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Phonological transfer effects in novice learners : A learner's brain detects grammar errors only if the language sounds familiar

Gosselke Berthelsen, Sabine LU ; Horne, Merle LU orcid ; Shtyrov, Yury LU and Roll, Mikael LU (2021) In Bilingualism 24(4). p.656-669
Abstract

Many aspects of a new language, including grammar rules, can be acquired and accessed within minutes. In the present study, we investigate how initial learners respond when the rules of a novel language are not adhered to. Through spoken word-picture association-learning, tonal and non-tonal speakers were taught artificial words. Along with lexicosemantic content expressed by consonants, the words contained grammatical properties embedded in vowels and tones. Pictures that were mismatched with any of the words' phonological cues elicited an N400 in tonal learners. Non-tonal learners only produced an N400 when the mismatch was based on a word's vowel or consonants, not the tone. The emergence of the N400 might indicate that error... (More)

Many aspects of a new language, including grammar rules, can be acquired and accessed within minutes. In the present study, we investigate how initial learners respond when the rules of a novel language are not adhered to. Through spoken word-picture association-learning, tonal and non-tonal speakers were taught artificial words. Along with lexicosemantic content expressed by consonants, the words contained grammatical properties embedded in vowels and tones. Pictures that were mismatched with any of the words' phonological cues elicited an N400 in tonal learners. Non-tonal learners only produced an N400 when the mismatch was based on a word's vowel or consonants, not the tone. The emergence of the N400 might indicate that error processing in L2 learners (unlike canonical processing) does not initially differentiate between grammar and semantics. Importantly, only errors based on familiar phonological cues evoked a mismatch-related response, highlighting the importance of phonological transfer in initial second language acquisition.

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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
ERP, grammar, L2 error processing, morphological tone, N400, pictures, rapid second language acquisition (SLA), transfer
in
Bilingualism
volume
24
issue
4
pages
656 - 669
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85104032837
ISSN
1366-7289
DOI
10.1017/S1366728921000134
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
77ec4583-4818-4762-834b-57a917a9b485
date added to LUP
2021-04-21 10:40:38
date last changed
2023-11-23 01:34:50
@article{77ec4583-4818-4762-834b-57a917a9b485,
  abstract     = {{<p>Many aspects of a new language, including grammar rules, can be acquired and accessed within minutes. In the present study, we investigate how initial learners respond when the rules of a novel language are not adhered to. Through spoken word-picture association-learning, tonal and non-tonal speakers were taught artificial words. Along with lexicosemantic content expressed by consonants, the words contained grammatical properties embedded in vowels and tones. Pictures that were mismatched with any of the words' phonological cues elicited an N400 in tonal learners. Non-tonal learners only produced an N400 when the mismatch was based on a word's vowel or consonants, not the tone. The emergence of the N400 might indicate that error processing in L2 learners (unlike canonical processing) does not initially differentiate between grammar and semantics. Importantly, only errors based on familiar phonological cues evoked a mismatch-related response, highlighting the importance of phonological transfer in initial second language acquisition. </p>}},
  author       = {{Gosselke Berthelsen, Sabine and Horne, Merle and Shtyrov, Yury and Roll, Mikael}},
  issn         = {{1366-7289}},
  keywords     = {{ERP; grammar; L2 error processing; morphological tone; N400; pictures; rapid second language acquisition (SLA); transfer}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{656--669}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{Bilingualism}},
  title        = {{Phonological transfer effects in novice learners : A learner's brain detects grammar errors only if the language sounds familiar}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728921000134}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S1366728921000134}},
  volume       = {{24}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}