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Grammatical aspect and world knowledge in second language reading

  • Hyun-Sook Kang EMAIL logo , Nayoung Kim and Kiel Christianson
Published/Copyright: August 30, 2019
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching
From the journal International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching Volume 60 Issue 2

Abstract

During normal reading, readers’ perceptions of time in a narrative shift according to grammatical and semantic cues. This study investigated the extent to which second-language (L2) readers’ interpretations of situations depicted in narratives are influenced by the grammatical aspect (perfective/progressive) and temporal duration (short/long) of intervening events. The study further examined whether reading fluency and L2 proficiency modulated how readers’ mentally constructed the depicted situations. Thirty-one L2 learners of English and 37 English-first-language (L1) controls completed a reading comprehension task in which each of 40 stories contained a target event with an inherent endpoint, with accomplishment verbs that were described as completed or in progress, followed by a short- or long-duration event. A reading-fluency task and a cloze test were administered. While grammatical marking played a significant role for both groups of participants, grammatical aspect and event duration showed an interaction only for L2 learners. The construction of a situation was modulated for both groups by reading fluency.

Keywords: grammatical aspect; narrative discourse; second language reading; individual differences

Appendix

Critical Sentences with Accomplishment Verbs in the Narrative Stories

  1. Mr. Albrecht finally passed/was passing her with a risky maneuver.

  2. Steven tackled/was tackling Tom onto the concrete.

  3. She cleaned/was cleaning off her shelves to make room for new antiques.

  4. The person next to her explained/was explaining it to her.

  5. After a bit of deep thought, she typed/was typing out a great idea.

  6. Tony knew this so he packed/was packing her a box of chocolates as a surprise.

  7. Her friend told/was telling her about a babysitting course.

  8. Kyle ordered/was ordering pizza to feed his friends.

  9. Becky unwrapped her sandwich and ate/was eating it on the plane.

  10. Madeleine heard/was heaing an announcement on the radio that school was cancelled.

  11. The boy tossed/was tossing the paper to him.

  12. Liam told/was telling her that he had a nut allergy.

  13. He calculated/was calculating the interest for her loan.

  14. She read/was reading a new recipe for cookies in one of her magazines.

  15. They set/were setting a date to get together for a visit.

  16. Her husband read/was reading what she wrote and felt really bad for her.

  17. She took/was taking a lot of tylenol to help her feel better.

  18. Isaac packed/was packing his lunch in his backpack.

  19. Sarah packed/was packing lots of games to keep the campers entertained.

  20. He read/was reading the help wanted sign in the window.

  21. He put/was putting the roof on his car back up.

  22. Janet booted/was booting up her computer.

  23. He got/was getting his swimming stuff from his locker at the pool.

  24. Keith put/was putting some punch in the fridge.

  25. A witness described/was describing a motorcycle he saw at the scene.

  26. Wanda gathered/was gathering all the tools she would need for this robbery.

  27. She tied/was tying the bags really tight.

  28. He put/was putting his lunch in the fridge of the faculty lounge.

  29. Ashley put/was putting new sheets on her bed upstairs.

  30. Arthur placed/was placing boards over his living room window.

  31. The doctor took/was taking notes on her condition.

  32. She ate/was eating a big bowl of cereal for breakfast.

  33. Howard parked/was parking his truck at the clearing of the woods.

  34. Randy and Gail put/were putting on their life jackets.

  35. Kenny ordered/was ordering some shots for him and his teammates.

  36. Amy left/was leaving a message on her mother’s voicemail asking where they were.

  37. The client gave/was giving her his receipts for charitable donations.

  38. His coworker told/was telling him a story about the boss’s mistress.

  39. Emily put/was putting a load of laundry in the washer for her mother.

  40. Pascal snuck/was sneaking past the doorman.

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Published Online: 2019-08-30
Published in Print: 2022-06-27

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  4. Transfer in L3 cognate language acquisition: The role of language background on instructed L3 Portuguese acquisition
  5. Task complexity, language proficiency and working memory: Interaction effects on second language speech performance
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  7. Gender assignment strategies used by L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish
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  9. Non-nativelike outcome of naturalistic child L2 acquisition of Japanese: The case of noun–verb collocations
  10. Effects of mixed instruction on Chinese EFL learners’ perception of phonemic contrasts
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  12. Nominal agreement in the interlanguage of Dutch L2 learners of Spanish
  13. Picture or non-picture? The influence of narrative task types on lower- and higher-proficiency EFL learners’ oral production
  14. Grammatical aspect and world knowledge in second language reading
  15. An exploratory study on pro-drop in a written description task in L2 Spanish
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  17. Aspect semantics and ESL article use
https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2018-0328
Keywords for this article
grammatical aspect; narrative discourse; second language reading; individual differences

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Speech-accompanying gestures in L1 and L2 conversational interaction by speakers of different proficiency levels
  4. Transfer in L3 cognate language acquisition: The role of language background on instructed L3 Portuguese acquisition
  5. Task complexity, language proficiency and working memory: Interaction effects on second language speech performance
  6. Typology and contexts of article errors: Investigation into the use of English articles by Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learners
  7. Gender assignment strategies used by L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish
  8. The refusal of request speech act in Persian, English, and Balouchi languages: A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study
  9. Non-nativelike outcome of naturalistic child L2 acquisition of Japanese: The case of noun–verb collocations
  10. Effects of mixed instruction on Chinese EFL learners’ perception of phonemic contrasts
  11. Dynamism of collocation in L2 English writing: A bigram-based study
  12. Nominal agreement in the interlanguage of Dutch L2 learners of Spanish
  13. Picture or non-picture? The influence of narrative task types on lower- and higher-proficiency EFL learners’ oral production
  14. Grammatical aspect and world knowledge in second language reading
  15. An exploratory study on pro-drop in a written description task in L2 Spanish
  16. Negotiation of meaning in child-child vs. adult-adult interactions: Evidence from low proficiency EFL learners
  17. Aspect semantics and ESL article use
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