Volume 54, Issue 4 -

This study examines the status of discourse-dependent syntactic properties in Spanish heritage grammars. In particular, we focus on pragmatically-driven word order patterns with Spanish psychological predicates (e. g., gustar ‘to like’). The responses from 26 Spanish heritage speakers (as well as 8 bilingual native controls) to an aural pragmatic felicity task indicate that heritage speakers are sensitive to the nuanced discursive factors that regulate word order in Spanish psych-predicate constructions. These findings contribute to current debates over the status of interfaces in heritage grammars. Specifically, these results shed light on the factors that make certain syntax-discourse properties particularly prone to change while not others. This takes us to advocate for a finer-grained division of syntax-discourse constructions and their relation to learnability.

The occurrence of structural priming in second language (L2) speech production has received increased attention over the last decade (McDonough and Trofimovich, 2009; Trofimovich and McDonough, 2011). Although L2 researchers have implemented a variety of priming methods, few studies to date have investigated whether repeating prime sentences affects L2 speakers’ understanding and use of target structures. Therefore, the current study investigated whether prime repetition facilitates English L2 speakers’ comprehension and production of passive constructions. Korean EFL learners ( N =50) were randomly assigned to carry out communicative tasks under three conditions: passive prime sentences with repetition, passive prime sentences without repetition, or active prime sentences (active comparison). All groups completed three comprehension and oral production tests and two priming sessions over a four-week period. The results indicated that repeating passive primes facilitated subsequent production of passives, but was not more effective at promoting comprehension. The results are discussed in terms of the potential role of prime repetition in promoting L2 learners’ comprehension and production of target structures.

This paper presents a detailed study on the role of corrective feedback (CF) in the development of second language (L2) oral proficiency. Learners practiced speaking with a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) system that employs automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to provide CF. The system tracks learner behaviour by logging the system-user interactions. Two language learning conditions are compared. In the CF condition learners received immediate, automatic CF on the grammaticality of their spoken output. In theOCF condition, learners practiced speaking with the option to self-correct. The target structure under investigation is Dutch verb second (V2) in the main clause. The results show that learner proficiency improved in both conditions. The CF condition shows an additional benefit for learning that is related to the learner’s initial knowledge of the target structure (which we call V2 proficiency). Learners at a lower V2 proficiency level benefitted more from practice with CF than learners in the NOCF condition. Learner evaluations are in line with these results: both the CF and the NOCF groups positively evaluated practice with the system, but the CF condition was preferred by learners starting at a lower V2 proficiency level. For more information on these outcome measures, we investigated the learners’ behaviour during practice. The two groups were found to receive equal amounts of input, but learners in the CF condition produced more (grammatically correct) output during treatment. We found that the CF group repaired their errors in fewer attempts as they progressed through practice. Learners in the NOCF condition generally did not (attempt to) repair their errors. However, the learners answered correctly more often as they progressed in the training. The log data, therefore, shows learning of the target structure in both conditions. We discuss these results and how learning outcome is related to learner behaviour.