Word Frequency Effects and Plurality in L2 Word Recognition—A Preliminary Study—/CELES2015
Tamura, Y., & Nishimura, Y. (2015). Word frequency effects and plurality in L2 word recognition: A preliminary study. Paper presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the Chubu English Language Education Society (CELES 2015). Wakayama, Japan.
stronger the connection between concepts and L2 becomes (e.g., Kawakami, 1994) • the more proficiency develops, the less interference effects of L1 occur (e.g., Sunderman & Kroll, 2006) • conceptual links and processing skills gradually develop (e.g., Yamashita, 2007) Background 13 Bilingual Mental Lexicon
L2 words activate conceptual links (e.g., Habuchi, 2005) • Concreteness • concrete and high frequency words processed through concept mediation (e.g., Nakagawa, 2009) Background 14 Bilingual Mental Lexicon
“the numerosity of the subject’s referent in the speaker’s mental model” (Humphreys & Bock, 2005) • e.g., scissors, [bacon and eggs] • grammatical number • linguistically expressed number • e.g., plural marker -s in English Background 17 Plurality
• grammatical information <-this should also be stored with L2 words and used in processing • As a preliminary study • this study focused on plurality (number information) Background 19 Motivation of the study
strong link to plurality • L2 learners’ use of conceptual plurality • Plural dominant-plurals might be processed through conceptual link? • This advantage might not be found through L1 route <- Japanese doesn’t mark number morphologically. Background 20 Hypothesis
some experience in staying in English-speaking countries (Min = 2 weeks, Max = 54 months) Table 1. Background Information of the Participants The Present Study 24 Participants Age TOEIC Score N M SD M SD Participants 32 24.77 5.34 824.22 113.12
from British National Corpus (BNC) 2. 12 words which double or triple in frequency of singular form compared to plural form -> singular- dominant words The Present Study 25 Stimuli
plural form compared to singular form -> plural dominant words 4. 12 words whose frequency of singular and plural form was almost same. -> control words The Present Study 26 Stimuli
the three groups Table 2. Mean Frequency and SD in Parentheses The Present Study 27 Stimuli n singular plural base sig-domminant 12 25.55 (15.26) 10.38 (6.82) 35.93 (21.52) pl-dominant 12 9.23 (5.71) 21.84 (16.52) 31.06 (21.63) control 12 18.50 (9.89) 18.08 (10.32) 36.58 (19.45) Note. frequency is based on per million
• Task: • Picture naming in English and Japanese • Results: • All the test pictures correctly named as target L2 and L1 • All the filler pictures elicited non-target words -> NO responses could work The Present Study 29 Stimuli
/ picture • 36 test items (12*3) presented either in singular or plural form • 18 test items (6*3) per task • Carefully counterbalanced • 18 test items -> always YES response • 36 filler items -> YES: 18 items, NO: 18 items The Present Study 32 Experiment
L1, L1 -> Pic • After the two tasks • Familiarity questionnaire (instructions are in Japanese) • 5-point Likert scale • 36 items (singular or plural form) which the participants did not see in the matching tasks • “How much have you seen or heard the words?” (1: I’ve never seen – 5: I’ve often seen ) The Present Study 33 Experiment
than singular-dominant plurals… • if singular-dominant singulars are processed faster than plural dominant singulars… -> frequency effects • However, this was not the case in L1 matching condition. • Both plurals were processed through morphological decomposition Discussion 60 L1 Matching
(L1) • No number information needed to process • Always morphological decomposition irrespective of frequency • Picture matching • L2 words -> conceptual information (Picture) • Strong connection between plural-dominant plurals and plurality may result in making faster processing route to concepts Discussion 66 Assymetrical Frequency Effects?
full-form storage? • L1-matching condition • task effects (L2 -> L1) led the learners to process through morphological decomposition • Singular-dominant singulars • Picture-matching condition • no frequency advantage -> enough time for singular-dominant plurals to be decomposed? Discussion 67 Assymetrical Frequency Effects?
frequency and frequency dominance • Only concretes items can be used • Intervals between the recognition of L2 and L1 or Picture • How can we handle plural forms of abstract nouns? • What if the picture would have been multilple objects? Discussion 69 Limitations
• full-form processing • Singulars with high frequency • no firm evidence of frequency effects • singular is always easy to process irrespective of frequency? • Future research • different type of nouns • not only reception but production 71 Frequency and Plurality Conclusion
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singular−dominant singular form plural form L1 Pic 0 500 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1500 plural−dominant singular form plural form L1 Pic 0 500 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1500 control singular form plural form L1 Pic Mean Raw RT Plot (N = 32)