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Descriptors:
Grammar; Nouns; Language Processing; Second Language Learning; Syntax; Advanced Students; Form Classes (Languages); Computational Linguistics; Morphology (Languages); Adults; English; Native Speakers; German; Language Research; Control Groups; Eye Movements; Task Analysis; Language Tests; Placement

Abstract:
In order to identify the causes of inflectional variability in adult second-language (L2) acquisition, this study investigates lexical and syntactic aspects of gender processing in real-time L2 production and comprehension. Twenty advanced to near-native adult first language (L1) English speakers of L2 German and 20 native controls were tested in a study comprising two experiments. In elicited production, we probe accuracy in lexical gender assignment. In a visual-world eye tracking task, we test the predictive processing of syntactic gender agreement between determiners and nouns. The findings show clear contingencies (1) between overall accuracy in lexical gender assignment in production and target predictive processing of syntactic gender agreement in comprehension and (2) between the speed of lexical access and predictive syntactic gender agreement. These findings support lexical and computational accounts of L2 inflectional variability and argue against models positing representational deficits in morphosyntax in late L2 acquisition and processing. (Contains 7 tables, 3 figures and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Second Language Learning; English (Second Language); Multilingualism; German; Native Language; Transfer of Training; High School Students; Interviews; Oral Language; Italian; Foreign Countries; Second Language Instruction; Student Attitudes

Abstract:
The focus of this research is on the nature of lexical cross-linguistic influence (CLI) between non-native languages. Using oral interviews with 157 L1 Italian high-school students studying English and German as non-native languages, the project investigated which kinds of lexis appear to be more susceptible to transfer from German to English and discusses this is in the light of multilingual language production models. The results suggest that CLI is more likely to occur with content words and cognates. It also offers a suggestion that such non-native lexical CLI may be due to non-native languages being tagged as "foreign" rather than as individual languages. (Contains 6 tables and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Syntax; Sentences; Short Term Memory; German; Language Processing; Acoustics; Cognitive Processes; Attention; Intonation; Suprasegmentals

Abstract:
This paper discusses the influence of stationary (non-fluctuating) noise on processing and understanding of sentences, which vary in their syntactic complexity (with the factors canonicity, embedding, ambiguity). It presents data from two RT-studies with 44 participants testing processing of German sentences in silence and in noise. Results show a stronger impact of noise on the processing of structurally difficult than on syntactically simpler parts of the sentence. This may be explained by a combination of decreased acoustical information and an increased strain on cognitive resources, such as working memory or attention, which is caused by noise. The noise effect for embedded sentences is less than for non-embedded sentences, which may be explained by a benefit from prosodic information. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Error Correction; Feedback (Response); Second Language Learning; Pronunciation; Intervention; Speech; German; Pronunciation Instruction; Second Language Instruction; Task Analysis; Teaching Methods; Adult Students; Instructional Effectiveness

Abstract:
This article investigates the effect of explicit individual corrective feedback (ICF) on L2 pronunciation at the micro-level in order to determine whether ICF needs to complement listening only interventions. To this purpose, the authors carried out a study which investigated the immediate effect of feedback on comprehensibility of controlled speech production by L2 learners. 169 adult learners of German were assigned to two groups, one exposed to listening only activities (listening to their own recorded pronunciation and listening to teachers' model pronunciation) and the other receiving ICF in addition to the listening activities. Immediately before and after the respective interventions, the participants read a text, and two experienced judges rated in a blind and randomized rating task whether they could determine differences between the comprehensibility of the pre-test and post-test samples. The results show that ICF was more effective than listening only interventions in improving L2 comprehensibility. The study thus concludes that ICF is a significantly more powerful teaching tool than listening only activities. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Priming; Naming; Semantics; Classification; Responses; Reaction Time; German

Abstract:
The evaluative priming effect (i.e., faster target responses following evaluatively congruent compared with evaluatively incongruent primes) in nonevaluative priming tasks (such as naming or semantic categorization tasks) is considered important for the question of how evaluative connotations are represented in memory. However, the empirical evidence is rather ambiguous: Positive effects as well as null results and negatively signed effects have been found. We tested the assumption that different processes are responsible for these results. In particular, we argue that positive effects are due to target-encoding facilitation (caused by a congruent prime), while negative effects are due to prime-activation maintenance (caused by a congruent target) and subsequent response conflict. In 4 experiments, we used a negative prime-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) to minimize target-encoding facilitation and maximize prime maintenance. In a naming task (Experiment 1), we found a negatively signed evaluative priming effect if prime and target competed for naming responses. In a semantic categorization task (i.e., person vs. animal; Experiments 2 and 3), response conflicts between prime and target were significantly larger in case of evaluative congruence compared with incongruence. These results corroborate the theory that a prime has more potential to interfere with the target response if its activation is maintained by an evaluatively congruent target. Experiment 4a/b indicated valence specificity of the effect. Implications for the memory representation of valence are discussed. (Contains 6 tables, 2 figures and 9 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Pedagogical Content Knowledge; Optics; Science Achievement; Preservice Teacher Education; Video Technology; German; English; Evidence; Teachers; Secondary School Science; Classroom Communication; Teacher Student Relationship

