结构启动及第二语言语法构式学习
This book aims to investigate structural priming in L2 learners with a focus on Chinese College-level EFL(English as a Foreign Language)learners` production of English dative constructions.Specific...
This book aims to investigate structural priming in L2 learners with a focus on Chinese College-level EFL(English as a Foreign Language)learners` production of English dative constructions.Specifically,it is intended to address three issues: 1)whether structural priming occurs in L2 production; 2)whether L2 structural priming has a long-term effect and consequently affects the pattern of subsequent production of syntactic constructions; and 3)whether and to what extent the short-term and the long-term effect of L2 structural priming are mediated by linguistic and psycholinguistic factors.The overarching goal of the present study is to explore whether and under what conditions structural priming has a role to play in L2 learning of grammar constructions,thereby enriching our understanding of the psycholinguistic process involved in L2 learning.For this purpose,four empirical st udies were conduct ed.
Experiments 1 and 2 were designed to probe the short-term effect of structural priming,that is,whether structural priming occurs when the prime sentence immediately precedes the target sentence.One hundred and thirty-two Chinese EFL learners who represented two English proficiency levels(intermediate vs.advanced)participated in the experiments,72 for Experiment 1 and 60 for Experiment 2.Experiment 1 employed a written sentence completion task whereas Experiment 2 a spoken picture deion task.The results show that structural priming did occur with both the prepositional dative(PD)and the double object dative(DO)constructions,and that the L2 learners,regardless of their language proficiency,were more likely to reuse a particular construction(PD/DO)in the target responses if it had been previously produced in the prime sentences.Moreover,the magnitude of structural priming was found to be modulated by L2 proficiency.The advanced learners exhibited stronger priming effects for the DO construction than their intermediate counterparts.However,no evidence was obtained for the proficiency effect on the priming of the PD construction.Furthermore,the priming effects gave rise to between-verb variations.That is,verbs which are more strongly associated with a construction were more likely to be primed into the construction and resist the priming of the alternative construction.In addition,the results derived from Experiment 1 were basically consistent with those from Experiment 2,in spite of the employment of different tasks in the two experiments.This suggests that syntactic priming in L2 production is robust and reliable rather than task-specific.Of interest is that,compared with the sentence completion task,the priming effects in the picture deion task were stronger.
Experiments 3 and 4 investigated the long-term effect of structural priming in L2 production by means of written sentence completion tasks.In the first part of each experiment,learners` experience of producing the PD and DO constructions was manipulated in ways that enabled them to produce a particular proportion of PD and DO constructions.Then the learners were given the opportunity to produce either the PD or DO construction without being provided with further primes.The experiments yielded four major findings.Firstly,syntactic priming in L2 production has produced a long-term effect.The L2 learners` experience of producing the DO construction earlier in the experiment increased the rates at which the construction was produced later in the experiment compared with the baseline condition.Nevertheless,there is a lack of evidence for the long-term priming effect on the production of the PD construction.Secondly,the long-term priming effect is modulated by the relative frequency with which each construction is produced earlier in the experiment.It turned out that the experience strongly skewed towards the DO construction significantly increased the likelihood of producing the construction and at the same time suppressed the production of the competing PD construction.Thirdly,the frequency effect on the subsequent production of the dative constructions persists even across the changing tasks.Finally,the long-term effect is insusceptible to the temporary distribution of the tokens of each construction within the experiment.
The findings of the present study have empirically verified the occurrence of structural priming in L2 production and confirmed its potentially beneficial role in L2 learning of grammar constructions.More generally,the findings suggest that the implicit learning from usage accentuated by the usage-based theories is also operative in L2 acquisition.
