Foreign Language Learning: Psycholinguistic Studies on Training and Retention

434 Pages·1998·24.9 MB·

by  Alice F. Healy, Lyle E. Bourne Jr. (eds.)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Psycholinguistic Studies
on Training and Retention
FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Psycholinguistic Studies
on Training and Retention
Edited by
ALICE F. HEALY
LYLE E. BOURNE, JR.
University of Colorodo, Boulder
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
1998 Mahwah, New Jersey London
Copyright © 1998 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in
any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other
means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foreign language learning: psycholinguistic studies on training and
retention / edited by Alice F. Healy, Lyle E. Bourne, Jr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN ().8058-27544
1. Language and languages-Study and teaching-Psychological
aspects. 2. Second language acquisition. 3. Psycho linguistics.
I. Healy, Alice F. II. Bourne, Lyle E., Jr., 1932-
P53.7.F67 1998
401'.93-dc21 98-8507
CIP
Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper,
and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
We dedicate this book to our mothers,
Doris Goodman Fenvessy and Blanche White Bourne
Contents
Preface xi
PART I: INTRODUCTORY OVERVIEW
1 Toward the Improvement of Training in Foreign
Languages 3
Alice F. Healy, Immanuel Barsh~ Robert J Crutcher, et al.
PART II: VOCABULARY AND CONCEPT ACQUISmON
2 Effect of First Language Phonological Configuration on
Lexical Acquisition in a Second Language 57
Andrea Feldman and Alice F. Healy
3 Contextual Interference Effects in Foreign Language
Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention 77
Vivian I Schneider, Alice F. Healy, and Lyle E. Bourne, Jr.
4 The Role of Prior Knowledge in Mediating Foreign
Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention:
A Process-Analytic Approach 91
Robert J Crutcher
5 On the Status of the Count-Mass Distinction in a Mental
Grammar 113
Michael Serwatka and Alice F. Healy
vii
viii CONTENTS
6 Phonological Short-Term Memory and Foreign Language
Learning 141
Susan E. Gathercole and Annabel S. C. Thorn
PART III: LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
7 Misunderstandings in Voice Communication:
Effects of Fluency in a Second Language 161
Immanuel Barshi and Alice F. Healy
8 Anaphora in Language Processing: Transfer
of Cognitive Strategies by Native Chinese, Dutch,
English, and Japanese Speakers 193
Liang Tao and Alice F. Healy
9 Argument Structure and Maasai Possessive
Interpretation: Implications for Language Learning 213
Immanuel Barshi and Doris L. Payne
10 Learning and LOSing Syntax: Practice Makes Perfect
and Frequency Builds Fortitude 231
Mark F. St. John and Morton Ann Gernsbacher
PART IV: READING PROCESSES
11 Highlighting Important Words Leads to Poorer
Com prehension 259
Julia E. Moravcsik and Alice F. Healy
12 The Effect of Alphabet and Fluency on Unitization
Processes in Reading 273
Carolyn J Buck-Gengler, Stephen G. Romero,
Alice F. Healy, and Lyle E. Bourne, Jr.
13 Transfer Effects of First Language Proficiency
on Second Language Reading 291
Antoinette T Gesi Blanchard
PART V: BILINGUALISM
14 Stroop Interference in Bilinguals: The Role of Similarity
Between the Two Languages 317
Markus Brauer
CONTENTS ix
15 Individual Differences in Second Language Proficiency:
Working Memory as Language Aptitude 339
Akira Miyake and Naomi P. Friedman
16 A Model of Bilingual Representation and Its Implications
for Second Language Acquisition 365
Judith F Kroll, Erica Michael, and Aruna Sankaranarayanan
PART VI: COMMENTARY
17 Second Language Learning Revisited:
The Psycholinguistic Perspective 399
Barry McLaughlin
About the Authors 413
Author Index 421
Subject Index 431
Preface
Alice F. Healy
Lyle E. Bourne, Jr.
