Fulga, Angelica and McDonough, Kim (2016) The impact of first language background and visual information on the effectiveness of low-variability input. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37 (2). pp. 265-283. ISSN 0142-7164
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
This study investigated whether first language (L1) background and visual information impact the effectiveness of skewed and balanced input at promoting pattern detection. Participants ( N =84) were exposed to Esperanto sentences with the transitive construction under skewed (one noun with high token frequency) or balanced (equal token frequency) input conditions while viewing either coloror black-and-white visuals. Their ability to detect the relevant morphological and syntactic features of the transitive construction was tested through a forced-judgment task using novel nouns. The results indicated no significant main effect for visual information or input type. There was, however, a significant main effect for L1 on learners’ detection of the novel pattern. Implications are discussed interms of the potential effect of L1-specific transitive encodings on second language speakers’ ability to abstract novel patterns.