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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton October 16, 2018

Three Elements That Affect the Realisation of Subject-Verb Agreement in the Speech Production of L2 Speakers of English with L1 Chinese

  • Yi Ma

    Yi Ma is Lecturer of English (applied linguistics) at Foshan University. His research efforts have focused on second language acquisition, psycholinguistic and second language production mechanism.

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    and Yige Zou

    Yige Zou is Associate Professor of English (applied linguistics) at Foshan University. His research efforts have focused on second language acquisition and language policy.

Abstract

The experiment presented in this research is targeting a ‘positional’ stage of a ‘modular’ model of speech production originally proposed by Levelt (1989), Bock & Levelt (1994), where selected lemmas are inserted into syntactic frames. Results suggest a difference between L1 and L2 English speakers at the positional stage. While this might suggest that the speech planning process is different in native and non-native speakers, an alternative view is also proposed that the observed differences are the result of differences in the way that linguistic forms are stored, rather than a fundamental difference in the way that speech is planned. This result indicates main verb, copula be & local dependency effect are the three elements that affect the realization of English subject-verb agreement, and helps us locate the phase where L2 subject-verb agreement errors happen.

About the authors

Yi Ma

Yi Ma is Lecturer of English (applied linguistics) at Foshan University. His research efforts have focused on second language acquisition, psycholinguistic and second language production mechanism.

Yige Zou

Yige Zou is Associate Professor of English (applied linguistics) at Foshan University. His research efforts have focused on second language acquisition and language policy.

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Appendix

Distribution of test items

ExamplemainVAdjQmainVQAdjTotal
NAnimThe guest22228
AnimThe guests22228
InanThe photo22228
InanThe photo22228
N of NAnim-animThe guest of the student224
The guests of the student224
The guest of students224
The guests of the students224
Anim-inanThe director of the film224
The directors of the film224
The director of the films224
The directors of the films224
Inan-animThe picture of the teacher224
The pictures of the teacher224
The picture of the teachers224
The pictures of the teachers224
Inan-inanThe photo of the hotel224
The photos of the hotel224
The photo of the hotels224
Long local NAnim-animThe photos of the hotels The guest of the young friendly students2 22 24 4
Anim-inanThe director of the short, interesting films224
Inan-animThe picture of the tall, smiling teachers224
QuestionsInan-inan Anim-animThe photo of the small, traditional hotels The guest of the students22224 4
Anim-inanThe director of the films224
Inan-animThe picture of the teachers224
Inan-inanThe photo of the hotels224
Total128
Published Online: 2018-10-16
Published in Print: 2018-09-25

© 2018 FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy

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