| 1. |
- Agebjörn, Anders, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Betydelsen av tvärspråkligt inflytande och språkbegåvning för tredjespråksinlärning av grammatisk morfologi
- 2022
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Två faktorer som antas påverka andraspråksinlärning är tvärspråkligt inflytande och språkbegåvning. Relationen mellan dessa har dock sällan undersökts, och det är oklart huruvida betydelsen av tvärspråkligt inflytande respektive språkbegåvningen beror på graden av strukturell likhet mellan målspråk och tidigare inlärda språk (Bokander 2021; Tolentino & Tokowicz 2014; Skehan 1998). Vi undersöker detta samband genom att studera utvecklingen av bestämdhetsmarkörer hos ryskspråkiga inlärare av svenska som tidigare studerat engelska. Till skillnad från ryskan uttrycker svenska och engelska bestämdhet med grammatisk morfologi. Medan engelska och svenska är strukturellt lika varandra när det gäller obestämdhet (a cat; en katt) skiljer de sig åt när det gäller bestämdhet (the cat; katt-en). Detta gör det möjligt att undersöka hur tvärspråkligt inflytande och språkbegåvning påverkar tredjespråksinlärning av strukturellt lika respektive olika strukturer. Bestämda och obestämda nominalfraser eliciterades från ryskspråkiga studenter (n=18) vid tre tillfällen under deras första år av svenskstudier. Vid kursstart testades även deras användning engelska artiklar samt språkbegåvning. Referensdata samlades in från förstaspråkstalare av svenska (n=26) och engelska (n=17). Bestämda och obestämda morfem analyserades separat. Regressionsanalyser visade att utvecklingen av svenskans obestämda artikel påverkades av inlärarnas användning av deras användning av engelskans obestämda artikel, som är strukturellt lik den svenska, medan utvecklingen av svenskans bestämda suffix påverkades av språkbegåvning. Dessa indikerar att tredjespråksinlärning kan underlättas av kunskaper i ett andraspråk, åtminstone när språken är strukturellt lika varandra, medan språkbegåvning spelar en viktigare roll vid inlärning av strukturer utan en direkt motsvarighet i tidigare inlärda språk.
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| 2. |
- Agebjörn, Anders, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitude in L3 acquisition of functional morphology
- 2021
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitude in L3 acquisition of functional morphologyTwo factors suggested to influence second-language acquisition are cross-linguistic influence (CLI) and language-learning aptitude. However, the relationship between the two has rarely been investigated, and it is unclear to what extent the relative importance of CLI and aptitude depends on the degree of similarity between source and target language (cf. Bokander 2021; Skehan 1998; Tolentino & Tokowicz 2014). The present study addresses this issue by examining the longitudinal development of definiteness marking in Russian-speaking learners of Swedish who had previously acquired English. Unlike Russian, English and Swedish obligatorily express definiteness using dedicated functional morphology. While the English indefinite article (a park) is structurally similar to its Swedish counterpart (en park ‘a park’), the English definite article (the park) is structurally dissimilar to its Swedish counterpart, a nominal suffix (park-en ‘the park’). This enables us to investigate the role of cross-linguistic influence and aptitude in third-language acquisition of functional morphology.Definite and indefinite noun phrases were orally elicited from native speakers of Russian (n=18) during two terms of a beginner-Swedish course. At data point 1, their use of English articles and their aptitude were also tested (Meara 2005). Further, data were collected from native speakers of Swedish (n=26) and English (n=17). The participants’ use of indefinite and definite morphemes was analysed separately. Two linear mixed-effects models revealed that the learners’ developing use of the Swedish indefinite article was associated with their command of the English indefinite article, which is structurally similar. By contrast, their developing use of the Swedish definite nominal suffix, which is structurally dissimilar to its English counterpart, was moderated primarily by aptitude. This suggests that learners may capitalise on previously acquired linguistic knowledge primarily when source and target languages are similar, while language-learning aptitude appears to play a more important role in the acquisition of qualitatively new morphology.ReferencesBokander, Lars (2021). Language aptitude and crosslinguistic influence in initial L2 learning. Journal of the European Second Language Association 4(1), s. 35–44. Meara, Paul (2005). LLAMA Language Aptitude Tests: the manual. Swansea: Lognostics. Tolentino, Leida C. & Natasha Tokowicz (2014). Cross-language similarity modulates effectiveness of second language grammar instruction. Language Learning 64(2), s. 279–309. Skehan, Peter (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford University Press.
