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ERIC Number: EJ850237
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0026-7902
EISSN: N/A
Syntactic Priming, Type Frequency, and EFL Learners' Production of "Wh"-Questions
McDonough, Kim; Kim, Youjin
Modern Language Journal, v93 n3 p386-398 Fall 2009
Previous interaction studies have reported a positive relationship between syntactic priming and English second language (L2) learners' subsequent production of "wh"-questions. Syntactic priming research has shown that a speaker's production of a structure during syntactic priming activities is influenced by the individual lexical items that occur in the immediate discourse context. The current study brings together these 2 lines of research to determine whether variation in the type frequency of the lexical verbs and "wh"-question words targeted in syntactic priming activities impacts learners' subsequent production of "wh"-questions. Thai English as a foreign language learners (n = 85) met individually with a researcher for 2 20-minute sessions over a 3-week period during which they carried out pretest, priming, and posttest activities. The sessions were digitally recorded and transcribed, and the transcripts were analyzed in terms of the type and number of "wh"-questions produced by the learners. The results indicated that syntactic priming materials that prompted learners to produce "wh"-questions with a wide variety of lexical verbs facilitated their subsequent production of "wh"-questions. The implications are discussed in terms of the role of type frequency during priming activities in L2 learners' acquisition of "wh"-questions.
Wiley-Blackwell. 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. Tel: 800-835-6770; Tel: 781-388-8598; Fax: 781-388-8232; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A