Heather Marsden

This study investigates whether classroom training on prediction can facilitate development of predictive processing using case information in second language (L2) German and increased accuracy in case production. We compared a group of intermediate-level German learners that received training ( N = 28) with another that did not ( N = 13). The training comprised explicit instruction on German subject and object case followed by structured input activities with subject–verb–object (SVO) and object–verb–subject (OVS) sentences, in which case-marking on the sentence-initial definite article ( der : nominative; den : accusative) provided a cue to its function (subject or object), and hence to the upcoming word order and sentence meaning. The effects of training were measured through a visual-world eye-tracking experiment, an aural comprehension task, and an oral production task. In the eye-tracking experiment, participants listened to SVO and OVS sentences while viewing two pictures differentiated by the reversal of the subject and object (e.g., a cook calling a waiter and a waiter calling a cook). If the case-marking on the first article is processed, this can facilitate looks towards the target picture even before hearing the second noun. Pretest results showed that the two groups were similar, with no evidence of case-driven eye movements, and low accuracy in comprehension and production of case in OVS sentences. In posttests, the training group made gains in all measures, which were maintained at a delayed posttest. The posttraining eye gaze data showed increased looks to the target picture during audio presentation of the second noun, though not before this point: thus, case-driven prediction was not established, but earlier processing of case-marking was. The comparison group made relatively smaller gains in comprehension and production, and showed no evidence of real-time processing of case. These findings suggest that targeted grammar comprehension training instigated a change in real-time processing and production behavior.

This study investigates whether crosslinguistic constraints on subject selection in physical causative constructions extend to causative psychological verbs (psych verbs, e.g., frighten, surprise), with a focus on subject volitionality. According to Wolff et al.’s (2009) initiator hypothesis, languages tend to restrict subjecthood in causative events to entities that can plausibly initiate a causal chain. While this has been established for physical causatives, it remains unclear whether similar constraints apply in psychological causation. To test this, we conducted an Acceptability Judgment Task in which native speakers of Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and English rated grammatical sentences varying in subject volitionality. The results showed that only Korean speakers consistently dispreferred non-volitional subjects, suggesting that their subject selection is more constrained by volitionality. These findings indicate that the initiator hypothesis extends beyond physical causatives to psych verbs and that crosslinguistic variation in subject selection persists across domains.

This study expands on previous research into filler-gap dependency processing in second language (L2) English, by means of a replication of Canales’s (2012) self-paced reading study. Canales, among others, found that advanced L2-English speakers exhibited the same processing behavior that Stowe (1986) found for native English processing: On encountering a filler, they posited gaps in licensed positions and avoided positing gaps in grammatically unlicensed island positions. However, the previous L2 studies focused on advanced-level L2 proficiency and did not test specifically for first language (L1) influence. The present study compares two groups of intermediate-level L2-English speakers with contrasting non-wh-movement L1s, Jordanian Arabic and Mandarin, to investigate the effects of L1 influence and individual differences in proficiency. Our results provide evidence that at intermediate level, too, L2 filler-gap processing adheres to grammatical constraints. L1 did not affect this behavior, but proficiency effects emerged, with larger licensed filled-gap effects at higher proficiency.

This study investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of a constraint on definiteness in Japanese floating numeral quantifiers (NQs) by native English and Korean speakers. The constraint arises because of the specific structural relation between a floating NQ and its associated noun, resulting in an obligatorily indefinite interpretation. The indirect – or, covert – encoding of definiteness in this structure allows investigation of predictions based on the cline of difficulty proposed by Cho and Slabakova (2014), whereby L2 acquisition of a covert property may be facilitated if the first language (L1) expresses the relevant feature overtly. English is such a language, having overt morphology to express definiteness, whereas Korean has floating NQs that are obligatorily, and covertly, indefinite, as in Japanese. Sensitivity to definiteness in Japanese floating NQs was measured using an acceptability judgement task. Although both L1-Korean and L1-English speakers of Japanese showed sensitivity to the constraint at group level, follow-up analyses suggested that the Korean group had more consistent knowledge. We argue that the complexity of the acquisition task – which was greater for the English-speakers than the Korean-speakers – played a bigger role in attainment than overt versus covert encoding of the relevant feature in the L1.

Managing student participation is a key interactional and instructional task in any classroom. This is even more relevant in language classrooms, as students need to demonstrate understanding, knowledge and proficiency through the production of lexical, phrasal, clausal or sentential elements. Question-Answer-sequences have been the focus within the Initiation-Response-Feedback pattern; however, another kind of initiation is that of turns with incomplete turn-constructional-units which students need to complete in the next sequential slot. This study explores elicitations designed as incomplete in five secondary EFL classrooms in the South of Chile. Analysis follows a multimodal Conversation Analytic approach. Results show that teachers mobilise turn-completion not only through gaze and gestures to explicitly signal to students that the floor is open, but also to project turn completion and index the relevance of the teaching materials. This study contributes to the understanding of teachers’ practices to manage participation and the progression of the pedagogical project in general, and to previous research on designedly incomplete utterances, in particular.

Though language teaching concerns lie outside the core aim of generative second language acquisition (GenSLA) research, consideration of how GenSLA findings might be useful for the language classroom has nonetheless been a consistent sub-theme within Roumyana Slabakova’s work. This paper reports on a recent body of “applied GenSLA” research and teacher-researcher networking activities that address this theme by explicitly aiming to investigate applications of GenSLA research in a language teaching context. The applied GenSLA work is then discussed in the broader context of engagement between language teachers and SLA research generally (E. Marsden & Kasprowicz 2017; Nassaji, 2012), and concludes with proposals for how applied GenSLA can contribute towards advancing the teacher-researcher dialogue.

This special issue assembles empirical work on second language teaching and learning from a generative linguistic perspective. The focus is on properties that constitute grammar–meaning interaction that differ in the native and target language grammars, and that have not been highlighted in the pedagogical literature so far. Common topics address whether and how learners acquire grammatical meanings in the second language, including difficult misalignments between native and target-language constructions and functional morphemes. We propose that teaching and learning a second language can be enhanced by focusing on the relationship between grammatical forms and their meanings, as elucidated by contemporary linguistic theory.