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| 3. |
- Agebjörn, Anders, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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L3 acquisition of functional morphology : the role of cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitude
- 2022
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- L3 acquisition of functional morphology: the role of cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitudeTwo factors suggested to influence second-language acquisition are cross-linguistic influence (CLI) and language-learning aptitude. However, the relationship between these two factors has rarely been investigated, and it is unclear to what extent the relative importance of CLI and aptitude depends on the degree of similarity between the target language and previously acquired languages (cf. Bokander 2021; Skehan 1998; Tolentino & Tokowicz 2014). The present study addresses this issue by examining the longitudinal development of definiteness marking in native Russian-speaking learners of Swedish as a third language (L3), who had previously acquired English as a second language (L2). Unlike Russian, English and Swedish obligatorily express definiteness using dedicated functional morphology. While the English indefinite article (a park) is structurally similar to its Swedish counterpart (en park ‘a park’), the English definite article (the park) is structurally dissimilar to its Swedish counterpart, which is a nominal suffix (park-en ‘the park’). In this study, we exploit these structural similarities and differences across languages in order to investigate the role of both CLI and language-learning aptitude in L3 acquisition of functional morphology.Using a communicative, oral task, we elicited definite and indefinite noun phrases from native speakers of Russian (n = 18) at three occasions during the first two terms of a beginner-Swedish course. At data point 1, we tested their use of English articles, using the same task, as well as their language-learning aptitude, using Meara’s (2005) LLAMA Language Aptitude Tests. In addition, reference data were collected from native speakers of Swedish (n = 26) and English (n = 17). The participants’ use of indefinite and definite morphemes was analysed separately, and two linear mixed-effects models were built to investigate to what extent the learners’ language-learning aptitude and command of English articles could predict their developing use of the Swedish indefinite article and definite suffix respectively. The results revealed that the learners’ use of both morphemes improved over time. Their use of the indefinite article was associated with their command of the English indefinite article, which is structurally similar to the Swedish one. In contrast, their use of the definite nominal suffix, which is structurally dissimilar to its English counterpart, was associated with aptitude. This suggests that L3 learners may capitalise on previously-acquired linguistic knowledge primarily when source and target languages are similar, while language-learning aptitude appears to play a more important role in the acquisition of qualitatively new morphology, that is morphology without a structurally similar counterpart in any previously learned language. ReferencesBokander, Lars (2021). Language aptitude and crosslinguistic influence in initial L2 learning. Journal of the European Second Language Association 4(1), s. 35–44. Meara, Paul (2005). LLAMA Language Aptitude Tests: the manual. Swansea: Lognostics. Tolentino, Leida C. & Natasha Tokowicz (2014). Cross-language similarity modulates effectiveness of second language grammar instruction. Language Learning 64(2), s. 279–309.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Do dialect-specific prosodic properties shape the path to contrastive focus? : Production and comprehension data from 3-5 year-old children acquiring Stockholm or Scania Swedish
- 2023
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Conference paper (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Cuing information structure (IS) is a fundamental function of prosody in many languages. For instance, in English or Dutch, a contrastive focus on the color adjective in a phrase like ‘the green boat’ is marked by a pitch accent on GREEN and, crucially, a lack of post-focal accent on BOAT: ‘the GREEN boat’. Listeners infer from this prosodic structure that ‘boat’ represents already activated (given) information and that the color that is specially mentioned represents one out of a set of alternatives. According to research findings, children achieve proficiency in the production of prosodic IS encoding within the age range of 4 to 8 years, displaying considerable variability. This variability is suggested to result from structural prosodic differences between languages. For instance, Stockholm Swedish speaking children mark (non-contrastive) focus using the Swedish prominence cuing H(igh) tone in an adult-like manner already at 4-5 years, while Dutch speaking children handle Dutch intonational pitch accents only after the age of 7-8 years. One hypothesis is that this relates to the presence of lexical pitch accents in Swedish, which could make Swedish speaking children more sensitive to prosodic contrasts; in addition, the combination of lexical accent + prominence H results in a complex contour which is particularly salient. However, studies investigating this have usually had a strict focus on speech production. The few previous studies that have conducted parallel production and comprehension experiments have typically used offline methods to assess comprehension. More recent studies using online methods such as eye tracking have usually not included children younger than 6 years of age and have not been complemented by production data. In this study we combine production and comprehension experiments, using eye tracking, to study contrastive focus prosody in 3- to 5-year-old children speaking either Scanian or Stockholm Swedish. In Scanian, instead of adding the prominence H-tone for focus, phrase-level prominence is encoded through phonetic adjustments of the (lexical) HL accent patterns. By comparing these two Swedish varieties we can thus control for phonological features (incl. lexical tone), as well as grammar and lexicon, when exploring effects of prosodic-typological differences. In our production experiment we elicit adjective-noun phrases in three different focus conditions (broad, contrast on adjective, contrast on noun), using an interactive video/card game. Production data are analyzed acoustically and auditorily. As for comprehension, our visual-word eye-tracking experiment makes use of the same pictures of colored objects to investigate whether and how children rely on prosody for reference resolution (e.g., Where is the yellow boat? And where is the GREEN boat?). The time course of eye movements will be analyzed using growth curves. Both production and eye-tracking data will be analyzed as a function of dialect, age and standardized measures of language production and comprehension (The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales), as well as compared to data from adult controls. Data are currently being collected. A preliminary analysis of eye-tracking data from 24 Scanian children (ages 3-5 years collapsed) and a subset of adults from both dialects suggests similar comprehension of focus prosody as in adults (as a mismatched focus prosody in the adjective successfully elicits looks at the foil item in all groups), although processing appears to be slower, and anticipatory strategies differ slightly from those of adults (as the color of the first-mentioned adjective in a trial elicits looks at the color-matched distractor in adults, but not in children). An analysis contrasting comprehension data for both dialects, as well as a preliminary analysis of production data will be presented at the conference.
