Background Literature

The Current Study

Method

Data Analysis

Results

Discussion

Limitations and Future Directions

Conclusion

References

Introduction

For language learners immersed in a new language environment, the language does not come prepackaged in helpful bits and pieces. Rather, being exposed to the language means handling its various aspects, including new words and new grammatical regularities, all at the same time. Not only do language learners have to learn the meaning of the individual words, they also have to figure out how the structure of sentences maps onto meaning, as in “who did what to whom.” Thus, learners need to acquire the mapping between form and function and build corresponding memory representations. The question is, however, whether the mechanisms by which this mapping between form and function is learned differ between first (L1) and second (L2) language learning and, thus, whether the processing of a L2 is fundamentally different if it is learned after puberty (e.g., for arguments supporting different mechanisms, see Chomsky, 1965, and Clahsen & Felser, 2006; for arguments supporting same mechanisms, see Arnon & Christiansen, 2017, and Christiansen & Chater, 2016). The notion that there is substantial overlap between L1 and L2 processing as well as between L1 and L2 learning mechanisms is supported by findings indicating that the same brain regions are recruited for L1 and L2 processing (Indefrey, 2006; Weber & Indefrey, 2009) and that nativelike brain signatures of syntactic processing, even in miniature languages, emerge very quickly (Christiansen, Conway, & Onnis, 2012; Morgan-Short, Steinhauer, Sanz, & Ullman, 2011). Thus, it appears that a L2 is processed by the same broad neural networks also employed for the L1. In the current study, we sought to further elucidate the mechanisms of L2 learning in the context of syntactic processing. Specifically, we investigated syntactic priming effects when learning a new L2 to determine whether such priming follows the same patterns as observed during L1 learning and processing. As discussed below, we further aimed to theoretically link syntactic priming effects to implicit learning as a possible mechanism for L1 and L2 learning. To this end, we probed syntactic priming effects during the first days of language learning. We hypothesized that syntactic priming is an implicit language learning mechanism (Chang, Dell, & Bock, 2006; Chang, Dell, Bock, & Griffin, 2000) whereby the repetition of syntactic structure helps the form– function mapping, potentially through error-based learning. Moreover, we explored how different factors, such as structure frequency and lexical information, influence syntactic priming as the language is being learned. These factors are known to both affect and interact in L1 processing; therefore, we manipulated both structure frequency and lexical information to better understand their potential role in syntactic learning. In doing so, we created an environment in 199 Language Learning 69:1, March 2019, pp. 198–۲۲۱