Abstract
The current study employed a neuro-imaging technique, Event-Related Potentials (ERP), to investigate real-time processing of sentences containing filler-gap dependencies by late-learning speakers of English as a second language (L2) with a Chinese native language background. An individual differences approach was also taken to examine the role of proficiency and working memory. Materials included a plausibility manipulation to look at whether a plausibility effect, the N400 effect, was found at the point of resolution, the verb, in filler-gap dependencies. The results suggest that, although the L2 speakers as a group are not sensitive to plausibility variations, correlational analysis indicates that more proficient L2 speakers, like the first-language (L1) speakers, are sensitive to plausibility variations while processing filler-gap sentences. Working memory was not found to be associated with more native-like processing of these constructions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 766-799 |
Number of pages | 34 |
Journal | Language Learning |
Volume | 63 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2013 |
Keywords
- Filler-gap dependency
- L2 processing
- Psycholinguistics
- Second language acquisition
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language