Contents
序
前言
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Orientation
1.2 Structural Priming:The Target of Research
1.3 Rationale
1.3.1 Theoretical Values
1.3.2 Pedagogical and Methodological Values
1.4 Key Research Questions
1.5 Structure of the Book
Chapter 2 L2 Learning of Grammar Constructions:A Usagebased Perspective
2.1 Defining the Usage-based Model
2.2 Constructions
2.2.1 What Is Construction?
2.2.2 Construction as a Prototype Category
2.2.3 Schematization and Entrenchment
2.2.4 Type Frequency vs. Token Frequency
2.3 The Usage-based Perspe+ctive of Construction Learning
2.3.1 Associative Learning Mechanisms
2.3.2 The Connectionist Models
2.3.3 L1 Acquisition vis-à-vis L2 Acquisition
2.4 Problems with the Usage-based Perspective of SLA
2.5 Summary
Chapter 3 Syntactic Priming and Language Learning
3.1 An Overview of Syntactic Priming
3.1.1 Representational Underpinning of Syntactic Priming
3.1.2 Techniques in Syntactic Priming Research
3.2 Mechanisms of Syntactic Priming
3.2.1 The Activation Account
3.2.2 Syntactic Priming as a Form of Implicit Learning
3.2.3 Strengthening of Message-to-syntax Mappings
3.3 Constraints on Syntactic Priming Effects
3.3.1 Constraints on Short-term Effects
3.3.2 Constraints on Long-term Effects
3.4 Application of Syntactic Priming to Language Acquisition
3.4.1 Syntactic Priming in Children
3.4.2 Syntactic Priming in L2 Learners
3.5 Summary
Chapter 4 Exploring Syntactic Priming in L2 Production:Issues and Predictions
4.1 Target Structure of the Study:English Dative Constructions
4.1.1 A Sketch of English Dative Constructions
4.1.2 Constraints on Dative Alternation
4.1.3 Interaction between Verbs and Constructions
4.1.4 A Contrastive Analysis of English and Chinese Dative Constructions
4.1.5 Empirical SLA Studies on Dative Alternation
4.2 Synthesizing Syntactic Priming with L2 Learning of Grammar Constructions
4.3 Issues and Predictions Concerning Syntactic Priming in L2 Production
4.3.1 Possibility of the Occurrence of Syntactic Priming in L2 Production
4.3.2 Factors Constraining the Short-term Effect of Syntactic Priming
4.4 Persistence of Syntactic Priming in L2 Production
4.4.1 The Long-term Effect of Syntactic Priming
4.4.2 Factors Affecting the Long-term Effect
4.5 Research Questions and Hypotheses
4.6 Summary
Chapter 5 Syntactic Priming in L2 Learners
5.1 Experiment 1
5.1.1 Method
5.1.2 Results and Discussion
5.2 Experiment 2
5.2.1 Method
5.2.2 Results and Discussion
5.2.3 An Omnibus Analysis of Experiments 1 and 2
5.3 Experiment 3
5.3.1 Method
5.3.2 Results and Discussion
5.4 Experiment 4
5.4.1 Method
5.4.2 Results and Discussion
5.5 Summary
Chapter 6 General Discussion and Conclusions
6.1 Characterizing Syntactic Priming in L2 Production
6.1.1 Short-term Effect of Syntactic Priming
6.1.2 Influences on the Short-term Effect
6.1.3 The Long-term Effect of Syntactic Priming
6.2 Conclusions
6.2.1 A Recapitulation of Major Findings
6.2.2 Implications for L2 Pedagogy
6.2.3 Limitations of the Current Study and Directions for Further Research
References
Appendix 1 Stimuli Used in Experiment 1
Appendix 2 Primes Used in Experiment 2
Appendix 3 Samples of the Pictures Used in Experiment 2
Appendix 4 Stimuli Used in Experiments 3 and 4
List of Figures
Figure 2.1 Linguistic Constructions in the Complexity/Schematicity Continuum―Adapted from Roehr(2005)
Figure 5.1 Production of Targets by Prime
Figure 5.2 Interaction between Prime Type and Target for the Intermediate Group
Figure 5.3 Interaction between Prime Type and Target for the Advanced Group
Figure 5.4 Production of DO Target by Verb in the Baseline
Figure 5.5 Production of DO Targets in Each Prime Condition by Verb(for Intermediates)
Figure 5.6 Production of DO Targets in Each Prime Condition by Verb(for Advanced Learners)
Figure 5.7 The Sequence of the Events in the Picture Description Task
Figure 5.8 Production of Targets by Prime Type
Figure 5.9 Interaction as a Function of Prime Type Target for the Intermediate Group
Figure 5.10 Interaction as a Function of Prime Type Target for the Advanced Group
Figure 5.11 Interaction of Prime Type by Proficiency Level on the Production of DO Target
