Revisiting the comparative fallacy: a reply to Lakshmanan and Selinker, 2001

Abstract

In a recent airing of methodological concerns in the analysis of spontaneous speech samples, Lakshmanan and Selinker (2001) suggest that Lardiere (1998a) should have carried out analyses of lexical aspect and discourse grounding in determining obligatory contexts for past tense marking. Failure to do so, they argue, renders the work in question susceptible to the comparative fallacy (Bley-Vroman, 1983). In this reply I would like to briefly address some of the problems with that argument, while showing that such analyses could themselves introduce a comparative fallacy problem.

Morphological Congruency and the Acquisition of L2 Morphemes

“…As discussed in the Introduction, longitudinal studies of morphological development suggest that incongruent morphemes seem to resist acquisition in adult learners. Such resistance was observed in Patty, a Chinese ESL speaker in Lardiere's (1998, 2003) study, whose past tense accuracy in spontaneous oral production remained below 40% over a period of 18 years. Similarly, Long's (2003) Japanese‐speaking participant, Ayako, had difficulty in developing nativelike accuracy in plural marking.…”

“…There are indications of such a morphological congruency effect in the literature. One such indication is that when advanced L2 learners have been found to have great difficulty in performing in a nativelike manner with respect to plural or past tense marking, they have often turned out to be individuals whose L1 does not have an obligatory grammaticalized plural or tense marker (Jia, 2003; Lardiere, 1998, 2003; Long, 2003; Schmidt, 1983). These studies are similar in several important ways.…”

“…However, the evidence has been mixed, allowing each side to find support for their position. For example, a number of longitudinal studies have shown that their participants had difficulty in accurately using grammatical morphemes in spontaneous L2 production and that they exhibited little progress over an extended period of time, even though they were considered highly proficient L2 users otherwise (e.g., Jia, 2003; Lardiere, 1998, 2003; Long, 2003; Schmidt, 1983). On the other hand, native like accuracy in morpheme use has been observed in adult L2 learners in other studies (e.g., Flege et al, 1999; Goad & White, 2006; Herschensohn, 2001; White, Valenzuela, Kozlowska‐MacGregor, & Leung, 2004).…”

“…However, L2 proficiency alone does not provide an adequate explanation of the conflicting results. For example, the participants in Goad and White (2006), Flege et al (1999), and Herschensohn (2001) were much less proficient than those examined in Jia (2003), Lardiere (1998, 2003), and Long (2003), but it was the first set of studies that observed nativelike performance in their participants.…”

Kivinemisnähtusi vene üliõpilaste kirjalikus eesti keeles

“…Han (2004: 232) tõdeb, et suurem osa empiirilisi uurimusi ei ole pikaajalised, mistõttu kivinemist ainult oletatakse, aga mitte ei tehta kindlaks pikaajalise jälgimise teel. Inglise keelt teise keelena õppijate vahekeelt käsitlevatest uurimustest on rohkesti tähelepanu pälvinud Donna Lardiere (1998Lardiere ( , 2003 pikaajalised uurimused hiinlasest informandi Patty inglise keele pronoomenikäänete ning ajavormide kasutusest 8-aastase ajavahemiku jooksul, mille tulemused näitasid pronoomenikasutuse arenemist emakeelekõnelejatega võrdsele tasemele, samas kui ajavormide osas kivines informandi vahekeel teatud etapil enne sihtkeele kuju saavutamist.…”