Abstract:
Despite the theorized centrality of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching, we have little evidence of the relationship between PCK and students' learning and know relatively little about how to help teachers to develop PCK. This study is a preliminary attempt to address these gaps in our knowledge of PCK through exploration of two German physics teachers' classroom instruction in consecutive lessons on optics. We show how video analysis can be used to gather evidence for one aspect of teachers' PCK: their use of content knowledge in interactions with students. We identify three potentially important characteristics of this aspect of PCK: flexibility, richness, and learner-centeredness. By contrasting teachers with high and low gains in student knowledge and interest, we explore potential mechanisms by which this aspect of PCK might affect student outcomes. Because German teacher preparation programs emphasize content more than pedagogical knowledge, these cases contribute to our understanding of the support that teachers with strong content knowledge may need in translating this knowledge into a form useful for teaching. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures and 4 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Preschool Children; Sentence Structure; Grammar; Nouns; Verbs; Language Processing; German; Brain; Cognitive Measurement; Adults; Age Differences; Behavior; Foreign Countries

Abstract:
The acquisition of the function of case-marking is a key step in the development of sentence processing for German-speaking children since case-marking reveals the relations between sentential arguments. In this study, we investigated the development of the processing of case-marking and argument structures in children at 3, 4;6 and 6 years of age, as well as its processing in adults. Using EEG, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to object-initial compared to subject-initial German sentences including transitive verbs and case-marked noun phrases referring to animate arguments. We also tested children's behavioral competence in a sentence-picture matching task. Word order and case-marking were manipulated in German main clauses. Adults' behavioral performance was close to perfect and their ERPs revealed a negativity for the processing of the topicalized accusative marked noun phrase (NP1) and no effect for the second NP (NP2) in the object-initial structure. Children's behavioral data showed a significant above-chance outcome in the subject-initial condition for all age groups, but not for the object-initial condition. In contrast to adults, the ERPs of 3-year-olds showed a positivity at NP1, indicating difficulties in processing the non-canonical object-initial structures. Children at the age of 4;6 did not differ in the processing patterns of object-initial vs. subject-initial sentences at NP1 but showed a slight positivity at NP2. This positivity at NP2, which implies syntactic integration difficulties, is more pronounced in 6-year-olds but is absent in adults. At NP1, however, 6-year-olds show the same negativity as adults. In sum, the behavioral and electrophysiological findings demonstrate that children in each age group use different strategies, which are indicative of their developmental stage. While 3-year-olds merely detect differences in the two sentence structures without being able to use this information for sentence comprehension, 4;6-year-olds proceed to use mainly a word-order strategy, processing NP1 in both conditions in the same manner, which leads to processing difficulties upon detecting case-marking cues at NP2. At the age of 6, children are able to use case-marking cues for comprehension but still show enhanced effort for correct thematic-role assignment. (Contains 3 tables, 4 footnotes, and 6 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Bilingualism; German; Literature; Computer Assisted Instruction; Task Analysis; Turkish; Classroom Environment; Language Usage; Code Switching (Language); Classroom Communication

Abstract:
This article examines floor management in two classroom sessions: a task-oriented computer lesson and a literature lesson. Recordings made in the computer lesson show the organization of floor when a task is given to students. Temporary or "incipient" side floors (Jones and Thornborrow, 2004) emerge beside the main floor. In the literature lesson, a permanent side floor is established by Turkish-German bilinguals alongside the main floor. To describe this type of floor, the term "tangential floor" is proposed. An analysis of turns in the two lessons reveals that the code-switching by the bilinguals contributes to the shaping and unfolding of floor. In the literature lesson, they use German in the tangential floor, but use more Turkish, with a few code-switching episodes, in the task-oriented computer lesson. (Contains 2 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Evidence; Bilingualism; Multilingualism; Language Proficiency; Language Processing; German; Inhibition; Second Language Learning; Executive Function; Socioeconomic Status; Cognitive Processes; English (Second Language)

Abstract:
In two experiments, we examined inhibitory control processes in three groups of bilinguals and trilinguals that differed in nonnative language proficiency and language learning background. German 5- to 8-year-old second-language learners of English, German-English bilinguals, German-English-Language X trilinguals, and 6- to 8-year-old German monolinguals performed the Simon task and the Attentional Networks Task (ANT). Language proficiencies and socioeconomic status were controlled. We found that the Simon effect advantage, reported in earlier research for bilingual children and adults over monolinguals, differed across groups, with bilinguals and trilinguals showing enhanced conflict resolution over monolinguals and marginally so over second-language learners. In the ANT, bilinguals and trilinguals displayed enhanced conflict resolution over second-language learners. This extends earlier research to child second-language learners and trilinguals, who were in the process of becoming proficient in an additional language, while corroborating earlier findings demonstrating enhanced executive control in bilinguals assumed to be caused by continuous inhibitory control processes necessary in competition resolution between two (or possibly more) languages. The results are interpreted against the backdrop of the developing language systems of the children, both for early second-language learners and for early bilinguals and trilinguals. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Acoustics; Feedback (Response); German; Morphemes; Pronunciation; Articulation (Speech); Oral Language; Assistive Technology; Auditory Perception; Psychomotor Skills; Role; Human Body; Native Language

Abstract:
The German sibilant /esh/ is produced with a constriction in the postalveolar region and often with protruded lips. By covarying horizontal lip and tongue position speakers can keep a similar acoustic output even if the articulation varies. This study investigates whether during two weeks of adaptation to an artificial palate speakers covary these two articulatory parameters, whether tactile landmarks have an influence on the covariation and to what extent speakers can foresee the acoustic result of the covariation without auditory feedback. Six German speakers were recorded with EMA. Four of them showed a covariation of lip and tongue, which is consistent with the motor equivalence hypothesis. The acoustic output, however, does not stay entirely constant but varies with the tongue position. The role of tactile landmarks is negligible. To a certain extent, speakers are able to adapt even without auditory feedback. (Contains 3 tables, 4 figures and 3 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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