Language and Learning Seminar:

Speaker: Rianne van Lieburg, University of Antwerp

Title: "The development of syntactic representations in beginning L2 learners of Dutch "

Abstract:

How do late L2 learners acquire the grammatical structures of their new language? Previous research suggests that learners start from item-specific representations, which become abstract, that is, generalized over verbs, over time. How and when does the transition from item-specific representations to abstract representations take place? For instance, do abstract representations form earlier for more frequent structures than for less frequent structures? We tested beginning L2 learners of Dutch in a longitudinal study (5 sessions) and in a cross-sectional study (higher vs. lower proficient learners). Exploiting the structural priming paradigm, we tested whether abstract structural representations are formed earlier for the more frequent active structure than for the less frequent passive structure. In my talk, I will present the results and discuss some implications for models of L2 development of syntactic structures and some challenges coming with the testing of the hypotheses following from these models in beginning L2 learners.

Language and Learning Seminar convenor: Dr Marta Wesierska

Marta will email TEAMS links to Department, but you can email Marta for link too.