Home Unlearning the boundary-crossing constraint: processing instruction and the acquisition of motion event construal
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Unlearning the boundary-crossing constraint: processing instruction and the acquisition of motion event construal

  • Jacqueline Laws ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Anthony Attwood ORCID logo and Jeanine Treffers-Daller ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: March 10, 2021

Abstract

This study explores the effects of instruction on the acquisition of motion event construal among learners of English as a second language. The challenge for learners with Verb-framed first languages is that they need to ‘unlearn’ the boundary-crossing constraint and conflate manner and motion in the main verb, as in she ran into the bank, however, there is little research on how this domain can be taught. We evaluate performance on story-telling productive tasks using three experimental treatments involving 1) an input-only approach based on the principles of Processing Instruction, 2) combined input and output training and 3) explicit information only about the target construction. The findings show that boundary-crossing constructions expressing manner can be taught and learning effects generalised to non-boundary-crossing structures not included in the training material. The effectiveness of input-only instruction persists over a two-week period, and compares positively with that of an input+output teaching package.


Corresponding author: Jacqueline Laws, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, UK, E-mail:

Article Note: The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Emma Marsden and Alimujiang Tusun to a previous version of this paper, as well as the comments of two anonymous reviewers.


References

Alghamdi, Amani, Michael Daller & James Milton. 2019. The persistence of L1 patterns in SLA: The boundary crossing constraint and incidental learning. The Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 16. 81–106. https://doi.org/10.35869/vial.v0i16.94.Search in Google Scholar

Antonijević, Stanislava & Sarah Berthaud. 2009. Verbs of motion and sentence production in second language. In Proceedings of fechner day: Proceedings of the 25th annual meeting of the International Society for Psychophysics, vol. 25, 487–492. Galway, Ireland: International Society for Psychophysics. October 21–24, 2009.Search in Google Scholar

Aske, Jon. 1989. Path predicates in English and Spanish: A closer look. In Proceedings of the 15th Aannual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, vol. 1014. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society.10.3765/bls.v15i0.1753Search in Google Scholar

Attwood, Anthony. 2014. The teachability of entering and exiting in L2 English. Language Studies Working Papers 6. 43–52.Search in Google Scholar

Beavers, John, Beth Levin & Shiao Wei Tham. 2010. The typology of motion expressions revisited. Journal of Linguistics 46(2). 331–377. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226709990272.Search in Google Scholar

Benati, Alessandro. 2005. The effects of processing instruction, traditional instruction and meaning-output instruction on the acquisition of the English past simple tense. Language Teaching Research 9(1). 67–93. https://doi.org/10.1191/1362168805lr154oa.Search in Google Scholar

Cadierno, Teresa. 2004. Expressing motion events in a second language: A cognitive typological perspective. In Michel Achard & Susanne Niemeier (eds.), Cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition and foreign language teaching, 13–49. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110199857.13Search in Google Scholar

Cadierno, Teresa. 2008. Motion events in Danish and Spanish: A focus on form pedagogical approach. In Sabine De Knop, Teun De Rycker & René Dirven (eds.), Cognitive approaches to pedagogical grammar: a volume in honour of René Dirven, 259–294. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1515/9783110205381.3.259Search in Google Scholar

Cadierno, Teresa & Karen Lund. 2004. Cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition: Motion events in a typological framework. In Bill VanPatten, Jessica Williams, Susanne Rott & Mark Overstreet (eds.), Form-meaning connections in second language acquisition, 139–154. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Search in Google Scholar

Cadierno, Teresa & Peter Robinson. 2009. Language typology, task complexity and the development of L2 lexicalization patterns for describing motion events. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 7. 245–276. https://doi.org/10.1075/arcl.7.10cad.Search in Google Scholar

Cadierno, Teresa & Lucas Ruiz. 2006. Motion events in Spanish L2 acquisition. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 4(1). 183–216. https://doi.org/10.1075/arcl.4.08cad.Search in Google Scholar

Chen, Liang & Jiansheng Guo. 2009. Motion events in Chinese novels: Evidence for an equipollently-framed language. Journal of Pragmatics 41(9). 1749–1766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.10.015.Search in Google Scholar