Figure 5.12 Interaction of Prime Type by Proficiency Level on the Production of PD Target
Figure 5.13 Production of DO Target as a Function of Prime Type Task
Figure 5.14 Production of PD Target as a Function of Prime Type Task
Figure 5.15 Production of Targets in the Priming Phase by Exposure Condition
Figure 5.16 Production of Targets by Production Phase
List of Tables
Table 2.1 English Argument Structure Constructions
Table 3.1 Summary of L2 Syntactic priming Studies Targeting Dative Constructions
Table 4.1 Examples of Force-dynamic Relation
Table 4.2 Classification of Verbs according to the Semantic Compatibility
Table 4.3 Collexemes Distinguishing between the Ditransitive and the To-dative
Table 4.4 Test Verbs of the Present Study
Table 5.1 Grouping of Participants Based on Years of L2 English Learning and Scores on English Proficiency Test
Table 5.2 Frequencies of Occurrence of Responses in the Prime Conditions
Table 5.3 Mean Proportions of Targets by Prime Proficiency Level
Table 5.4 Results of the Mixed Repeated Measures MANOVA
Table 5.5 Pairwise Comparisons of the Mean Proportions of Targets by Prime Type
Table 5.6 Effect of Prime Type Proficiency Level on the Production of DO and PD Targets
Table 5.7 Pairwise Comparisons of the Means of Targets by Prime Type Proficiency Level
Table 5.8 Pairwise Comparisons of Relative Proportions of Targets by Prime Type
Table 5.9 Pairwise Comparisons of the Means of Targets as a Function of Proficiency Level
Table 5.10 Pairwise Comparisons of OT Targets between the Prime Conditions
Table 5.11 Production of Targets by Verb in the Baseline Condition
Table 5.12 Exemplification of the Null Hypothesis H0
Table 5.13 Observed vs. Expected Frequencies for Verbs as a Function of Prime Type
Table 5.14 Grouping of Participants Based on Years of L2 English Learning and Scores on English Proficiency Test
Table 5.15 Frequencies of Each Type of Responses by Prime Condition Proficiency Level
Table 5.16 Production of Targets as a Function of Prime Type Proficiency Level
Table 5.17 Results of the Mixed Repeated Measures ANOVA
Table 5.18 Pairwise Comparisons of the Mean Proportions of Targets by Prime Type
Table 5.19 Pairwise Comparisons of Relative Proportions of Targets by Prime Type
Table 5.20 Summary of Results for an Omnibus Analysis of Experiments 1 and 2
Table 5.21 Design Structure for Experiment 3
Table 5.22 Raw Frequencies of Targets of Each Category
Table 5.23 Means of Targets as a Function of Production Phase Exposure Condition
Table 5.24 Pairwise Comparisons of Targets by Production Phase
Table 5.25 Results of the MONOVA Test on the Production of PD and DO Targets in the Priming Phase as a Function of Exposure Condition
Table 5.26 Post hoc Tests of the Effect of Exposure Condition(Tukey)on the Production of PD and DO Targets in the Priming Phase
Table 5.27 Pairwise Comparisons of the Means of PD and DO Targets in Each Exposure Condition
Table 5.28 Production of Targets as a Function of Exposure Condition Production Phase
Table 5.29 Results of the MANOVA Test on the Production of DO and PD Targets as a Function of Exposure Condition
Table 6.1 Production of DO Targets Following DO Primes by Trials
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Orientation
The present study is intended to investigate structural priming in second language (L2 henceforth) learners with a focus on Chinese College-level EFL learners` production of English dative constructions. More specifically, it attempts to examine (1) whether structural priming occurs in L2 production, (2) whether the structural priming effect in L2 production accumulates and persists thereby affecting the pattern of subsequent production and more importantly, (3) to explore the factors that modulate the short-term effect and the long-term effect of structural priming in L2 production. Hopefully, the study enriches our understanding of the potentially beneficial role of structural priming in L2 grammar development. More broadly, it is expected to demonstrate that combining psycholinguistic considerations with language acquisition issues opens up a promising research avenue that will help us probe the psycholinguistic processes invo
