Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-12T13:32:18.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Examining the effectiveness of language-switching practice for reducing cross-language competition in L2 grammatical processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Kevin McManus Open the ORCID record for Kevin McManus [Opens in a new window]
Kevin McManus*
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Kevin McManus, E-mail: kmcmanus@psu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which language-switching practice enhanced L2 learners’ L2 grammatical processing by improving language selection abilities. Thirty-six English-speaking learners of French completed the same language-switching practice of L1 and L2 sentences, but received different types of pre-practice explicit information (EI) designed to address L2 learning difficulties resulting from crosslinguistic influence: one group (n = 17) received EI about English–French differences for viewpoint aspect, and a second group (n = 19) received EI about viewpoint aspect in French only. This design investigated the extent to which pre-practice linguistic knowledge moderated the effectiveness of the language-switching practice. Longitudinal analyses showed that increasing amounts of practice improved language selection abilities (increased accuracy, reduced reaction time costs), but only for learners who received EI about L1-L2 differences. These findings that language-switching was moderated by type of pre-practice EI have important implications for theories of L2 learning and instruction.

Keywords

grammatical processinglanguage-switchingpracticeFrenchcrosslinguistic influencesecond language acquisition
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 167 - 184
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abutalebi, J and Green, D (2007) Bilingual language production: The neurocognition of language representation and control. Journal of neurolinguistics 20, 242–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abutalebi, J and Green, DW (2016) Neuroimaging of language control in bilinguals: neural adaptation and reserve. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 19, 689–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (2014) The Language Educator 9, 1–68.Google Scholar
Amenós-Pons, J, Ahern, A and Gujarro-Fuentes, P (2017) L1 French Learning of L2 Spanish Past Tenses: L1 Transfer versus Aspect and Interface Issues. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 7, 489–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayoun, D (2004) The effectiveness of written recasts in the second language acquisition of aspectual distinctions in French: A follow-up study. The Modern Language Journal 88, 31–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayoun, D (2013) The second language acquisition of French tense, aspect, mood and modality. John Benjamins Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baayen, RH, Davidson, DJ and Bates, DM (2008) Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of memory and language 59, 390–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartning, I and Schlyter, S (2004) Itinéraires acquisitionnels et stades de développement en français L2. Journal of French language studies 14, 281–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartoñ, K (2018) MuMIn: Multi-Model Inference. R package version 1.40.4. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=MuMInGoogle Scholar
Bates, D, Maechler, M, Bolker, B and Walker, S (2015) Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67, 1–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobb, SC and Wodniecka, Z (2013) Language switching in picture naming: What asymmetric switch costs (do not) tell us about inhibition in bilingual speech planning. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 25, 568–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calabria, M, Costa, A, Green, DW and Abutalebi, J (2018) Neural basis of bilingual language control. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1426, 221–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, A and Santesteban, M (2004) Lexical access in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners. Journal of memory and Language 50, 491–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, A, Santesteban, M and Ivanova, I (2006) How do highly proficient bilinguals control their lexicalization process? Inhibitory and language-specific selection mechanisms are both functional. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 32, 1057.Google ScholarPubMed
Cunnings, I and Finlayson, I (2015) Mixed effects modeling and longitudinal data analysis. In Plonsky, L (ed), Advancing quantitative methods in second language research. Routledge, pp. 159–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darcy, I, Mora, JC and Daidone, D (2014) Attention control and inhibition influence phonological development in a second language. Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics 5, 115–129.Google Scholar
Darcy, I, Mora, JC and Daidone, D (2016) The role of inhibitory control in second language phonological processing. Language Learning 66, 741–773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeKeyser, RM (1997) Beyond explicit rule learning: Automatizing second language morphosyntax. Studies in second language acquisition 19, 195–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, NC (2006) Selective attention and transfer phenomena in L2 acquisition: Contingency, cue competition, salience, interference, overshadowing, blocking, and perceptual learning. Applied Linguistics 27, 164–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, NC (2008) The associative learning of constructions, learned attention, and the limited L2 endstate. Robinson, P and Ellis, N.C. (eds), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition. Routledge, pp. 372–405.Google Scholar
