Processing and acquisition of scrambled sentences by learners of Japanese as a second language

Abstract

This three-article dissertation aimed at investigating how simple transitive sentences with a scrambled word order (i.e., Object-Subject-Verb) are processed and acquired by second language (L2) learners of Japanese. The first article (Chapter 2) examined L2 learners' grammatical knowledge and production performance of the OSV sentences through two tasks (fill-in-the-blank and picture description). The results indicated a positive relationship between the learners' general proficiency in Japanese and their knowledge/production performance of the OSV sentences, although there was a rather large individual difference within proficiency groups. It was also found that the difficulty in producing OSV sentences was mostly due to a lack of grammatical knowledge, but the relationship of grammatical knowledge and production performance interacted with the types of sentences (reversible and non-reversible). The second article (Chapter 3) examined the comprehension processes of OSV sentences. While the results of a pilot study (sentence correctness decision task) indicated that both the L2 learners and native speakers (NS) took longer to read and comprehend OSV sentences than SOV sentences, the results of a self-paced reading task suggested that the processing of OSV sentences by L2 learners might be quite different from that of NSs. The NS participants read more slowly at the second NP position when they read the OSV sentences. On the other hand, the L2 learners, regardless of their proficiency level, did not show such slowdowns. The third article (Chapter 4) examined whether a psycholinguistic task (syntactic persistence with picture description) might facilitate the production of scrambled sentences among L2 learners, for the purpose of exploring the possibility of using such a method as an instructional tool. While the main task, which used regular SOV/OSV sentences as primes, was not very effective in eliciting the production of OSV sentences, the follow-up task, which used questions in SOV/OSV orders as primes, observed a more positive effect of syntactic persistence. Based on the results, explicit instruction and practice on scrambling is suggested. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by addressing your request to ProQuest, 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346. Telephone [phone]; e-mail: [email protected]