Language can be defined as a body of words whose system of use is common to people who are either from the same nation, community, geographical region or with similar cultural tradition. Learning a new language is certainly challenging especially since it is not one's native language. The learner starts from scratch since there is no other way. A learner should use the language on a daily basis in order to make the language natural to them (Ellis 1997).
Whatever the language is, vocabulary is one of the important components, which enhances deeper understanding. Use of new words in sentences and phrases helps the learner deeply understand the words. Contextual factors such as societal, individual and social affects the students' learning of a second language. The level of proficiency in the native language is an equally important factor (Ying 1996).
Second language learners do not process sentences in ways similar to the native speakers. This is because there are differences in phrase structure application and preposition linking of antecedent nouns. The same learners may at times transfer-processing strategies that are non-target like from their native language, which could be a barrier to full native like performance acquisition. The sentence processing of learners differs in ways that are fundamental from adult processing (VanPatten 1996).
Adult native speakers usually associate related second clauses other than the first. Within sentence processing models, there are those with multiple constraints and the preference of attachments is determined by relative strength of non-structural and structural factors interaction in a specific given language. Native speakers usually prefer the preferential association of relative clauses (Traxler, Pickering and Clifton 1998).
[...] Cross linguistics, differences that are between solutions regarding structural ambiguities indicate that strategies for parsing are specific of a language other than universal. English native speakers associate relative clauses with second noun phrase instead of the first. A native speaker has an influence on a learner's interpretation. This study showed that, learners although slow, processed experimental sentences like native speakers. During processing, the learner is guided by information from the argument structure (Hemforth, Konieczny and Scheepers 2000). Second language learners like native speakers, are influenced by the type of the linking preposition while processing attachment of ambiguities of relative clauses. [...]
[...] For successful second language acquisition, the ability for linguistic input processing is very crucial. Second language learners should work on comprehension and language production in real-time. References Ellis, R., 1997.Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press Gass, S.M. and Selinker, L Second Language Acquisition. London, UK: Taylor & Francis, Jan - Hemforth, B., Konieczny, L. and Scheepers, C Architectures and mechanisms for language processing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MacWhinney, B Bilingual sentence processing. New York: Elsevier. [...]
[...] Sentence processing that is real-time involved displaced constituents. A constituent that is syntactically dislocated, as wh-phrase becomes a challenge to the mechanism of sentence processing by a human being. This is because it cannot be immediately integrated fully into discourse representation or emerging semantic, instead, it is retained in the memory that is short-term until its linked to thematic role assigner or its subcategoriser (VanPatten 1996). It's the filler and the gap associated distance increases, the mechanism of sentence processing in human beings normally attempts to integrate dislocated elements during parsing at the appropriate and the earliest grammatical possible point. [...]
[...] However, advanced second language learners are supposed to exhibit same preferences on disambiguation as the native speakers (MacWhinney 2002). Learners have problems with lexical-semantic and phrase-structure information integration only in the situations where memory resources or processing are short. Learners are sensitive to lexical biases that are provided by linking prepositions but display systematic deficiency of attachment preferences regarding relative clauses that are preceded by complex noun phrases that are genitive. This is usually irrespective of preferences that are found in learner's first language or the target language (Gass and Selinker 2008). [...]
[...] Adult native speakers usually associate related second clauses other than the first. Within sentence processing models, there are those with multiple constraints and the preference of attachments is determined by relative strength of non-structural and structural factors interaction in a specific given language. Native speakers usually prefer the preferential association of relative clauses (Traxler, Pickering and Clifton 1998). A study was carried out in the Essex University in an online reading experiment that involved long distance wh-dependencies. The native speakers showed proof of utilizing intermediate syntactic gaps while processing sentences whereas the second language learners associated fronted wh-phrase with its direct lexical subcategories. [...]
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