语言水平及任务类型对第二语言产出中结构启动的影响

Effects of language proficiency and task type on structural priming in L2 production of English dative constructions

本文旨在探究语言水平及任务类型对第二语言结构启动效应的影响。研究者通过书面句子补全和口头图片描述任务,观察了两组不同水平的中国英语学习者产出英语双及物构式时的结构启动现象。研究发现,语言水平及任务类型均对结构启动效应具有显著性影响。具体表现为,高水平学习者对结构启动的敏感程度显著高于低水平学习者,口头图片描述任务中的启动效应强于书面句子补全任务,且语言水平与任务类型无交互效应。本文根据结构启动和二语习得的相关理论对这些发现进行了讨论,并提出了未来研究的方向。

The present study aims to probe whether and to what extent the magnitude of syntactic priming is modulated by proficiency level and task type. Two experiments were conducted to examine the structural priming effect which occurred in L2 production of English dative constructions. Participants were two groups of Chinese EFL learners whose English proficiency belonged to two distinct levels. Experiment 1 adopted a written sentence completion task and Experiment 2 an oral picture description task. It was found that both language proficiency and task type significantly influenced the magnitude of structural priming in L2 production. More specifically, L2 learners with higher language proficiency were more sensitive to syntactic priming and the priming effect was stronger in the oral picture description task. However, no significant interaction was observed between language proficiency and task type.