Derivational awareness in late bilinguals increases along with proficiency without a clear influence of the suffixes shared with L1

Menut, Amélie; Brysbaert, Marc; Casalis, Séverine

doi:10.1017/s1366728922000402

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 66 publications

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“…English-speaking children as young as third graders can interpret the meaning of morphologically complex words ( Anglin et al, 1993 ; Crosson & McKeown, 2016 ; McCutchen & Logan, 2011 ; Ram et al, 2013 ; Tyler & Nagy, 1989 ; Wysocki & Jenkins, 1987 ). However, once children begin to learn to read, it takes a substantial amount of time to establish connections between orthographic input and semantics (e.g., Beyersmann et al, 2012 ; for related evidence from L2 speakers see Menut et al, 2023 ) presumably based on the successful phonological decoding of unfamiliar orthographic stimuli (e.g., Grainger et al, 2012 ; Share, 1995 ; Ziegler et al, 2014 ). If it turns out to be true that words containing morphemes with a larger family size are easier to read than words with a smaller family size, this information can be used when planning instruction to enhance literacy skills.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of morphemic knowledge during novel word learning

Behzadnia,

Ziegler,

Colenbrander

et al. 2023

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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This study used a novel word learning paradigm to investigate the role of morphology in the acquisition of complex words, when participants have no prior lexical knowledge of the embedded morphemic constituents. The influence of morphological family size on novel word learning was examined by comparing novel stems (torb) combined with large morphological families (e.g., torbnel, torbilm, torbla, torbiph) as opposed to small morphological families (e.g., torbilm, torbla). In two online experiments, participants learned complex novel words by associating words with pictures. Following training, participants performed a recognition and a spelling task where they were exposed to novel words that either did or did not contain a trained morpheme. As predicted, items consisting of a trained and an untrained constituent were harder to reject but easier to spell than those that did not contain any trained constituents. Moreover, novel words including trained constituents with large morphological families were harder to reject than those including constituents with small morphological families. The findings suggest that participants acquired novel morphemic constituents without prior knowledge of the constituents and point to the important facilitatory role of morphological family size in novel word learning.

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Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of morphemic knowledge during novel word learning

Behzadnia,

Ziegler,

Colenbrander

et al. 2023

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Proficiency Effect on the Development of L2 Derivational Knowledge

Wang,

Zhao

2024

Emerging Technologies for Education

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Do French speakers have an advantage in learning English vocabulary thanks to familiar suffixes?

Menut,

Brysbaert,

Casalis

2024

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Previous research has shown that languages from nearby families are easier to learn as second languages (L2) than languages from more distant families, attributing this difference to the presence of shared elements between the native language (L1) and L2. Building on this idea, we hypothesized that suffixes present in L1 might facilitate complex word acquisition in L2. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 76 late French-English bilinguals and tasked them with learning a set of 80 English derived-words containing suffixes that also exist in French (e.g., -able) or are unique to English (e.g., -ness). Consolidation of the learned words was assessed one week after the last learning session. The results showed a significant learning effect across the learning trials and consolidation, suggesting that the bilingual participants were able to acquire the derived words. However, contrary to our hypothesis, suffixes also existing in French did not give a significant advantage over English-unique suffixes. Further analysis revealed that this was due to variations in the consistency of familiar suffixes from L1. While some translation pairs shared the same suffix (e.g., amazement-étonnement), others had different suffixes (e.g., slippage-glissement). The type of translation pair with inconsistent suffix overlap (slippage-glissement) carried learning costs, preventing the bilingual participants from benefiting from the presence of familiar suffixes in L2 words. These findings suggest that shared information can be used effectively for L2 learning only if the mapping between L1 and L2 is consistent.

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Derivational awareness in late bilinguals increases along with proficiency without a clear influence of the suffixes shared with L1

Cited by 3 publications

References 66 publications

The role of morphemic knowledge during novel word learning

The role of morphemic knowledge during novel word learning

Proficiency Effect on the Development of L2 Derivational Knowledge

Do French speakers have an advantage in learning English vocabulary thanks to familiar suffixes?

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