Fossilized mistakes in Spanish relative clauses learned by Chinese students
-
María Guijarro Sanz
Abstract
This article demonstrates how Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar can prevent Chinese students learning Spanish from fossilizing mistakes in restrictive relative clauses at the A2-B1 level of the European Framework of Reference for Languages. To address this issue, first, relative clauses in Spanish and Chinese were contrasted and, second, tailored solutions based on Cognitive Grammar were proposed. Among the cognitive based tailored solutions, certain geometry forms, colours and basic mathematics metaphors were compared with syntactic characteristics such as noun order, subordination hierarchy or resumption. To elucidate the impact of such teaching methods, an experiment with 74 Chinese students was performed. The results indicate that the efficacy of the proposed materials is statistically significant and as such, the Chinese students avoid fossilized mistakes while producing subject, object and locative relative clauses in Spanish.
References
Betancort, Moises, Manuel Carreiras & Patrick Sturt. 2009. The processing of subject and object relative clauses in Spanish: An eye-tracking study. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62(10). 1915–1929.10.1080/17470210902866672Search in Google Scholar
Blanco Pena, José Miguel. 2013. Escollos lingüísticos de los principiantes chinos de español como lengua extranjera: Causas y sugerencias pedagógicas. Hispania 96(1). 97–109.10.1353/hpn.2013.0026Search in Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2010. Language, usage and cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511750526Search in Google Scholar
Calero, Ma Ángeles & Roberto García González. Corpus de Interlengua Española de Aprendices Sinohablantes. Available at: https://cineas.udl.cat. [15/03/2021].Search in Google Scholar
Carreiras, Manuel, Jon Andoni Duñabeitia, Marta Vergara, Irene De La Cruz-Pavía & Itziar Laka. 2010. Subject relative clauses are not universally easier to process: Evidence from Basque. Cognition 115(1). 79–92.10.1016/j.cognition.2009.11.012Search in Google Scholar
Castro, Alfredo C. 2014. Enseñanza de gramática avanzada de ELE: criterios y recursos. S.A: Sociedad General Española de Librería.Search in Google Scholar
Chen, Baoguo, Aihua Ning, Hongyan Bi & Susan Dunlap. 2008. Chinese subject-relative clauses are more difficult to process than the object-relative clauses. Acta Psychologica 129(1). 61–65.10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.04.005Search in Google Scholar
Corder, Stephen. 1981. Error Analysis and Interlanguage. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Corpas, Jaime, Agustín Garmendia & Carmen Soriano. 2013. Aula Internacional 3. Barcelona: Difusión Centro de Investigación y Publicaciones de Idiomas S.L.Search in Google Scholar
Cortés, Maximiano. 2009. Chino y español: Un análisis contrastivo. In Sánchez Griñán & Mónica Melo (ed.), Qué saber para enseñar a estudiantes chinos. Buenos Aires: Voces del Sur.Search in Google Scholar
Cortés Moreno, Maximiano. 2014. Dificultades lingüísticas del español para los estudiantes sinohablantes y búsqueda de soluciones motivadoras. SinoELE. Online Edition. http://www.sinoele.org/images/Revista/10/Monograficos/EPES_2013/IV_EPES_2013.pdf.Search in Google Scholar
Croft, William & Alan Cruse. 2004. Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511803864Search in Google Scholar
Europa, Consejo de. 2002. Marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación. https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages.Search in Google Scholar
Geng, Zhen. 2019. Estudio comparativo de oraciones compuestas en español y chino mandarín: propuestas didácticas para los sinohablantes. PhD Dissertation. Retrieved from Universidad de Salamanca. https://gredos.usal.es/handle/10366/140416.Search in Google Scholar
Gibson, Edward. 1998. Linguistic complexity: Locality of syntactic dependencies. Cognition 68(1). 1–76.10.1016/S0010-0277(98)00034-1Search in Google Scholar
Gibson, Edward. 2000. The dependency locality theory: A distance-based theory of linguistic complexity. In Image, language, brain: Papers from the First Mind Articulation Project Symposium, 95–126. Cambridge: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/3654.003.0008Search in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele. 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268511.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele. 2013. Constructionist approaches. The Oxford Handbook of Construction Grammar. 15–31.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195396683.013.0002Search in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele & Devin Casenhiser. 2008. Construction learning and second language acquisition. In Nick C. Ellis & Peter Robinson (ed.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Guijarro Sanz, María. 2015. Toma que toma o cómo bailar oraciones de relativo. Foro de profesores de E/LE 11. https://doi.org/10.7203/foroele.0.7112.Search in Google Scholar
Han, Zhaohong & Terence Odlin. 2006. Studies of fossilization in second language acquisition. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853598371.Search in Google Scholar
Hawkins, John A. 1999. Processing complexity and filler-gap dependencies across grammars. Language. 244–285.10.2307/417261Search in Google Scholar
Instituto, Cervantes. 2007. Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes: niveles de referencia para el español. Madrid.Search in Google Scholar
Jinwei, Wang. 2010. Estudio comparativo de los complementos del nombre en español y chino. Master Thesis. Universidad de León. http://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/gl/mc/redele/biblioteca-virtual/numerosanteriores/2012/memoria-master/jinweiwang.html.Search in Google Scholar
Keenan, Edward L. & Comrie Bernard. 1977. Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar. Linguistic Inquiry. 63–99.10.4324/9781315880259-11Search in Google Scholar
Kidd, Evan. 2011. The acquisition of relative clauses: Processing, typology and function. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/tilar.8Search in Google Scholar
