Impact of constructional complexity and intralingual influence on the effectiveness of skewed input

Abstract

This article reports on two studies, testing how three different types of input (skewed first, skewed random and balanced) affect second language (L2) learning of English present counterfactual (IF-Is) and past counterfactual (IF-IIs) conditionals, two constructions differing in complexity. The experiment included a proficiency test, a pretest, a posttest and a delayed posttest for both IF-Is and IF-IIs. Results suggest that the three types of input did not affect learning gains within the two complexity conditions. However, there was a difference in learning gains between the two conditions, namely that more gains were made in the simpler condition (i.e. IF-Is). In a follow-up study, effects of intralingual influence were tested. Participants who had studied IF-Is were taught the more complex construction, IF-IIs. Again, there were three different types of input (skewed first, skewed random and balanced). Results suggest that participants who received skewed input had higher gains and were less influenced by IF-Is they had learned before. Based on this, we concluded that skewed first input was able to effectively reduce the influence of IF-Is on IF-IIs during L2 learning.