Awareness of L1 form-meaning mappings can reduce crosslinguistic effects in L2 grammatical learning

Abstract

The present study examined the extent to which first language (L1) awareness can benefit second language (L2) grammatical learning of the French Imparfait, a crosslinguistically complex target feature. Sixty-nine English-speaking learners of L2 French received different types of explicit information (EI) about L2 or L2 + L1 form-meaning mappings. A ‘core’ treatment received by all learners consisted of EI about L2 with L2 comprehension-based practice of French sentences. Two further treatments examined the impact of additional (i) EI about L1 and (ii) comprehension practice of L1 sentences. Results from an online self-paced reading test, offline judgment tests (in reading and listening) and an oral sentence completion test with source of knowledge probes showed that performance immediately after the instruction and then six weeks later improved only for learners exhibiting L1 awareness. These results suggest that awareness of L1 form-meaning mappings can benefit L2 grammar learning of a crosslinguistically complex target feature.

KEYWORDS:

• SLA
• explicit instruction
• language awareness
• grammar
• crosslinguistic contrasts

Acknowledgements

A version of this paper was presented at the 2017 American Association for Applied Linguistics conference in Portland, Oregon. Many thanks to the learners who participated in this study, to Laurence Richard, Angela O’Flaherty and Nigel Armstrong for help with recruitment, and to Emma Marsden.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This research was supported by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF130001) awarded to Kevin McManus, with Emma Marsden as Mentor.

Notes

1 An advanced-level, English school leaving qualification that assesses learners’ French language abilities in speaking, reading, writing, listening and grammar, as well as cultural and social knowledge of French-speaking countries. It is equivalent to CEFR level B2, typically after 700–800 hours of instruction. See https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/as-and-a-level/french-7652/specification-at-a-glance

2 The same lexical verbs were used in each version, but in different contexts (e.g. he went to the shop vs. she went to the stadium)

3 So that participants had not read the same stimuli twice in the same test phase.

4 Judgements about match/mismatches were not requested because explicit judgements in online tasks can lead to unusually slow or careful reading as well as tapping into more explicit resources (see Keating & Jegerski, 2015).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF130001) awarded to Kevin McManus, with Emma Marsden as Mentor.

Notes on contributors

Kevin McManus

Kevin McManus is Watz Early Career Professor in Language and Linguistics, Director of the Center for Language Acquisition and Co-director of the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research in the Department of Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. His research specializations include second language learning and psycholinguistics, with a particular emphasis on crosslinguistic influences in second language learning.