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Spoken word recognition as a function of lexical knowledge and language proficiency level in adult ESL learners

University of British Columbia

This study assesses the usefulness of Marsien-Wilson’s (1989, 1987; Marsien Wilson & Welsh, 1978) cohort model of spoken (first language) word recognition as a method of explaining the high-speed, on-line processes involved in recognizing spoken words while listening to a second language. Two important assumptions of the model are: 1) syntactic and semantic properties of mental lexical entries can function to-facilitate spoken word recognition and 2) spoken word recognition is a function of the frequency of exposure to words in the general language environment. These assumptions were tested in three functionally defined levels of language proficiency: Native Speakers of English, Fluent Users of ESL, and Advanced learners of ESL. Their performance was compared on a reading cloze test and a spoken-word recognition task in which there were five different levels of contextual richness prior to a target word, and two levels of word frequency. The cloze results indicated that the three groups differed in their general English proficiency. Congruent with the cohort model, there was a significant overall effect of sentence context and word frequency on recognition latency. Despite the difference in cloze scores and immersion experience between the two ESL groups, there were no reliable differences in their recognition latencies or latency profiles across sentence contexts or across word frequency. There was an interaction of ESL group, word frequency, and sentence context. This may be due to a reorganization of rules used during processing or a restructuring of lexical knowledge. There was also an interesting non-linear relationship between recognition latency and language immersion time. Spoken word recognition speed decreased in the early immersion experience, and then increased with further exposure. There was a significant difference in overall mean recognition latency between the Native and the ESL speakers, with the ESL subjects responding on average 98 msec slower than the Native Speakers. However, there were no significant differences in the way Native Speakers and the ESL subjects used sentence context. In contrast with the comparison across the sentential contexts, there was a significant difference in the recognition profiles of the Native English speakers and the ESL subjects across word frequency.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-06-04

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8743

Special Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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