Colasacco, Marina Anna. 2019. A cognitive approach to teaching deictic motion verbs to German and Italian students of Spanish. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 57(1). 71–95. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2018-2007.Search in Google Scholar

Corder, Stephen Pit. 1967. The significance of learner’s errors. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 5(1–4). 161–170. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1967.5.1-4.161.Search in Google Scholar

Daller, Michael Helmut, Jeanine Treffers-Daller & Reyhan Furman. 2011. Transfer of conceptualization patterns in bilinguals: The construal of motion events in Turkish and German. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 14(1). 95–119. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728910000106.Search in Google Scholar

DeKeyser, Robert & Goretti Prieto Botana. 2014. The effectiveness of processing instruction in L2 grammar acquisition: A narrative review. Applied Linguistics 36(3). 290–305. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amu071.Search in Google Scholar

Durlak, Joseph A. 2009. How to select, calculate, and interpret effect sizes. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 34(9). 917–928. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsp004.Search in Google Scholar

Fernández, Claudia. 2008. Reexamining the role of explicit information in processing instruction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30(3). 277–305. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263108080467.Search in Google Scholar

Filipovic, Luna. 2007. Talking about motion: A cross-linguistic investigation of lexicalization patterns. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.91Search in Google Scholar

Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood. 1961. Categories of the theory of grammar. Word 17(3). 241–292. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1961.11659756.Search in Google Scholar

Hendriks, Henriëtte & Maya Hickmann. 2015. Finding one’s path into another language: On the expression of boundary crossing by English learners of French. The Modern Language Journal 99(S1). 14–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2015.12176.x.Search in Google Scholar

Henry, Nicholas, Hillah Culman & Bill VanPatten. 2009. More on the effects of explicit information in instructed SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 31(4). 559–575. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263109990027.Search in Google Scholar

Hickmann, Maya, Helen Engemann, Efstathia Soroli, Henriëtte Hendriks & Coralie Vincent. 2017. Expressing and categorizing motion in French and English: Verbal and non-verbal cognition across languages. In Ibarretxe-Antuñano Iraide (ed.), Motion and space across languages, 61–94. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/hcp.59.04hicSearch in Google Scholar

Kellerman, Eric. 1995. Cross-linguistic influence: Transfer to nowhere? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 15. 125–150. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190500002658.Search in Google Scholar

Larrañaga, Pilar, Jeanine Treffers-Daller, Françoise Tidball & Mari-Carmen Gil Ortega. 2012. L1 transfer in the acquisition of manner and path in Spanish by native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism 16(1). 117–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006911405577.Search in Google Scholar

Levin, Beth & Malka Rappaport Hovav. 1992. The lexical semantics of verbs of motion: The perspective from unaccusativity. In Iggy M. Roca (ed.), Thematic structure: Its role in grammar, 247–269. Berlin: Foris.10.1515/9783110872613.247Search in Google Scholar

Levinson, Stephen C. & David P. Wilkins. 2006. Patterns in the data: Towards a semantic typology of spatial description. In Stephen C. Levinson & David P. Wilkins (eds.), Grammars of space: Explorations in cognitive diversity, 512–552. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486753.015Search in Google Scholar

Marsden, Emma. 2006. Exploring input processing in the classroom: An experimental comparison of processing instruction and enriched input. Language Learning 56(3). 507–566. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2006.00375.x.Search in Google Scholar

Marsden, Emma & Hsin‐Ying Chen. 2011. The roles of structured input activities in processing instruction and the kinds of knowledge they promote. Language Learning 61(4). 1058–1098. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00661.x.Search in Google Scholar

Morgan-Short, Kara & Harriet Bowden. 2006. Processing instruction and meaningful output-based instruction: Effects on second language development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28(1). 31–65. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263106060025.Search in Google Scholar

Muñoz, Meritxell & Teresa Cadierno. 2019. Mr Bean exits the garage driving or does he drive out of the garage? Bidirectional transfer in the expression of path. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 57(1). 45–69. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2018-2006.Search in Google Scholar

Norris, John M. & Lourdes Ortega. 2000. Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. Language Learning 50(3). 417–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/0023-8333.00136.Search in Google Scholar

