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14 - Acceptability Studies in L2 Populations

from Part III - Experimental Studies of Specific Populations and Language Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

By
Tania Ionin
Edited by
Grant Goodall
Grant Goodall
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

This chapter discusses the use of acceptability judgment tasks in second language (L2) and bilingual populations. L2 studies that use AJTs can be divided into those that test a variety of phenomena, with the goal of investigating such issues as age effects and ultimate attainment, and those that focus on specific grammatical phenomena. Studies that use AJTs with L2 populations need to consider a number of issues, including task modality, time pressure, the use of context, the type of rating scale, and participants' reasons for accepting or rejecting a sentence. Finally, this chapter addresses the question of what AJTs measure with L2/bilingual populations, and whether AJTs run the risk of overestimating and/or underestimating L2 knowledge. Like any other tasks, AJTs have both advantages and disadvantages, and may best be used in conjunction with other types of data collection methodologies.

Keywords

second language (L2)bilingualsexplicit vs. implicit knowledgetask modalitycontext-based AJTstruth-value judgment task (TVJT)
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax , pp. 373 - 393
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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