King, Jonathan & Marcel Just. 1991. Individual differences in syntactic processing: The role of working memory. Journal of Memory and Language 30(5). 580–602.10.1016/0749-596X(91)90027-HSearch in Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 2013. Essentials of cognitive grammar. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199544004.013.0005Search in Google Scholar
Liu, Jian. 2008. Claves del español para hablantes de chino. Madrid: SM ELE.Search in Google Scholar
Llopis, Reyes, Juan Manuel Real & José Plácido Ruiz. 2013. Qué gramática enseñar, qué gramática aprender. Madrid: Edinumen.Search in Google Scholar
Mak, Willem M., Wietske Vonk & Schriefers Herbert. 2002. The influence of animacy on relative clause processing. Journal of Memory and Language 47(1). 50–68.10.1006/jmla.2001.2837Search in Google Scholar
Mak, Willem M., Wietske Vonk & Schriefers Herbert. 2006. Animacy in processing relative clauses: The hikers that rocks crush. Journal of Memory and Language 54(4). 466–490.10.1016/j.jml.2006.01.001Search in Google Scholar
Martín, Héctor R. 2020. ¿Cómo aprendemos?: una aproximación científica al aprendizaje y la enseñanza. Barcelona: Graó.Search in Google Scholar
O’Grady, William. 2011. Relative clauses: Processing and acquisition. In Evan Kidd (ed.), The acquisition of relative clauses: Processing, typology and function, 13–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.10.1075/tilar.8.03graSearch in Google Scholar
Odlin, Terence. 1989. Language transfer: Cross-linguistic influence in language learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139524537Search in Google Scholar
Raya, Rosario A., Alejandro, Castañeda, Pablo, Martínez, Lourdes, Miquel, Jenaro, Ortega & José Plácido, Ruiz Campillo. 2011. Gramática básica del estudiante de español. Barcelona: Difusión.Search in Google Scholar
Sánchez, Griñán, Alberto, J. & Mónica, Melo (eds.). 2009. Qué saber para enseñar: a estudiantes chinos. Argentina: Voces del Sur.Search in Google Scholar
Traxler, Matthew J., Robin K. Morris & E. Seely Rachel. 2002. Processing subject and object relative clauses: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Memory and Language 47(1). 69–90.10.1006/jmla.2001.2836Search in Google Scholar
Wang, William S. Y. & Chaofen Sun. 2015. The Oxford handbook of Chinese linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199856336.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Wen, Zhisheng & Mailce B. Mota. 2015. Working memory in second language acquisition and processing. Bristol: Channel View Publications.10.21832/9781783093595Search in Google Scholar
Wu, Fuyun, Elsi Kaiser & Shravan Vasishth. 2018. Effects of early cues on the processing of Chinese relative clauses: Evidence for experience‐based theories. Cognitive Science 42. 1101–1133.10.1111/cogs.12551Search in Google Scholar
Zhang, Xiaorong. 2007. Resumptive pronouns in the acquisition of English relative clauses by Chinese EFL learners. Master Thesis. Chinese University of Hong Kong. https://silo.tips/download/resumptive-pronouns-in-the-acquisition-of-english-relative-clauses-by-chinese-ef.Search in Google Scholar
Zhou, Minkang. 1995. Estudio comparativo del chino y el español en los aspectos lingüísticos y culturales. PhD Dissertation. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. Retrieved from https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/tesis?codigo=96290.Search in Google Scholar
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Contribution of English aural vocabulary size levels to L2 listening comprehension
- The effects of extensive reading on young Korean students’ construction development
- Connections between measured and assessed fluency in L2 peer interaction: a problem-solving perspective
- Transfer and unlearning of topic prominence by Chinese learners of English
- The influence of L1 script directionality and L2 proficiency on Hanzi learning among Arabic and English learners of L2 Chinese
- The effects of task types on L2 oral production and learner engagement
- Unlearning the boundary-crossing constraint: processing instruction and the acquisition of motion event construal
- Teaching South African Sign Language as a second language to university students: an integrated pedagogy
- Intra-language: the study of L2 morpheme productivity as within-item variance
- Advanced learners’ responses to Chinese greetings in study abroad
- Individual perceptions of group work environment, motivation, and achievement
- Fossilized mistakes in Spanish relative clauses learned by Chinese students
- Learning phrasal verbs in the EFL classroom: the effect of prior vocabulary knowledge and opacity
- L2 use of pragmatic markers in peer talk: Mandarin utterance-final particles
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Contribution of English aural vocabulary size levels to L2 listening comprehension
- The effects of extensive reading on young Korean students’ construction development
- Connections between measured and assessed fluency in L2 peer interaction: a problem-solving perspective
- Transfer and unlearning of topic prominence by Chinese learners of English
- The influence of L1 script directionality and L2 proficiency on Hanzi learning among Arabic and English learners of L2 Chinese
- The effects of task types on L2 oral production and learner engagement
- Unlearning the boundary-crossing constraint: processing instruction and the acquisition of motion event construal
- Teaching South African Sign Language as a second language to university students: an integrated pedagogy
- Intra-language: the study of L2 morpheme productivity as within-item variance
- Advanced learners’ responses to Chinese greetings in study abroad
- Individual perceptions of group work environment, motivation, and achievement
- Fossilized mistakes in Spanish relative clauses learned by Chinese students
- Learning phrasal verbs in the EFL classroom: the effect of prior vocabulary knowledge and opacity
- L2 use of pragmatic markers in peer talk: Mandarin utterance-final particles
