Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T04:50:28.633Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CROSSLINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES IN IMPLICIT LANGUAGE LEARNING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2014

Janny H. C. Leung  and
John N. Williams
Janny H. C. Leung*
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
John N. Williams
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Janny Leung, School of English, CRT735, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We report three experiments that explore the effect of prior linguistic knowledge on implicit language learning. Native speakers of English from the United Kingdom and native speakers of Cantonese from Hong Kong participated in experiments that involved different learning materials. In Experiment 1, both participant groups showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and noun animacy. In Experiment 2, neither group showed learning of a mapping between articles and a linguistically anomalous concept (the number of capital letters in an English word or that of strokes in a Chinese character). In Experiment 3, the Chinese group, but not the English group, showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and a concept derived from the Chinese classifier system. It was concluded that first language knowledge affected implicit language learning and that implicit learning, at least when natural language learning is concerned, is subject to constraints and biases.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 733 - 755
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abboud, H., Schultz, W., & Zeitlin, V. (2006). SuperLab (Version 4.0) [Computer software]. San Pedro, CA: Cedrus Corporation.Google Scholar
Allan, K. (1977). Classifiers. Language, 53, 285–311.Google Scholar
Bowles, M. A. (2010). The think-aloud controversy in second-language research. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Conway, C. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2006). Statistical learning within and between modalities: Pitting abstract against stimulus-specific representations. Psychological Science, 17, 905–912.Google Scholar
Corder, P. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguage. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dienes, Z., & Longuet-Higgins, C. (2004). Can musical transformations be implicitly learned? Cognitive Science, 28, 531–558.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (2005). At the interface: Dynamic interactions of explicit and implicit language knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 305–352.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C., & Sagarra, N. (2011). Learned attention in adult language acquisition: A replication and generalization study and meta-analysis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 589–624.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (1994/2001). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. A. (2004). Efficiency and complexity in grammars. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jiang, Y., & Chun, M. M. (2001). Selective attention modulates implicit learning. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A, 1105–1124.Google Scholar
Kiyokawa, S., Dienes, Z., Tanaka, D., Yamada, A., & Crowe, L. (2012). Cross cultural differences in unconscious knowledge. Cognition, 124, 16–24.Google Scholar
Leow, R. P., & Hama, M. (2013). Implicit learning in SLA and the issue of internal validity: A response to Leung and Williams’s (2011) “The implicit learning of mappings between forms and contextually derived meanings.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35, 545–557.Google Scholar
Leung, J. H. C., & Williams, J. N. (2011). The implicit learning of mappings between forms and contextually derived meanings. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 33–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leung, J. H. C., & Williams, J. N. (2012). Constraints on implicit learning of grammatical form-meaning connections. Language Learning, 62, 634–662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2001). The competition model: The input, the context, and the brain. In Robinson, P. (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 69–90). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2008). A unified model. In Ellis, N. & Robinson, P. (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition (pp. 341–371). London, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nissen, M. J., & Bullemer, P. (1987). Attentional requirements of learning: Evidence from performance measures. Cognitive Psychology, 19, 1–32.Google Scholar
Onnis, L., & Thiessen, E. (2013). Language experience changes subsequent learning. Cognition, 126, 268–284.Google Scholar
Perruchet, P., & Pacton, S. (2006). Implicit learning and statistical learning: One phenomenon, two approaches. Trends in Cognitive Science, 10, 233–238.Google Scholar
Pothos, E. M. (2005). Expectations about stimulus structure in implicit learning. Memory & Cognition, 33, 171–181.Google Scholar
Reber, A. S. (1967). Implicit learning of artificial grammars. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 6, 855–863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, W., Eschman, A., & Zuccolotto, A. (2002). E-Prime reference guide. Pittsburgh, PA: Psychology Software Tools Inc.Google Scholar
Seger, C. A. (1994). Implicit learning. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 163–196.Google Scholar
Shanks, D. R., & St. John, M. F. (1994). Characteristics of dissociable human learning systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17, 367–447.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., & Herron, C. (1989). Feedback for language transfer errors. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11, 386–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J. N. (2005). Learning without awareness. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 269–304.Google Scholar
Williams, J. N. (2009). Implicit learning in second language acquisition. In Ritchie, W. C. & Bhatia, T. K. (Eds.), The new handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 319–353). Bingley, UK: Emerald.Google Scholar
Williams, J. N., & Lovatt, P. (2005). Phonological memory and rule learning. Language Learning, 55, 177–233.Google Scholar
Yamamoto, M. (1999). Animacy and reference: A cognitive approach to corpus linguistics. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Benjamins.Google Scholar