L1 effects on L2 comprehension, production and acceptability judgements : evidence from English and Albanian learners of Greek
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of the native language (L1) in the development of a second/foreign language (L2). More specifically, the issues addressed in the thesis concern the influence of L1 structure on L2 grammar, the language levels that the L1 could affect, the use of L1 strategies during L2 processing, and the prerequisites that would allow for L1 effects to take place. Based on the recognition that competence is only indirectly mirrored in performance, we assume that the L1 effect might be manifested in different ways depending on the task that L2 speakers are performing, and we set off to provide a broad picture of L2 performance by presenting comprehension, production and acceptability judgements data from L2 speakers with different L1s and at different developmental stages. The grammatical phenomenon under investigation is word order and the languages in contact are Greek, which is the target language, English and Albanian, which are the L1s. Greek and Albanian are free-word order languages with rich inflection, as opposed to English, which has a strict word order and weak agreement features. L2 speakers were either at the elementary or at the advanced level. The same native
Mangana, Anastassi
L1 effects on L2 comprehension, production and acceptability judgements : evidence from English and Albanian learners of Greek. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of the native language (L1) in the development of a second/foreign language (L2). More specifically, the issues addressed in the thesis concern the influence of L1 structure on L2 grammar, the language levels that the L1 could affect, the use of L1 strategies during L2 processing, and the prerequisites that would allow for L1 effects to take place. Based on the recognition that competence is only indirectly mirrored in performance, we assume that the L1 effect might be manifested in different ways depending on the task that L2 speakers are performing, and we set off to provide a broad picture of L2 performance by presenting comprehension, production and acceptability judgements data from L2 speakers with different L1s and at different developmental stages. The grammatical phenomenon under investigation is word order and the languages in contact are Greek, which is the target language, English and Albanian, which are the L1s. Greek and Albanian are free-word order languages with rich inflection, as opposed to English, which has a strict word order and weak agreement features. L2 speakers were either at the elementary or at the advanced level. The same native
effect comprehension_production acceptability_judgement evidence english learner greek aim_investigate role native_language development second foreign_language specifically issue_address concern influence structure grammar language level could_affect use strategy processing prerequisite would allow effect take_place based recognition competence indirectly mirror performance assume effect might manifest different_way depend task speaker perform set provide_broad picture performance present comprehension_production acceptability_judgement data speaker different different developmental_stage grammatical phenomenon investigation word_order language_contact greek target_language english greek free_word order language rich inflection oppose english strict word_order weak agreement_feature speaker either elementary advance level native