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Studies in Second Language Acquisition Studies in Second Language Acquisition

Article contents

THE ROLE OF INPUT VARIABILITY AND LEARNER AGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2019

Ruta Sinkeviciute ,
Helen Brown ,
Gwen Brekelmans  and
Elizabeth Wonnacott
Ruta Sinkeviciute
Affiliation:
University College London
Helen Brown
Affiliation:
Nottingham Trent University
Gwen Brekelmans
Affiliation:
University College London
Elizabeth Wonnacott*
Affiliation:
University College London
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elizabeth Wonnacott, Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. E-mail: e.wonnacott@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

Input variability is key in many aspects of linguistic learning, yet variability increases input complexity, which may cause difficulty in some learning contexts. The current work investigates this trade-off by comparing speaker variability effects on L2 vocabulary learning in different age groups. Existing literature suggests that speaker variability benefits L2 vocabulary learning in adults, but this may not be the case for younger learners. In this study native English-speaking adults, 7- to 8-year-olds, and 10- to 11-year-olds learned six novel Lithuanian words from a single speaker, and six from eight speakers. In line with previous research, adults showed better production of the multispeaker items at test. No such benefit was found for either group of children, either in production or comprehension. Children also had greater difficulties in processing multiple-speaker cues during training. We conclude that age-related capacity limitations may constrain the ability to utilize speaker variability when learning words in a new language.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , September 2019 , pp. 795 - 820
Open Practices
Open materials
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number: ES/K013637/1, awarded to EW and HB). We would like to thank the Lithuanian speakers who agreed to lend their voices for the stimuli preparation as well as Agne Sinkeviciute for pilot testing.

The experiment in this article earned an Open Data badge for transparent practices. The materials are available at https://osf.io/2vec3/.

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