Indeterminacy in the Grammar of Adult Language Learners

Johnson, Jacqueline S.; Shenkman, Kenneth; Newport, Elissa L.; Medin, Douglas L.

doi:10.1006/jmla.1996.0019

Cited by 58 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Adults have difficulty with many aspects of language acquisition, from phonetic perception (Werker and Tees, 1984;Werker and Lalonde, 1988;Kuhl, 2004), to language processing (Clahsen and Felser, 2006), to certain aspects of syntax (e.g., Johnson and Newport, 1989;Johnson et al, 1996;Birdsong, 2006). Scientists have proposed many theories to account for the difference between children and adults; these theories differ in both the degree and type of contribution made by pre-existing language-specific biases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regularization may be a beneficial strategy when the variability in the observed forms is not conditioned on a previous linguistic context. Unpredictable variation of this sort is not commonly found in most languages, at least in the speech of native speakers (e.g., Chambers et al, 2003); however, it is much more common when learning from non-native speakers (Wolfram, 1985;Johnson et al, 1996). In such circumstances, when the input is truly inconsistent, regularization can be beneficial.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

When do memory limitations lead to regularization? An experimental and computational investigation

Perfors

2012

Journal of Memory and Language

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Elsevier believes that individual authors should be able to distribute their AAMs for their personal voluntary needs and interests, e.g. posting to their websites or their institution's repository, e-mailing to colleagues. However, our policies differ regarding the systematic aggregation or distribution of AAMs to ensure the sustainability of the journals to which AAMs are submitted. Therefore, deposit in, or posting to, subject-oriented or centralized repositories (such as PubMed Central), or institutional repositories with systematic posting mandates is permitted only under specific agreements between Elsevier and the repository, agency or institution, and only consistent with the publisher's policies concerning such repositories. Voluntary posting of AAMs in the arXiv subject repository is permitted. nd April 2013When do memory limitations lead to regularization? An experimental and computational investigation Amy PerforsSchool of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia AbstractThe Less is More hypothesis suggests that one reason adults and children differ in their ability to learn language is that they also differ in other cognitive capacities. According to one version of this hypothesis, children's relatively poor memory may make them more likely to regularize inconsistent input Newport, 2005, 2009). This paper reports the result of an experimental and computational investigation of one aspect of this version of the hypothesis.A series of seven experiments in which adults were placed under a high cognitive load during a language-learning task reveal that in adults, increased load during learning (as opposed to retrieval) does not result in increased regularization. A computational model offers a possible explanation for these results. It demonstrates that, unless memory limitations distort the data in a particular way, regularization should occur only in the presence of both memory limitations and a prior bias for regularization. Taken together, these findings suggest that the difference in regularization between adults and children may not be solely attributable to differences in memory limitations during learning.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When do memory limitations lead to regularization? An experimental and computational investigation

Perfors

2012

Journal of Memory and Language

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Gass (1994) et Johnson et al (1996) font de la fiabilité des TJG l'objet de leur recherche, compte tenu de la nature incomplète du savoir des apprenants ou utilisateurs non-natifs. Grâce à la mise en parallèle des résultats de deux administrations successives du même TJG, Gass démontre que le taux de variation dans les réponses est plus élevé (donc moins fiable), d'une administration à l'autre, pour les items où il y a le plus d'incertitude.…”

Section: Considérations Méthodologiquesunclassified

“…Grâce à la mise en parallèle des résultats de deux administrations successives du même TJG, Gass démontre que le taux de variation dans les réponses est plus élevé (donc moins fiable), d'une administration à l'autre, pour les items où il y a le plus d'incertitude. D'autre part, en comparant la performance d'apprenants chinois adultes d'anglais et de locuteurs natifs d'anglais sur un TJG, Johnson et al (1996) ont établi que les jugements des deux groupes différaient quantitativement -comme on s'y attendrait-mais aussi qualitativement, les premiers manifestant un degré élevé d'inconsistance dans leurs jugements de grammaticalité. Les auteurs émettent l'hypothèse que le 'savoir' des apprenants est fondé conjointement sur leur connaissance de la L2, sur des règles qu'ils ont fabriquées à leur propre usage ainsi que sur la décision de 'deviner' ou de répondre au hasard.…”

Section: Considérations Méthodologiquesunclassified

Evaluer la compétence par un test de jugement de grammaticalité : le cas de la relativisation chez des apprenants chypriotes hellénophones avancés en FLE

Monville-Burston¹

2008

Congrès Mondial De Linguistique Française 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Age effects in second-language learning have been investigated by many researchers. Although some findings based on initial gain did not seem to support this notion (e.g., Snow & Hoefnagel-Höhle, 1978), many studies that focused on long-term/ultimate effects did seem to show "the earlier, the better" (e.g., DeKeyser, 2000;Johnson, 1992;Johnson & Newport, 1989;Johnson, Shenkman, Newport, & Medin, 1996;Newport, 1990;Slavoff & Johnson, 1995). Consequently, some recent studies have further examined age effects, and results from these studies caution us in drawing hasty conclusions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Early English Learning on Auditory Perception of English Minimal Pairs by Taiwan University Students

Lin

Chang

Cheung

2004

J Psycholinguist Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Auditory perception of English minimal pairs was tested with or without noise background. Each subject was interviewed after the test to collect information regarding their early experience on learning English as a foreign language. This study was designed to examine the differential effects of learning English at three age-starting points and two learning durations. This study hopes to determine how childhood experience of English learning (which is not mandatory in public elementary schools) has affected the auditory competence of university students in distinguishing

show abstract

Indeterminacy in the Grammar of Adult Language Learners

Cited by 58 publications

References 26 publications

When do memory limitations lead to regularization? An experimental and computational investigation

When do memory limitations lead to regularization? An experimental and computational investigation

Evaluer la compétence par un test de jugement de grammaticalité : le cas de la relativisation chez des apprenants chypriotes hellénophones avancés en FLE

The Effects of Early English Learning on Auditory Perception of English Minimal Pairs by Taiwan University Students

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About