ERIC Number: EJ1328862
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Apr
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0267-6583
EISSN: N/A
The Effects of Speaker Accent on Syntactic Priming in Second-Language Speakers
Second Language Research, v38 n2 p189-212 Apr 2022
Syntactic priming studies in second language (L2) have contributed to understanding how L2 speakers' syntactic knowledge is represented and processed. However, little is known about social influences on L2 speakers' syntactic processing and learning. The present study investigated whether L2 speakers' syntactic priming is influenced by social factors, specifically different accents of English speakers and their familiarity with those accents. Korean L2 learners of English with intermediate proficiency were asked to describe pictures depicting ditransitive events after listening to sentences recorded by three English speakers with different accents: a standard-accented speaker (an American English speaker), and two speakers with non-standard accents (a Korean English speaker and an Indian English speaker). The results of the picture description task showed that syntactic priming effects in Korean L2 English speakers were significantly influenced by speaker accents and their familiarity with the accents. In addition, their priming patterns and interactions with these factors changed over time. These results suggest that syntactic priming in L2 speakers is socially mediated. We propose that priming effects in real language use can be better accounted for using a combination of cognitive and sociolinguistic models of syntactic priming and speech production.
Descriptors: Syntax, North American English, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, English (Second Language), Priming, Pronunciation, Language Variation, Language Processing, Social Influences, Standard Spoken Usage, Nonstandard Dialects, Task Analysis, Familiarity, Language Usage, Speech Communication, Asians, Indians, Language Proficiency, Pictorial Stimuli, Sociolinguistics, College Students, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Korea
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A