Özçalışkan, Şeyda. 2015. Ways of crossing a spatial boundary in typologically distinct languages. Applied Psycholinguistics 36(2). 485–508. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716413000325.Search in Google Scholar

Özçalışkan, Şeyda & Dan I. Slobin. 2003. Codability effects on the expression of manner of motion in Turkish and English. In A. Sumru Özsoy, Didar Akar, Mine Nakipoğlu-Demiralp, Eser Erguvanlı-Taylan & Ayhan Aksu-Koç (eds.), Studies in Turkish linguistics, 259–270. Istanbul: Boğaziçi University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Robinson, Peter. 1996. Learning simple and complex second language rules under implicit, incidental, rule-search, and instructed conditions. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 18(1). 27–67. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263100014674.Search in Google Scholar

Slobin, Dan I. 1996. From ‘thought and language’ to ‘thinking for speaking’. In John J. Gumperz & Stephen C. Levinson (eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity, 70–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Slobin, Dan I. 2003. Language and thought online: Cognitive consequences of linguistic relativity. In Dedre Gentner & Susan Goldin-Meadow (eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the investigation of language and thought, 157–191. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/4117.003.0013Search in Google Scholar

Slobin, Dan I. 2004. The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In Sven Strömqvist & Ludo Verhoeven (eds.), Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives, 219–257. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Search in Google Scholar

Slobin, Dan I. & Nini Hoiting. 1994. Reference to movement in spoken and signed languages: Typological considerations. In Proceedings of the twentieth annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 487–505. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.10.3765/bls.v20i1.1466Search in Google Scholar

Talmy, Leonard. 1985. Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description. Grammatical categories and the lexicon, 57–149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Treffers-Daller, Jeanine. 2012. Thinking for speaking and linguistic relativity among bilinguals: Towards a new research agenda. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 3(2). 288–300. https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.3.2.06tre.Search in Google Scholar

Treffers-Daller, Jeanine & Andreea Calude. 2015. The role of statistical learning in the acquisition of motion event construal in a second language. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 18(5). 602–623. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2015.1027146.Search in Google Scholar

Treffers-Daller, Jeanine & Françoise Tidball. 2016. Can L2 learners learn new ways to conceptualise events? Evidence from motion event construal among English-speaking learners of French. In Pedro Gujarro-Fuente, Natascha Müller & Katrin Schmitz (eds.), The acquisition of French in multilingual contexts, 145–184. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781783094530-009Search in Google Scholar

VanPatten, Bill. 2004. Processing instruction: Theory, research, and commentary. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.10.4324/9781410610195Search in Google Scholar

VanPatten, Bill. 2008. Processing matters in input enhancement. In Thorsten Piske & Martha Young-Scholten (eds.), Input matters, 47–61. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781847691118-005Search in Google Scholar

VanPatten, Bill. 2015. Foundations of processing instruction. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 53(2). 91–109. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2015-0005.Search in Google Scholar

VanPatten, Bill & Teresa Cadierno. 1993. Explicit instruction and input processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 15(2). 225–243. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263100011979.Search in Google Scholar

VanPatten, Bill & Soile Oikkenon. 1996. Explanation versus structured input in processing instruction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 18(04). 495–510. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263100015394.Search in Google Scholar

White, Lydia. 1991. Adverb placement in second language acquisition: Some effects of positive and negative evidence in the classroom. Second Language Research 7(2). 133–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/026765839100700205.Search in Google Scholar

White, Justin. P. & Andrew J. DeMil. 2013. Transfer-of-training effects in processing instruction: The role of form-related explicit information. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 35(3). 519–544. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263113000120.Search in Google Scholar

Wong, Wynne. 2004. The nature of processing instruction. In B. VanPatten (ed.), Processing instruction: Theory, research, and commentary, 33–63. N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.Search in Google Scholar

Wu, Shu-Ling. 2011. Learning to express motion events in an L2: The case of Chinese directional complements. Language Learning 61(2). 414–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00614.x.Search in Google Scholar


Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2020-0147).


Received: 2020-09-20
Accepted: 2021-02-22
Published Online: 2021-03-10
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 20.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/iral-2020-0147/html
Scroll to top button