Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:15:38.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Judgment and Interpretation Tasks in Second Language Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2014

Tania Ionin  and
Eve Zyzik
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article provides an overview of recent studies in second language acquisition that use tasks that elicit learners' judgments about the grammaticality of language or learners' interpretation of language. We discuss acceptability judgment tasks, preference tasks, truth-value judgment tasks, and other types of interpretation tasks. For each task type, recent studies that use that task are briefly summarized, with a focus on advantages and disadvantages of the methodology in relation to the study's objectives. A variety of topics related to task administration are covered, including (but not limited to) different types of rating scales; presentation of target sentences in isolation versus in the context of other sentences, stories, and/or pictures; visual versus auditory modality of presentation; and timed versus untimed tasks.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 34 , March 2014 , pp. 37 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cowart, W. (1997). Experimental syntax. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

This textbook covers the construction, administration, and analysis of acceptability judgment tasks that test syntactic phenomena. Although the book focuses exclusively on experimental syntactic research with native speakers, the content is fully applicable to research with second language learners. The topics covered include a detailed discussion of experimental design and an introduction to statistical analysis.

Dąbrowska, E. (2010). Naïve versus expert intuitions: An empirical study of acceptability judgments. The Linguistic Review, 27, 1–23.

This article discusses many of the methodological issues associated with AJTs as necessary background to an empirical study in which linguists (of both generative and functional orientations) were compared to nonlinguists in their evaluation of sentences containing long-distance dependencies. The results indicate that linguists’ judgments diverge from those of the general population. Dąbrowska suggests that this is due to linguists’ frequent exposure to specific kinds of ungrammatical sentences.

Ellis, R. (2005). Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 141–172.

In this article Ellis describes a battery of tests, including two versions of an acceptability judgment task, that were designed to provide relatively independent measures of implicit and explicit knowledge. The results of psychometric testing indicate that timed and untimed AJTs measure different types of knowledge; time pressure seems to encourage participants to rely on their implicit knowledge while an untimed AJT is more likely to tap explicit knowledge.

Ionin, T. (2012). Formal theory-based methodologies. In Mackey, A. & Gass, S. (Eds.), Research methods in second language acquisition: A practical guide (pp. 30–52). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

This book chapter covers the use of judgment and interpretation tasks in formal, generative research with adult second language learners. The chapter includes a step-by-step tutorial on designing acceptability judgment tasks and truth-value judgment tasks, as well as several study questions that ask readers to design judgment tasks and to interpret sample data.

Schmitt, C., & Miller, K. (2010). Using comprehension methods in language acquisition research. In Blom, E. & Unsworth, S. (Eds.), Experimental methods in language acquisition research (pp. 35–56). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.

This book chapter provides an overview of the use of truth-value judgment tasks, picture-matching tasks, and act-out tasks in research with both first and second language learners. The format and administration of each task are discussed, as are its relative advantages and disadvantages. The chapter ends with a list of do's and don’ts in the use of interpretation tasks.