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| 6. |
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Do dialect-specific prosodic properties shape the path to contrastive focus? - Production and comprehension data from 3-5 year-old children acquiring Stockholm or Scania Swedish
- 2023
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cuing information structure (IS) is a fundamental function of prosody in many languages. For instance, in English or Dutch, a contrastive focus on the color adjective in a phrase like ‘the green boat’ is marked by a pitch accent on GREEN and, crucially, a lack of post-focal accent on BOAT: ‘the GREEN boat’. Listeners infer from this prosodic structure that ‘boat’ represents already activated (given) information and that the color that is specially mentioned represents one out of a set of alternatives.According to research findings, children achieve proficiency in the production of prosodic IS encoding within the age range of 4 to 8 years, displaying considerable variability. This variability is suggested to result from structural prosodic differences between languages. For instance, Stockholm Swedish speaking children mark (non-contrastive) focus using the Swedish prominence cuing H(igh) tone in an adult-like manner already at 4-5 years, while Dutch speaking children handle Dutch intonational pitch accents only after the age of 7-8 years. One hypothesis is that this relates to the presence of lexical pitch accents in Swedish, which could make Swedish speaking children more sensitive to prosodic contrasts; in addition, the combination of lexical accent + prominence H results in a complex contour which is particularly salient. However, studies investigating this have usually had a strict focus on speech production.The few previous studies that have conducted parallel production and comprehension experiments have typically used offline methods to assess comprehension. More recent studies using online methods such as eye tracking have usually not included children younger than 6 years of age and have not been complemented by production data. In this study we combine production and comprehension experiments, using eye tracking, to study contrastive focus prosody in 3- to 5-year-old children speaking either Scanian or Stockholm Swedish. In Scanian, instead of adding the prominence H-tone for focus, phrase-level prominence is encoded through phonetic adjustments of the (lexical) HL accent patterns. By comparing these two Swedish varieties we can thus control for phonological features (incl. lexical tone), as well as grammar and lexicon, when exploring effects of prosodic-typological differences.In our production experiment we elicit adjective-noun phrases in three different focus conditions (broad, contrast on adjective, contrast on noun), using an interactive video/card game. Production data are analyzed acoustically and auditorily.As for comprehension, our visual-word eye-tracking experiment makes use of the same pictures of colored objects to investigate whether and how children rely on prosody for reference resolution (e.g., Where is the yellow boat? And where is the GREEN boat?). The time course of eye movements will be analyzed using growth curves. Both production and eye-tracking data will be analyzed as a function of dialect, age and standardized measures of language production and comprehension (The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales), as well as compared to data from adult controls. Data are currently being collected. A preliminary analysis of eye-tracking data from 24 Scanian children (ages 3-5 years collapsed) and a subset of adults from both dialects suggests similar comprehension of focus prosody as in adults (as a mismatched focus prosody in the adjective successfully elicits looks at the foil item in all groups), although processing appears to be slower, and anticipatory strategies differ slightly from those of adults (as the color of the first-mentioned adjective in a trial elicits looks at the color-matched distractor in adults, but not in children). An analysis contrasting comprehension data for both dialects, as well as a preliminary analysis of production data will be presented at the conference.
