Crosslinguistic
Interactions in the Development of L2 Intraword Awareness: Effects
of Logographic Processing Experience
K. Koda |
The
study investigated the effects of L1 logographic experience on the
development of L2 intraword morphological awareness among adult L2
learners of English (ESL) with differential amounts of logographic
and alphabetic L 1 processing experience. Intraword awareness pertains
to the learner's understanding of words' internal structure and the
ability to utilize such structural knowledge during lexical processing.
Based on a crosslinguistic analysis of lexical structure in English
and Chinese, three specific predictions were made. ESL learners with
logographic L1 background would be (a) less sensitive to intraword
structural variations, (b) less perceptive to the constraints on
morpheme concatenation, and (c) less efficient in morphological analysis
than those with alphabetic L1 background. The study tested these
predictions empirically by comparing five specific aspects of L2
morphological awareness among Chinese (non-concatenative/logographic)
and Korean (concatenative/alphabetic-syllabary) ESL learners. The
data demonstrated that (1) the groups did not differ in intraword
structural sensitivity; (2) Korean learners were more efficient than
Chinese in analyzing structurally ambiguous real English words; (3)
virtually no difference existed between the groups with respect to
either relational or syntactic awareness; and (4) Korean participants
were more sensitive than the Chinese to distributional constraints
on English morpheme concatenation. Viewed collectively, these findings
seem to suggest that L1 processing experience influences L2 intraword
awareness in specific and predictable ways. Key words: bilingual processing, morpheme, metalinguistic awareness |