The current study explores the effects of processing demands and proficiency on second language (L2) learners' acceptability judgment of wh-island sentences. A total of 65 adult Korean learners of English and ten native speakers (NSs) of English participated in an experiment that combined self-paced reading and acceptability judgment. They were…

How strongly a verb is associated with a construction plays a crucial role in the learning of argument structure constructions. We examined the effect of verb-construction association strength on second language (L2) constructional generalization by analysing L2 learners' production and comprehension of two complex constructions (i.e. ditransitive…

The constructionist approach holds that an argument structure construction, a conventionalized form-meaning correspondence of a sentence, allows language users to efficiently access sentential information. This study investigated whether increased sensitivity to constructional information would enable second language learners to efficiently fuse…

While learners may have access to reference tools during second language (L2) writing, the latest developments in machine translation (MT), such as "Google Translate" requires examination as to how using the tool may factor into the second language learners' writing products. To this end, the purpose of this study was to examine how MT…

Spontaneous motion is one of the most basic event types, but different languages use varying patterns to express it. For example, English usually encodes path information in prepositional phrases or adverbial particles, while Korean maps path information onto verbs (Talmy, 1985). This study predicts that this typological difference would affect…

Usage-based approaches to language acquisition explain language development as a gradual process of generalizing constructions through language experience. This study investigated second language learners' development of constructional knowledge from the perspective of usage-based language development. A total of 169 Korean EFL students at five…

In his 2007 study "Effects of Textual Enhancement and Topic Familiarity on Korean EFL Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning of Passive Form," Lee demonstrated that learners were better able to correct written sentences that contained incorrect English passive forms after exposure to texts flooded with enhanced (versus…

The purpose of the study is to investigate rating behavior between Korean and native English speaking (NES) raters. Five Korean English teachers and five NES teachers graded 420 essays written by Korean college freshmen and completed survey questionnaires. The grading data were analyzed with FACETS program. The results revealed Korean raters'…

A contrastive analysis of English and Korean sentences, including error analysis, is presented. The study focuses on word order, comparing the languages' similarities and differences with the objective of understanding better how the structural differences inhibit the progress of the Korean learner of English. The English data are derived from…

This study investigated how Korean adult learners of English at various levels of proficiency interpret English reflexives. The subjects consisted of 15 ninth-graders with 2.5 years of English instruction, 15 eleventh-graders with 4.5 years of instruction, 15 first-year college students with 6.5 years of instruction, and 15 graduate students who…

This collection of papers presents the latest original research by the institutions. The papers in Number 1 are: (1) "Xhosa departments of the University of Kansas, as well as contributors from other institutions. The papers in Number 1 are: (1) "Xhosa Nominal Tonology: A Domain-Based Approach" (Mbulelo Jokweni); (2) "On the…

Focuses on the application of the Null Subject Parameter. Data reveals that some second-language learners exhibit knowledge that English is morphologically nonuniform yet still accept English null subject sentences. Findings disprove the Morphological Uniformity Hypothesis, indicating that any reformulation of the Null Subject Parameter must…

A study examined the relationship between syntactic complexity and overall accuracy in the written English of 30 advanced learners of English from five different native language groups. Results show similar patterns of error distribution, a similar level of relative strength in syntax, and relative weakness in morphology. (Author/MSE)