief overview of Jiang (2007) 16
knowledge of verb subcategorization? • Ungrammatical version of the test items seemed not to be as much plausible as grammatical versions • ex. An attempt was made to persuade/*give the school board to change the policy. Problems with Jiang (2007) 19
the task does not require them to use syntactic processing (e.g., Lim and Christianson, 2013) • The RT differences obtained in Jiang (2007) might be due to breakdown of processing meaning Problems with Jiang (2007) 20
1. Demographic Information of the Participants Participants n M SD Min Max Age 31 24.77 5.35 20 40 TOEIC 32 824.22 113.12 550 990 Note. One participant did not report their age. 24
Jiang (2004, 2007) • Slightly modified some difficult vocabularies on the basis of JACET 8000 • millionaire -> rich; unwise ->ridiculous etc. • They had to teach the employees Chinese before sending them to China (Grammatical) • *They had to train the employees Chinese before sending them to China (Ungrammatical) • 64 test items (G: 32, UG:32) in total • Half of the items was followed by yes-no comprehension questions Materials and Procedures 26
• The teacher wanted the student to start all over again. • *The teacher insisted the student to start all over again. • “reading times for ‘start’ were compared” (p.13) • Shouldn’t it be “to”? • However, in some other items, two words after the target verb should be the target region • We all called him captain at the time. • *We all needed him captain at the time. • They had done little to make their children happy and successful in life. • * They had done little to provide their children happy and successful in life. Materials and Procedures 27 1 2 3 4 significant RT differences were reported in 3 and 4 How could these items be treated equally? 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
(2007) • It seems the target regions were different across the test items, although the comparison is minimum within each pair • In this study • Target regions were set to be where the ungrammaticality first arises • *The teacher insisted the student to start all over again. • *We all needed him captain at the time. • * They had done little to provide their children happy and successful in life. Materials and Procedures 28 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
• A1, B1: 16 sentences (G:8, UG:8) + 28 fillers • A2, B2: 16 sentences (G:8, UG:8) + 28 fillers • The order of the items was randomized • The order of the two sessions was counterbalanced Materials and Procedures 30
• Five-point Likert scale • 1: ҙຯ͕·ͬͨ͘Θ͔Βͳ͍ (I don’t get the meaning of the sentence at all) — 5: ҙຯ͕ͱͯΑ͘Θ͔Δ (I get the meaning of the sentence very well) • The participants answered the questionnaire after they completed the self-paced reading task • The participants did not see the same items which they saw in the self-paced reading task Materials and Procedures 31
• Responses above the Mean RT+3SD of each participant in each condition • t1 = where the ungrammaticality first arises • t2 and t3 = for spill-over effects Materials and Procedures 32
(GLMM) • Response variables: Raw RT • Explanatory variables: • grammaticality (condition): 2 levels • comprehensibility: centered around grand mean • word length: centered around grand mean • Gamma distribution and identity link function Materials and Procedures 33
in each condition N = 32 35 t1 t2 ̓3 G 557 (144) 522 (112) 511 (110) UG 546 (128) 555 (135) 534 (112) t 0.69 1.77 1.16 p 0.50 0.09 0.25 Correlation 0.78 0.64 0.49 d -0.08 0.27 0.21 d (paired) -0.12 0.32 0.21
grammatical items were rated more comprehensible than the ungrammatical ones • However, some of the grammatical items were rated worse than their ungrammatical counterparts (see Appendix) • Those items were not acquired yet? • The effects of grammaticality and comprehensibility on RT • Possible interaction between grammaticality and comprehensibility • Grammaticality and comprehensibility might not be in a linear relationship Discussion 45
grammatical items were rated more comprehensible than the ungrammatical ones • However, some of the grammatical ones were rated worse than their ungrammatical counterparts (see Appendix) • Those items were not acquired yet? • The effects of grammaticality and comprehensibility on RT • Possible interaction between grammaticality and comprehensibility • Grammaticality and comprehensibility might not be in a linear relationship Discussion 46
t2 • The more comprehensible, the larger the effect of grammaticality • Learners’ sensitivity to the errors were found only if the sentences were comprehensible • No strong main effect of comprehensibility to the delay of RT • In region t1 and t3 • The less comprehensible, the larger the effect of grammaticality Discussion 47 condition*c.comp in t2 c.comp rt 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 −1.0 −0.8 −0.6 −0.4 −0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 condition G UG condition*c.comp in t3 c.comp rt 480 500 520 540 560 580 600 −1.0 −0.8 −0.6 −0.4 −0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 condition G UG
grammatical items were rated more comprehensible than the ungrammatical ones • However, some of the grammatical ones were rated worse than their ungrammatical counterparts (see Appendix) • Those items were not acquired yet? • The effects of grammaticality and comprehensibility on RT • Possible interaction between grammaticality and comprehensibility • Grammaticality and comprehensibility might not be in a linear relationship Discussion 48
relationship • The effect of grammaticality was influenced by the comprehensibility of the test items • L2 learners use both meaning driven and syntactic-driven processing dynamically during self-paced reading • RT differences observed in the study might not be all due to the fact that L2 learners automatized the knowledge of verb-subcategorization Discussion 49
careful revision to examine the knowledge of verb-subcategorization • Syntactic position of the target regions should be controlled across the sentences • Ideally, the types of constructions (e.g., SVO + to V, SVO + PP, etc.) should also be controlled • Selective integration? • Number agreement -> less effect of ungrammaticality to the meaning • Subcategorization -> more effect of ungrammaticality to the meaning • These two types of grammatical knowledge should not be directly compared • GLMM would be preferable • to take into account word length • to take into account participants’ and items’ variance • to see the interaction between meaning and syntactic processing Discussion 50
second language learning. Language Learning, 57, 1–33. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2007.00397.x Lim, J. H., & Christianson, K. (2013). Integrating meaning and structure in L1–L2 and L2–L1 translations. Second Language Research, 29, 233–256. doi:10.1177/0267658312462019 References 52
Partial Replication of Jiang (2007) contact info Yu Tamura Graduate School, Nagoya University [email protected] http://www.tamurayu.wordpress.com/ 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 t1 t2 t3 G UG • The test items and the analyses should be revised • The effect of grammaticality was influenced by comprehensibility of the items 53 condition*c.comp in t1 c.comp rt 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 640 −1.0 −0.8 −0.6 −0.4 −0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 condition G UG condition*c.comp in t2 c.comp rt 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 −1.0 −0.8 −0.6 −0.4 −0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 condition G UG condition*c.comp in t3 c.comp rt 480 500 520 540 560 580 600 −1.0 −0.8 −0.6 −0.4 −0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 condition G UG
569 526 504 UG 9 546 557 544 UG>G G 23 528 510 523 UG 23 548 548 508 All G 32 557 522 510 UG 32 546 555 534 Table 7. Mean RTs (ms) across three types of items in each condition