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Word-Level and Sentence-Level Automaticity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners: A Comparative Study
Dongmei Ma1, Xiaoru Yu2, Haomin Zhang3
1School of Foreign Languages, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. dongmei@seu.edu.cn.
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
|June 19, 2017
Summary
English language learners show similar word processing but varied sentence processing skills. Automaticity in second language (L2) acquisition appears module-specific, not shared across different skills or presentation methods.
Area of Science:
- Second Language Acquisition
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Automaticity in second language (L2) processing is crucial for fluency.
- Understanding automaticity requires examining processing speed, stability, and accuracy.
- Proficiency level may influence the development of L2 automaticity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate word-level and sentence-level automatic processing in English as a foreign language (EFL) students.
- To compare automatic processing across different L2 proficiency levels.
- To determine the relationship between automaticity components (speed, stability, accuracy) and L2 performance.
Main Methods:
- Sixty EFL students (undergraduate and graduate) participated.
- Lexical semantic classification, sentence construction, and sentence verification tasks were administered.
- Tasks were presented in both visual and auditory modalities.
- Multivariate analyses examined differences based on proficiency levels.
Main Results:
- Processing speed was not a reliable indicator of automatic L2 processing.
- Students reached a plateau in word-level processing, indicating automaticity.
- Sentence-level processing showed variations, suggesting ongoing development.
- Automatic language processing was found to be module-specific and non-sharable across modalities and skills.
Conclusions:
- Automaticity in L2 processing is not uniform across all linguistic levels.
- While word processing may become automatic, sentence processing continues to evolve.
- L2 automaticity is modality- and skill-specific, highlighting distinct processing pathways.
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