The present study investigates how L2 learners adapt their production preferences following immediate and cumulative experience with a syntactic structure when an L2 structure differs from an L1 structure in terms of verb subcategorization frame and argument structure. Korean learners of English described causative events in English in a picture-matching game. The meaning of a causative sentence in English (e.g., Jen had her computer fixed) is expressed with an active transitive sentence in Korean (e.g., Jen-NOM computer-ACC fixed). The results demonstrated that both immediate and cumulative experience with a causative structure increased the likelihood of producing grammatical causative descriptions (e.g., Jen had her computer fixed), while decreasing the production of ungrammatical active transitive descriptions (e.g., Jen fixed her computer). The findings provide novel evidence that an implicit learning mechanism is involved in L2 learners’ processing and learning of an L2 structure that is different from L1.

本研究调查当 L2 结构在动词子分类框架和论元结构方面不同于 L1 结构时，L2 学习者如何根据对句法结构的直接和累积经验来调整他们的生产偏好。韩国英语学习者在图片匹配游戏中用英语描述因果事件。英语中的使役句（例如，Jen had her computer fixed）用韩语中的主动及物句（例如，Jen-NOM computer-ACC fixed）来表达。结果表明，对因果结构的直接和累积经验都增加了产生语法因果描述的可能性（例如，Jen 把她的电脑修好了）)，同时减少不合语法的主动及物描述的产生（例如，Jen 修好了她的电脑）。研究结果提供了新的证据，表明隐性学习机制涉及 L2 学习者对不同于 L1 的 L2 结构的处理和学习。