Field, A, Miles, J and Field, Z (2012) Discovering Statistics using R. Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Fink, A and Goldrick, M (2015) Pervasive benefits of preparation in language switching. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 22, 808–814.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garbin, G, Costa, A, Sanjuan, A, Forn, C, Rodriguez-Pujadas, A, Ventura, N. E. E. A., Belloch, V, Hernandez, M and Avila, C (2011) Neural bases of language switching in high and early proficient bilinguals. Brain and Language 119, 129–135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grabe, WP and Stoller, FL (2013) Teaching and researching: Reading. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, DW (1998) Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 1, 67–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, DW and Abutalebi, J (2013) Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 25, 515–530.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henry, N, Culman, H and VanPatten, B (2009) More on the effects of explicit information in instructed SLA: A partial replication and a response to Fernández (2008). Studies in Second Language Acquisition 31, 559–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffmann, L-F (1995 ). L'essentiel de la grammaire française. Prentice HallGoogle Scholar
Howard, M (2005) Les contextes prototypiques et marqués de l'emploi de l'imparfait par l'apprenant du français langue étrangère [The prototypical and marked contexts of Imperfect use by the advanced learner of French]. In Labeau, E and Larrivée, P (eds), Nouveaux développements de l'imparfait [New developments of the Imperfect]. New York, NY: Rodopi, pp. 175–197.Google Scholar
Hussey, EK, Harbison, J, Teubner-Rhodes, SE, Mishler, A, Velnoskey, K and Novick, JM (2017) Memory and language improvements following cognitive control training. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 43, 23.Google ScholarPubMed
Hussey, EK and Novick, JM (2012) The benefits of executive control training and the implications for language processing. Frontiers in psychology 3, 158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Izquierdo, J and Collins, L (2008) The facilitative role of L1 influence in tense–aspect marking: A comparison of Hispanophone and Anglophone learners of French. The Modern Language Journal 92, 350–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, CN (2007) The use and non-use of semantic information, word order, and case markings during comprehension by L2 learners of German. The Modern Language Journal 91, 418–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaan, E (2014) Predictive sentence processing in L2 and L1: What is different?. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 4, 257–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, C, Ma, F and Guo, T (2018) The plasticity of lexical selection mechanism in word production: ERP evidence from short-term language switching training in unbalanced Chinese–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 21, 296–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson-Hall, J and Plonsky, L (2015) Reporting and interpreting quantitative research findings: What gets reported and recommendations for the field. Language Learning 65(S1), 127–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leow, RP (2015) Explicit Learning in the L2 Classroom: A Student-Centered Approach. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, H and Godfroid, A (2015) Automatization in second language sentence processing: A partial, conceptual replication of Hulstijn, Van Gelderen, and Schoonen's 2009 study. Applied Psycholinguistics 36, 1247–1282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linck, JA, Hoshino, N and Kroll, JF (2008) Cross-language lexical processes and inhibitory control. The mental lexicon 3, 349–374.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lorenzo, C (2002) Les relations temporo-aspectuelles dans le récit oral en français et en castillan, langues premières et langues étrangères: étude transversale du stade ultime de l'acquisition d'une langue étrangère [Tempo-aspectual relations in oral retellings in French and Castilian as first and second languages: A crosslinguistic study of the end state of foreign language acquisition]. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Nanterre: Université de Nanterre – Paris X.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B (2005) A unified model of language acquisition. In Kroll, JF & De Groot, AMB, (eds), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 49–67). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B (2012) The logic of the unified model. In Gass, S.M. and Mackey, A (eds), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition. Routledge, pp. 211–227.Google Scholar
Marian, V and Spivey, M (2003) Competing activation in bilingual language processing: Within-and between-language competition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 6, 97–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McManus, K (2013) Prototypical influence in second language acquisition: What now for the Aspect Hypothesis. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 51, 299–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McManus, K (2015) L1-L2 differences in the acquisition of form-meaning pairings in a second language. Canadian Modern Language Review 71, 155–181.Google Scholar
