This study investigated whether adult learners could eventually achieve nativelike proficiency in L2 inflectional morphology that is not instantiated in their L1 with the increase of L2 proficiency. The participants were 47 L1-Chinese of L2-English speakers. They were divided into three groups according to their levels of English proficiency, and their morphological performance in L2-English plurals was individually tested with a self-paced word-by-word reading task and an oral interview. According to the results: (1) all the three groups showed a reliable degree of sensitivity to English plurals; although L2 proficiency was non-significant in their overall performance, the advanced participants displayed a more similar pattern of performance to the native English speakers as compared to the less-advanced ones; and (2) the participants’ production accuracy increased with the increase in English proficiency. Overall, the findings suggested that adult L2 learners could eventually acquire L2 morphology with the increase of L2 proficiency.

中文翻译：

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二语熟练度在成人学习者二语形态学表现中的作用调查

这项研究调查了成年学习者是否最终能够在 L2 屈折形态方面达到与母语一样的熟练程度，而随着 L2 熟练程度的提高，这种语言在他们的 L1 中没有被实例化。参与者是 47 名 L1 汉语和 L2 英语使用者。根据他们的英语水平将他们分成三组，并通过自定进度的逐字阅读任务和口语访谈分别测试他们在二语英语复数形式中的表现。结果显示：（1）三组对英语复数的敏感程度均可靠；尽管 L2 熟练程度在他们的整体表现中并不显着，但与不太高级的参与者相比，高级参与者表现出与以英语为母语的人更相似的表现模式；(2) 参与者的生产准确性随着英语水平的提高而提高。总体而言，研究结果表明，随着 L2 熟练程度的提高，成年 L2 学习者最终会获得 L2 形态。