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Production and On-Line Comprehension of Definiteness in English and Dutch by Monolingual and Sequential Bilingual Children

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Production and On-Line Comprehension of Definiteness in English and Dutch by Monolingual and Sequential Bilingual Children
Language: English
Authors: Chondrogianni, Vasiliki, Vasic, Nada, Marinis, Theodoros, Blom, Elma
Source: Second Language Research. Jul 2015 31(3):309-341.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 33
Publication Date: 2015
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Language Research, Reading Comprehension, Language Processing, Second Language Learning, English (Second Language), Indo European Languages, Native Language, Control Groups, Syntax, Semantics, Task Analysis, Form Classes (Languages), Error Patterns, Turkish, Foreign Countries, Statistical Analysis
Geographic Terms: Netherlands, United Kingdom
DOI: 10.1177/0267658314564461
ISSN: 0267-6583
Abstract: The present article examines production and on-line processing of definite articles in Turkish-speaking sequential bilingual children acquiring English and Dutch as second languages (L2) in the UK and in the Netherlands, respectively. Thirty-nine 6-8-year-old L2 children and 48 monolingual (L1) age-matched children participated in two separate studies examining the production of definite articles in English and Dutch in conditions manipulating semantic context, that is, the anaphoric and the bridging contexts. Sensitivity to article omission was examined in the same groups of children using an on-line processing task involving article use in the same semantic contexts as in the production task. The results indicate that both L2 children and L1 controls are less accurate when definiteness is established by keeping track of the discourse referents (anaphoric) than when it is established via world knowledge (bridging). Moreover, despite variable production, all groups of children were sensitive to the omission of definite articles in the on-line comprehension task. This suggests that the errors of omission are not due to the lack of abstract syntactic representations, but could result from processes implicated in the spell-out of definite articles. The findings are in line with the idea that variable production in child L2 learners does not necessarily indicate lack of abstract representations (Haznedar and Schwartz, 1997).
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 69
Entry Date: 2015
Accession Number: EJ1065015
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:The present article examines production and on-line processing of definite articles in Turkish-speaking sequential bilingual children acquiring English and Dutch as second languages (L2) in the UK and in the Netherlands, respectively. Thirty-nine 6-8-year-old L2 children and 48 monolingual (L1) age-matched children participated in two separate studies examining the production of definite articles in English and Dutch in conditions manipulating semantic context, that is, the anaphoric and the bridging contexts. Sensitivity to article omission was examined in the same groups of children using an on-line processing task involving article use in the same semantic contexts as in the production task. The results indicate that both L2 children and L1 controls are less accurate when definiteness is established by keeping track of the discourse referents (anaphoric) than when it is established via world knowledge (bridging). Moreover, despite variable production, all groups of children were sensitive to the omission of definite articles in the on-line comprehension task. This suggests that the errors of omission are not due to the lack of abstract syntactic representations, but could result from processes implicated in the spell-out of definite articles. The findings are in line with the idea that variable production in child L2 learners does not necessarily indicate lack of abstract representations (Haznedar and Schwartz, 1997).
ISSN:0267-6583
DOI:10.1177/0267658314564461