The Impact of Proficiency on Syntactic Second-language Processing of German and Italian: Evidence from Event-related Potentials

Abstract

Abstract& The present study investigated the role of proficiency in late second-language (L2) processing using comparable stimuli in German and Italian. Both sets of stimuli consisted of simple active sentences including a word category violation, a morphosyntactic agreement violation, or a combination of the two. Four experiments were conducted to study high-and lowproficiency L2 learners of German as well as high-and lowproficiency L2 learners of Italian. High-proficiency L2 learners in both languages showed the same event-related potential (ERP) components as native speakers for all syntactic violations. For the word category violation, they displayed an early anterior negativity (ELAN), an additional negativity reflecting reference-related processes, and a late P600 evidencing processes of reanalysis. For the processing of the morphosyntactic error, an anterior negativity (LAN) and a P600 were observed, whereas for the combined violation, the same ERP components were found as in the pure category violation. In high-proficiency L2 learners, the timing of the processing steps was equivalent to that of native speakers, although some amplitude differences were present. Low-proficiency L2 learners, however, showed qualitative differences in the agreement violation characterized by the absence of the LAN and quantitative differences reflected in a delayed P600 in every violation condition. These findings emphasize that with a high proficiency, late L2 learners can indeed show native-like neural responses with the timing approximating that of native speakers. This challenges the idea that there are fundamental differences in language processing in the brain between natives and late L2 learners. &

Working memory capacity in L2 processing

“…Steinhauer et al interpreted these results as supporting the possibility of native-like L2 processing among highly proficient adult learners. At the same time, given the greater typological similarity between English and French than between English and Chinese, the lack of a LAN for the highly proficient Chinese speakers raised the possibility that L1 transfer modulates nativelikeness of processing (for similar findings, see Foucart and Frenck-Mestre 2011;Rossi et al 2006). Recent work has also linked different L2 ERP effects to structure-specific L2 proficiency.…”

ERPs reveal comparable syntactic sentence processing in native and non-native readers of English

“…More recently though, L2 syntactic comprehension of, for example, phrase structure constraints and verb agreement has been investigated with online measures such as ERPs (Hahne, 2001;Rossi, Gugler, Hahne, & Friederici, 2006;Tokowicz & MacWhinney, 2005;Weber-Fox & Neville, 1996;Weber-Fox & Neville, 2001). The use of such a temporally fine-grained measure allows investigating how L2 speakers of a language process syntactic information while sentence comprehension unfolds in time.…”

“…Phrase structure violations resulted in a P600. In a recent study by Rossi et al (2006) the authors propose that the variable results in L2 syntactic processing may not just depend on AoA, but also on the level of achieved L2 proficiency. Comparing the ERPs of late high and low proficient German and Italian learners of Italian and German, respectively, they reported a comparable syntactic processing pattern for both phrase structure and agreement violations in late high proficient learners.…”

Can Lextale-Esp discriminate between groups of highly proficient Catalan–Spanish bilinguals with different language dominances?

“…The same was not true for beginning bilinguals, when the prime was in L2 and the target in the first language (L1). Rossi, Gugler, Friederici, and Hahne (2006) reported that highly proficient late L2 learners showed the same event-related potential responses to syntactic violations in sentences as L1 speakers, but this was not true for low-proficiency L2 learners, who had a qualitatively different response to the violations. Other neuroscientific research has indicated that the pattern of brain activation is modulated by L2 proficiency.…”