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| 7. |
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Språkutveckling och prosodisk typologi : Produktion och perception av den dialektspecifika fokusmarkeringen hos 3- till 5-åriga barn från Stockholm och Skåne
- 2023
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Conference paper (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Att lägga satsbetoningen på ordet som bör fokuseras utifrån en given informationsstruktur är något som barn enligt tidigare internationell forskning verkar bemästra relativt sent i utvecklingen av sitt förstaspråk. Förmågan att uppfatta och tolka satsbetoning verkar barn enligt vissa studier utveckla ännu senare, men få tidigare studier har genomfört parallella produktions- och perceptionstest, och få perceptionsstudier har i detta sammanhang använt sig av online metoder (så som ögonrörelsemätning) med barn yngre än sex år. En del tidigare studier har påvisat typologiska skillnader; till exempel verkar svenska barn kunna producera en vuxenlik fokusbetoning tidigare än nederländska barn. Med vår studie ämnar vi bidra till en bättre förståelse av hur barn utvecklar sin förmåga att producera och uppfatta kontrastiva fokusbetoningar (t. ex. en röd BIL, en RÖD bil), hur produktionen och perceptionen hänger ihop, och vilken roll prosodisk språktypologi kan spela i sammanhanget. Vi undersöker dessa förmågor hos (totalt ca 120) förskolebarn med stockholmsvenska respektive skånska som förstaspråk – två dialekter som representerar motpoler i en prosodisk typologi när det gäller hur satsbetoning kodas intonationsfonologiskt. I vår produktionsstudie eliciterar vi adjektiv-substantiv fraser med varierad kontrastiv fokus, och i perceptionsstudien mäter vi barnens bearbetning av prosodin i liknande fraser med hjälp av ögonrörelsemätning. Datainsamling pågår i skrivande stund, och prelimära resultat kommer att presenteras på workshopen
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| 8. |
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Språkutveckling och prosodisk typologi: Produktion och perception av den dialektspecifika fokusmarkeringen hos 3- till 5-åriga barn från Stockholm och Skåne
- 2023
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Att lägga satsbetoningen på ordet som bör fokuseras utifrån en given informationsstruktur är något som barn enligt tidigare internationell forskning verkar bemästra relativt sent i utvecklingen av sitt förstaspråk. Förmågan att uppfatta och tolka satsbetoning verkar barn enligt vissa studier utveckla ännu senare, men få tidigare studier har genomfört parallella produktions- och perceptionstest, och få perceptionsstudier har i detta sammanhang använt sig av online metoder (så som ögonrörelsemätning) med barn yngre än sex år. En del tidigare studier har påvisat typologiska skillnader; till exempel verkar svenska barn kunna producera en vuxenlik fokusbetoning tidigare än nederländska barn.Med vår studie ämnar vi bidra till en bättre förståelse av hur barn utvecklar sin förmåga att producera och uppfatta kontrastiva fokusbetoningar (t. ex. en röd BIL, en RÖD bil), hur produktionen och perceptionen hänger ihop, och vilken roll prosodisk språktypologi kan spela i sammanhanget. Vi undersöker dessa förmågor hos (totalt ca 120) förskolebarn med stockholmsvenska respektive skånska som förstaspråk – två dialekter som representerar motpoler i en prosodisk typologi när det gäller hur satsbetoning kodas intonationsfonologiskt. I vår produktionsstudie eliciterar vi adjektiv-substantiv fraser med varierad kontrastiv fokus, och i perceptionsstudien mäter vi barnens bearbetning av prosodin i liknande fraser med hjälp av ögonrörelsemätning. Datainsamling pågår i skrivande stund, och prelimära resultat kommer att presenteras på workshopen.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Andersson, Annika, 1966-, et al.
(author)
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Ditt förstaspråks grammatik påverkar hur din hjärna bearbetar dina andraspråk
- 2015
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In: Grammatikdagen 2015, Lund.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Neurokognitiva studier av hjärnans bearbetning av första- och andraspråksgrammatik relaterar skillnader till inlärningsålder och andraspråksfärdighet. Dessa studier undersöker typiskt inte hur skillnader och likheter i språkens strukturer påverkar bearbetningen. Vi utforskade hur andraspråkstalare med goda språkfärdigheter i Svenska bearbetade svenskans verbplacering beroende på om deras första språk hade samma verbplacering som svenskan (tyska) eller inte (engelska). Denna studie visar att hjärnans bearbetning av ett andra språk inte kan begränsas till en diskussion om ålder vid inlärande eller språkfärdighet.
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