Investigating Effects Of Language Transfer,input Modality And Visual-spatial Working Memory On Syntactic Processing Through Artificial Language Learning

With the development of globalization,learning a third language becomes a trend.The nature of L3 acquisition and scientific pedagogies become key concerns of language learning research.Bilinguals have been verified to have language superiority in third language acquisition.Therefore,this study aims at investigating the effects of the previous language experiences on third language acquisition.Several models have been developed for elaboration of the mechanism of language transfer effect.However,none of them specified the involvement of various factors or more specifically the learning of certain linguistic features.In addition,input conditions,which mainly refer to aural or visual modes,have also been found to meaningfully relate to L3 acquisition.Previous research has found that aural input is more suitable for learning implicit knowledge while written input promotes the acquisition of explicit knowledge.A timed word-by-word format can mimic the serial nature of listening.This study thus used a written input format and a wordby-word(rapid serial visual presentation)format to increase the comparability between the written and aural modalities.Additionally,the comparison can reveal the possible nature of sentence processing.The word-by-word format requires the participants to attend to one word at a time,corresponding to the serial processing model.Accumulating research on the other hand has found evidence of the parallel processing model,which believes that each word functions together in different positions of a sentence,and the visual-spatial working memory may play a role in the sentence parsing.Therefore,through the comparison between the written input and the word-by-word format,the relationship between visualspatial working memory and the sentence processing in the two groups can possibly corroborate the parallel processing model.The research questions addressed in the study are as follows:RQ1: To what extent do the syntactic features of L1 and L2 affect bilingual’s syntactic processing ability of an artificial syntax?RQ2: To what extent does the input modality affect bilingual’s syntactic processing ability of an artificial syntax?RQ3: To what extent is the bilingual’s syntactic processing ability of an artificial syntax related with the visual-spatial working memory?To answer these questions,this study used a semi-artificial language consisting of an English lexicon and German syntax for the participants to learn as the third language.In this way can the study highly control the types of language structures being tested,similarity to participants’ known languages,and the amount and type of language exposure.The participants are L1 Chinese-L2 English(with high proficiency)bilinguals.The participants need to learn two verb-placement rules through the artificial language training and completed a grammaticality judgement test and a n-back working memory test.Findings of the study are summarized as follows:First,the learning outcomes indicate obvious positive transfer from English(L2)and negative transfer from Chinese(L1).As for the negative transfer,L1 plays a more dominant role in the early stages of learning,conforming to the L1 Factor Hypothesis.Second,the modality difference resulted in similar performances in the sentence processing.Only according to the descriptive statistics,the word-by-word group embodied a slight advantage,possibly indicating that implicit knowledge may proceed with auditory practice.The visualspatial working memory on the other hand was significantly related with the performances of the whole sentence group while insignificantly related with that of the word-by-word group.Therefore,the result can support the parallel processing model concerning the nature of sentence processing.The findings of this study can thus inform classroom instructors and task designers to understand the difficulties of syntactic learning concerning transfer from L1 and L2 in L3 acquisition,and instruct them to choose the optimal mode of input delivery for maximum L3 learning and provide deeper insight into the nature of sentence parsing.The study still has limitations and can provide implications for future research.