the linguistic processing of the relative pronoun "that" by brazilian learners\ speakers...
TRANSCRIPT
The Linguistic Processing of the relative pronoun “That” by Brazilian learners of
English as L2.
Prof. Msc. Alyson Andrade (UFC)[email protected]
Prof. Dr. Márcio Leitão (UFPB/LAPROL)[email protected]
Prof. Dr. Márcio Leitão Prof. Ms. Alyson Andrade
Support for this research:
The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence from L1 over the L2 processing in a group of Brazilian learners of English.
We 10 pairs of sentences which permited us to compare how languages with different backgrounds are processed in the mind of a Brazilian native learner/speaker of a L2.
(1a) The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious;
≠QUE THAT - Ø
(1b) The/ drink/ Ø / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious. A/ bebida / que / Mike /compra /na praia/é ótima. *A/ bebida / Ø / Mike /compra /na praia/é ótima.
We made 10 pairs of sentences which permitted us to compare how languages with different backgrounds are processed in the mind of a Brazilian native learner/speaker of a L2.
(1a) The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious;
≠QUE THAT - Ø
(1b) The/ drink/ Ø / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious. A/ bebida / que / Mike /compra /na praia/é ótima. *A/ bebida / Ø / Mike /compra /na praia/é ótima.
All the Sentences had same size and syntactic structure, the same number of words and each word had the same number of
letters.
Random sentences20 experimental
40 Fake (non-experimental)
Latin Square
Our hypotheses was which sentences with explicit That would be read faster because it would imitate the Portuguese processing strategies used by the brain to process the L1.
We have to consider which the relative pronoun “Que = that” must be expressed in the sentence or it will be considered syntactically ungrammatical.
Participants [29 volunteers] from:
To classify the different proficiency levels among the participants we made the application of the Oxford Placement test:
Written TestListening Test
Dave Allen’s Test ( 2004).
Elementary (10)
Intermediate (10)
Advanced (9)
Self-paced reading experiment.
Mac book 13(2,4 GHz)
Psyscope (COHEN, J. D., MACWHINNEY, B., FLATT, M., & PRO-VOST, S., 1993).
Self-paced reading experiment.
+
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
+
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
THE
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
DRINK
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
THAT
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
MIKE
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
BUYS
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
AT THE BEACH
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
IS DELICIOUS.
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
IS THE DRINK DELICIOUS?
+
The/ drink/ Ø / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
+
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
THE
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
DRINK
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
THAT
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
MIKE
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
BUYS
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
AT THE BEACH
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
IS DELICIOUS.
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
The/ drink/ that / Mike /buys /at the beach /is delicious.
ISN’T THE DRINK DELICIOUS?
Results and Data
(ANOVA: F(2,21) = 5,93, p<0,009)
1 - The advanced group has processed faster than the Elementary group;2 – The structures with explicit THAT were processed faster than the sentences without it.
Results and Data
(ANOVA: F(1.21) = 10,1, p<0,004)
3 – The sentences with THAT were read faster by the 3 groups of volunteers even on the post critical segment;4 – The Advanced group was faster than the intermediate and the intermediate was faster than the elementary.
We believe that the L1 strategy used by the Parser(syntactic processor) influences in the L2 processing;
The influence is strong if the level is elementary, because high levels do not
suffer much influence from the L1.
Results and Data
Linguistic Processing of English as L2 by Brazilians.