Our research on the long-term retention of knowledge and skills was sup
ported by the Army Research Institute (ARI, contracts MDA903-86-K.{)155 and
MDA903-90-K'{)066) from 1986 to 1993. Subsequently, we published an over
view of that research in an edited book (Healy & Bourne, 1995). While we
were finishing the retention project, George Lawton, our project monitor at
ARl, asked us to focus our work specifically on issues related to foreign
language learning and retention. We were stimulated by his request to write
a new proposal, entitled "Towards the improvement of training in foreign
languages," which was funded for 3 years starting August 2, 1993 (contract
MDA903-93-K'{)OlO). The goal of the language project was to identify a set of
psychological principles that would provide a foundation for a foreign lan
guage training course. That project has now been completed, and because
our earlier volume was well received both by the ARI and by our colleagues
(Maylor, 1997; Widner, 1997), we decided to prepare another book to sum
marize our progress on the language project.
Over the years, we have benefited from collaboration with a long list of
researchers who are not included among the contributors to this volume
but who nonetheless had significant impacts on the research reported here.
These investigators include recent postdoctoral associates, students at the
University of Colorado, visitors from other universities, and former students
now at other universities. The recent postdoctoral associates in our labo
ratory include Cheri King, Bill Oliver, Larry Pinneo, and Rod Smith; the
graduate students include Rob Bartsch, Anita Bowles, Angela Brega, Julia
xi
xii PREFACE
Fisher, Noelle LaVoie, Libby Lenell, Bill Raymond, Dave Steinhart, Jim
VanOverschelde, and Alex Witzki; the undergraduate students include Mi
chael Allen, Emma Blair, Alison Clark, Seung-Lee Do, David Havas, Beth
Hayen, Josh Hoffman, Mary Jensen, Jeffrey Joe, Josh Kutinsky, Amy Leonard,
Heather Moore, Ben Rutenberg, Bethany Weber, and Meredith Williams. The
recent visitors and former students who worked with us include Debbie
Clawson, from Catholic University; Tom Cunningham, from St. Lawrence
University; Danielle McNamara, from Old Dominion University; Paul Pauli,
from the University of Tuebingen, Germany; Janet Proctor, from Purdue
University; Franz Schmalhofer, from the University of Kaiserslautern, Ger
many; and Grant Sinclair, from Old Dominion University. We are also deeply
indebted to the ARI officials who have supported our project, financially as
well as by their criticism and direction, especially Michael Drillings, George
Lawton, and Joseph Psotka. Although their contributions are not identified
in the chapters that follow, all the named individuals advanced our work in
significant ways and provided inspiration for some of our studies.
In this book, we review the various studies that have comprised our
project. The book begins with an overview chapter outlining the scope of
the project and summarizing some of the experiments conducted in our
laboratory. In each of the following chapters, we report previously unpub
lished research on selected psycholinguistic training principles. Most of
these chapters were written by us and our collaborators at the University
of Colorado, but some were prepared by prominent colleagues and visitors
to our laboratory who have conducted research relevant to second language
learning in their own laboratories elsewhere. On the adVice of our editor,
Judi Amsel, we invited a prominent expert on second language training,
Barry McLaughlin, to prepare a final chapter providing an overview and
evaluation of the contribution of the research described in earlier chapters
to the goal of improving instructional methods in foreign language learning.
Sandwiched between the introductory and the final chapters are four
major sections. "Vocabulary and Concept Acquisition" includes chapters on
the effect of first-language phonological configuration on lexical acquisition
in a second language, contextual interference effects in foreign language
vocabulary acquisition and retention, mediated processes in foreign lan
guage vocabulary acquisition and retention, and the status of the count
mass distinction in a mental grammar. All these chapters were written by
current or recent members of our laboratory. Our research on the effect of
first language phonological configuration on lexical acquisition in a second
language was inspired in part by the work of Susan Gathercole and her
colleagues at the University of Bristol, England. While participating in the
Second International Memory Conference in Abano Terme, Italy, in July 1996,
we met with Gathercole and learned more about her experiments on related
issues. Following this meeting, we invited her to prepare the last chapter