McManus, K and Marsden, E (2017) L1 explicit instruction can improve L2 online and offline performance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 39, 459–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McManus, K and Marsden, E (2018) Online and offline effects of L1 practice in L2 grammar learning: A partial replication. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 40, 459–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McManus, K and Marsden, E (2019a) Signatures of automaticity during practice: Explicit instruction about L1 processing routines can improve L2 grammatical processing. Applied Psycholinguistics 40, 205–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McManus, K and Marsden, E (2019b) Using explicit instruction about L1 to reduce crosslinguistic effects in L2 grammar learning. Evidence from oral production in L2 French. The Modern Language Journal 103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mercier, J, Pivneva, I and Titone, D (2014) Individual differences in inhibitory control relate to bilingual spoken word processing. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 17, 89–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meuter, RF and Allport, A (1999) Bilingual language switching in naming: Asymmetrical costs of language selection. Journal of Memory and Language 40, 25–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyake, A, Friedman, NP, Emerson, MJ, Witzki, AH, Howerter, A and Wager, TD (2000) The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive psychology 41, 49–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murakami, A (2016) Modeling systematicity and individuality in nonlinear second language development: The case of English grammatical morphemes. Language Learning 66, 834–871.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakagawa, S and Schielzeth, H (2013) A general and simple method for obtaining R2 from generalized linear mixed-effects models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 4, 133–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project (NSFLEP). (2015) World-Readiness Standards For Learning Languages. Alexandria, VA: ACTFL.Google Scholar
O'Grady, W (2005) Syntactic carpentry: An emergentist approach to syntax. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Grady, W (2012) Language acquisition without an acquisition device. Language Teaching 45, 116–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Grady, W (2013) The illusion of language acquisition. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 3, 253–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Grady, W (2015) Processing determinism. Language Learning 65, 6–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinheiro, J, Bates, D, DebRoy, S and Sarkar, D, & R Core Team (2018) nlme: linear and nonlinear mixed effects models. R package version 3.1–137. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=nlme.Google Scholar
Plonsky, L and Derrick, DJ (2016) A meta-analysis of reliability coefficients in second language research. The Modern Language Journal 100, 538–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plonsky, L and Ghanbar, H (2018) Multiple regression in L2 research: A methodological synthesis and guide to interpreting R2 values. The Modern Language Journal 102, 713–731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, A and Gollan, TH (2011) Good language-switchers are good task-switchers: Evidence from Spanish–English and Mandarin–English bilinguals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 17, 682–691.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prior, A and Gollan, TH (2013) The elusive link between language control and executive control: A case of limited transfer. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 25, 622–645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
R Core Team (2018) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
Roberts, L and Liszka, SA (2013) Processing tense/aspect-agreement violations on-line in the second language: A self-paced reading study with French and German L2 learners of English. Second Language Research 29, 413–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, CS (1997) The parameter of aspect. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solovyeva, K and DeKeyser, R (2018) Response time variability signatures of novel word learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 40, 225–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spada, N, Lightbown, PM and White, J (2005) The importance of form/meaning mappings in explicit form-focused instruction. In Housen, A and Pierrard, M (eds), Investigations in Instructed Second Language Acquisition. New York: Gruyter, pp. 199–234.Google Scholar
Spivey, MJ and Marian, V (1999) Cross talk between native and second languages: Partial activation of an irrelevant lexicon. Psychological Science 10, 281–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stahl, C, Voss, A, Schmitz, F, Nuszbaum, M, Tüscher, O, Lieb, K and Klauer, KC (2014) Behavioral components of impulsivity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143, 850–886.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Starren, M (2001) The second time: The acquisition of temporality in Dutch and French as a second language. Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, S and Lawrence, H (2000) “I Used to Dance, but I Don't Dance Now” The Habitual Past in English. Journal of English Linguistics 28, 324–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Timmer, K, Calabria, M and Costa, A (2019) Non-linguistic effects of language switching training. Cognition 182, 14–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tu, L, Wang, J, Abutalebi, J, Jiang, B, Pan, X, Li, M, Gao, W, Yang, Y, Liang, B, Lu, Z and Huang, R (2015) Language exposure induced neuroplasticity in the bilingual brain: A follow-up fMRI study. Cortex 64, 8–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
VanPatten, B (2015) Input processing in adult SLA. In VanPatten, B and Williams, J (eds), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction. Routledge, pp. 113–134.Google Scholar
Wu, J, Kang, C, Ma, F, Gao, X and Guo, T (2018) The influence of short-term language-switching training on the plasticity of the cognitive control mechanism in bilingual word production. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 71, 2115–2128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, YJ and Thierry, G (2010) Chinese–English bilinguals reading English hear Chinese. Journal of Neuroscience 30, 7646–7651.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, H, Kang, C, Wu, Y, Ma, F and Guo, T (2015) Improving proactive control with training on language switching in bilinguals. NeuroReport 26, 354–359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed