Adult second language learners are confronted with a vast amount of information at many levels as they learn the grammar of the new language. Recent research has shown that native speakers are sensitive to fine-grained probabilistic patterns in their first language, in addition to the larger-scale patterns describable as grammatical rules. With support from the National Science Foundation, Mr. Matthew Carlson, under the direction of Dr. Chip Gerfen, will investigate whether adult learners of Spanish acquire similarly fine-grained knowledge of statistical idiosyncrasies of Spanish as is acquired by native speakers. Since the frequency of these irregularities are inherent in the language that learners have experienced, Mr. Carlson will also assess the cognitive capabilities that allow learners to record and track the probabilities of regular and irregular grammatical structures. To address these questions, a series of experiments will compare the performance of adult learners of Spanish at a variety of proficiency levels when given novel words with higher- or lower-probability phonological patterns. In one set of tasks, learners will judge whether an item is a real Spanish word or not, and in another set of tasks, they will repeat items that they hear. These tasks will reveal how the probability of a words form affects learners perception and production of the word. A comparison with monolingual Spanish speakers will show the extent to which learners are sensitive to nativelike Spanish patterns. Three different facets of memory and processing capacity will be assessed for their role in how learners construct lexical networks from their input. The performance of learners will also be compared across proficiency levels to see at what point nativelike knowledge of these probabilistic structures emerges. Furthermore, comparisons of learners with and without immersion experience will help to determine the extent to which the amount and intensity of input leads to more nativelike knowledge of statistical idiosyncrasies in the grammar.
This research project has a number of broader implications. It will shed new light on adults ability to learn second languages at a time when language study that is becoming more and more important in an increasingly multilingual and global society, and more and more individuals are undertaking second language study beyond early childhood. The insights provided by this research will aid in understanding exactly how learners extract grammatical structure from their experience of the language. This is particularly important in the US, where the second language is not routinely encountered outside of the classroom, reducing learners opportunity to hear and use the language. This line of research will enable language teachers to tailor the language used in the classroom to draw learners attention to appropriate aspects of language use, highlighting not only regularity in grammar, but also the statistical predictability of idiosyncratic structures. This research will provide a basis for increasing diversity and collaboration among researchers in psycholinguistics by creating opportunities for undergraduate research assistants to receive training, and for collaboration between researchers in the US and Spain.
