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VARIABILITY IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

The Roles of Individual Differences, Learning Conditions, and Linguistic Complexity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2016

Kaitlyn M. Tagarelli ,
Simón Ruiz ,
José Luis Moreno Vega  and
Patrick Rebuschat
Kaitlyn M. Tagarelli*
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
Simón Ruiz
Affiliation:
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
José Luis Moreno Vega
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Patrick Rebuschat
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kaitlyn M. Tagarelli, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Life Sciences Center, 1355 Oxford St., Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Second language learning outcomes are highly variable, due to a variety of factors, including individual differences, exposure conditions, and linguistic complexity. However, exactly how these factors interact to influence language learning is unknown. This article examines the relationship between these three variables in language learners.

Native English speakers were exposed to an artificial language containing three sentence patterns of varying linguistic complexity. They were randomly assigned to two groups—incidental and instructed—designed to promote the acquisition of implicit and explicit knowledge, respectively. Learning was assessed with a grammaticality judgment task, and subjective measures of awareness were used to measure whether exposure had resulted in implicit or explicit knowledge. Participants also completed cognitive tests.

Awareness measures demonstrated that learners in the incidental group relied more on implicit knowledge, whereas learners in the instructed group relied more on explicit knowledge. Overall, exposure condition was the most significant predictor of performance on the grammaticality judgment task, with learners in the instructed group outperforming those in the incidental group. Performance on a procedural learning task accounted for additional variance. When outcomes were analyzed according to linguistic complexity, exposure condition was the most significant predictor for two syntactic patterns, but it was not a predictor for the most complex sentence group; instead, procedural learning ability was.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 38 , Special Issue 2: Cognitive Perspectives on Difficulty and Complexity in SLA , June 2016 , pp. 293 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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