What is the next structure? Guessing enhances L2 syntactic learning in a syntactic priming task

Abstract

Previous psycholinguistic research has shown that Second Language (L2) speakers could learn from engaging in prediction. Few works have directly examined the relationship between prediction and L2 syntactic learning. Further, relatively limited attention has been paid to the effects of two linguistic factors in this area: structure type and L2 proficiency. Using a mixed experimental design, 147 L2 Arabic speakers with varying L2 proficiency levels completed two syntactic priming experiments, each targeting a different structure: (a) the dative and (b) Temporal Phrases (TP). The experimental conditions required participants to predict what the upcoming sentence’s structure would be. The experimental conditions differed in the degree of engagement in prediction error. Results suggested that Arabic L2 speakers at different proficiency levels showed enhanced priming and short-term learning for two syntactic structures (PO, fronted TP) when (a) instructed to guess only (constrained condition) as well as when (b) instructed to guess and compute the prediction error (unconstrained condition), relative to the controls. These results imply a guessing benefit for priming and short-term learning. Participants also experienced different priming effects by structure type, but there was no significant effect for proficiency. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Syntactic priming in the classroom: using narratives to prime L2 Arabic speakers

“…This explanation seems likely considering the results of a related study. Using the classic syntactic priming paradigm, an L2 Arabic priming study found immediate abstract priming for fronted TP in the priming phase for the control group although this priming effect did not sustain in the posttests (Alzahrani, 2023). This suggests that the method of presenting the prime may play a role in inhibiting (the present study) or triggering syntactic priming effects (Alzahrani, 2023).…”

“…As such, intermediate learners may show abstract priming effects for more frequent structures but not for less frequent structures. For example, Arabic L2 speakers may show priming for the Double Object dative (DO) strucutre in the absence of a lexical overlap (Alzahrani, 2023), whereas a lexical overlap may be required for the priming of relative clauses.…”

“…This study will prime the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) fronted Temporal Phrase (TP) structure. This structure was speci cally chosen due to its limited long-term priming in L2 Arabic speakers using the standrad syntactic priming paradigm (Alzahrani, 2023). In this previous study, participants showed immediate TP priming in the priming phase, but did not retain this priming effect to the immediate and delayed posttests.…”

“…All experimental and ller stimuli were adopted from a previous study (Alzahrani, 2023). A total of 18 experimental sentences were used across the baseline, immediate posttest, and the delayed posttest (Table 2).…”