The influence of first language on the processing of wh-movement in English as a second language

Abstract

Adult learners of English as a second language who speak Chinese ( n = 30), Japanese ( n = 28) or Spanish ( n = 46) as a first language (L1), and a comparison group of native speakers ( n = 22) read sentences that contain: (a) ungrammatical wh-extractions that violate island constraints; and (b) grammatical long-distance Subject and Object extractions from finite and nonfinite clauses. Word-by-word reading times for each sentence were collected using the self-paced reading technique. Results suggest that the presence or absence of wh-movement in the L1 and the headedness of the verb phrase in the L1 are unable to explain all of the variation between the nonnative speaker groups. Severe garden path effects were observed in Subject extractions from finite clauses, but not in extractions from nonfinite clauses, suggesting that two finite verbs next to one another may be an important factor in causing parsing break-down. Individual variation in reading time was not predictable from measures of reading span or word span in either the first or second language.