REFERENCES

Abrahamsson, N., & Hyltenstam, K. (2008). The robustness of aptitude effects in near-native second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 30, 481–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, B., Pine, J., Rowland, C., & Young, C. (2008). The effect of verb semantic class and verb frequency (entrenchment) on children's and adults’ graded judgments of argument-structure overgeneralization errors. Cognition, 106, 87–129.Google Scholar
Bard, E. G., Robertson, D., & Sorace, A. (1996). Magnitude estimation of linguistic acceptability. Language, 72, 32–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowles, M. A. (2011). Measuring implicit and explicit linguistic knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 247–271.Google Scholar
Bruhn de Garavito, J. (2011). Subject/object asymmetries in the grammar of bilingual and monolingual Spanish speakers: Evidence against connectionism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1, 111–148.Google Scholar
Bylund, E., Abrahamsson, N., & Hyltenstam, K. (2010). The role of language aptitude in first language attrition: The case of pre-pubescent attriters. Applied Linguistics, 31, 443–464.Google Scholar
Bylund, E., Abrahamsson, N., & Hyltenstam, K. (2012). Does first language maintenance hamper nativelikeness in a second language? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 34, 215–241.Google Scholar
Chien, Y.-C., & Wexler, K. (1990). Children's knowledge of locality conditions in binding as evidence for the modularity of syntax and pragmatics. Language Acquisition, 1, 225–295.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on government and binding: The Pisa lectures. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Foris.Google Scholar
Clahsen, H., Martzoukou, M., & Stavrakaki, S. (2010). The perfective past tense in Greek as a second language. Second Language Research, 26, 501–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowart, W. (1997). Experimental syntax. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Crain, S., & Thornton, R. (1998). Investigations in universal grammar: A guide to experiments on the acquisition of syntax and semantics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dąbrowska, E. (2010). Naïve versus expert intuitions: An empirical study of acceptability judgments. The Linguistic Review, 27, 1–23.Google Scholar
DeKeyser, R. (2000). The robustness of critical period effects in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 499–533.Google Scholar
DeKeyser, R. (2013). Age effects in second language learning: Stepping stones towards better understanding. Language Learning, 63, 52–67.Google Scholar
DeKeyser, R., Alfi-Shabtay, R., & Ravid, D. (2010). Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age effects in second language acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31, 413–438.Google Scholar
Dekydtspotter, L., Sprouse, R. A., & Anderson, B. (1997). The interpretive interface in L2 acquisition: The process-result distinction in English-French interlanguage grammars. Language Acquisition, 6, 297–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffield, N., & Matsuo, A. (2009). Native speakers’ vs. L2 learners’ sensitivity to parallelism in VP-ellipsis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 93–123.Google Scholar
Duffield, N., Matsuo, A., & Roberts, L. (2009). Factoring out the parallelism effect in VP-ellipsis: English vs. Dutch contrasts. Second Language Research, 25, 427–467.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (2005). Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 141–172.Google Scholar
Ellis, R., Loewen, S., Elder, C., Erlam, R., Philp, J., & Reinders, H. (2009). Implicit and explicit knowledge in second language learning, testing, and teaching. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Falk, Y., & Bardel, C. (2011). Object pronouns in German L3 syntax: Evidence for the L2 status factor. Second Language Research, 27, 59–82.Google Scholar
Fernández, C. (2008). Reexamining the role of explicit information in processing instruction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 30, 277–305.Google Scholar
Finer, D. L., & Broselow, E. I. (1986) Second language acquisition of reflexive binding. In Berman, S., McDonough, J., & Choe, J.-W. (Eds.), Proceedings of NELS 16 (pp. 154–168). Amherst, MA: GLSA, University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Gabriele, A. (2009). Transfer and transition in the SLA of aspect: A bidirectional study of learners of English and Japanese. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 371–402.Google Scholar
Gass, S., & Alvarez-Torres, M. (2005). Attention when? An investigation of the ordering effect of input and interaction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 1–31.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. (2003). A comparison of copula choice in advanced and native Spanish. Language Learning, 53, 703–764.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. (2005). Crossing disciplinary boundaries to improve the analysis of second language data: A study of copula choice with adjectives in Spanish. Munich, Germany: LINCOM Europa.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K., & Guijarro-Fuentes, P. (2008). Variation in contemporary Spanish: Linguistic predictors of estar in four cases of language contact. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 365–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goro, T., & Akiba, S. (2004). Japanese disjunction and the acquisition of positive polarity. In Otsu, Y. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Fifth Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics (137–162). Tokyo, Japan: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
Grüter, T., Lieberman, M., & Gualmini, A. (2010). Acquiring the scope of disjunction and negation in L2: A bidirectional study of learners of Japanese and English. Language Acquisition, 17, 127–154.Google Scholar
Gualmini, A., & Crain, S. (2005). The structure of children's linguistic knowledge. Linguistic Inquiry, 36, 463–474.Google Scholar
Henry, N., Culman, H., & VanPatten, B. (2009). More on the effects of explicit information in instructed SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 559–575.Google Scholar
Hwang, S. H., & Lardiere, D. (2013). Plural-marking in L2 Korean: A feature-based approach. Second Language Research, 29, 57–86.Google Scholar
Ionin, T. (2012). Formal theory-based methodologies. In Mackey, A. & Gass, S. (Eds.), Research methods in second language acquisition: A practical guide (pp. 30–52). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ionin, T., & Montrul, S. (2010). The role of L1-transfer in the interpretation of articles with definite plurals in L2-English. Language Learning, 60, 877–925.Google Scholar
Ionin, T., Montrul, S., & Crivos, M. (2013). A bidirectional study on the acquisition of plural noun phrase interpretation in English and Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics, 34, 483–518.Google Scholar
Ionin, T., Baek, S., Kim, E., Ko, H., & Wexler, K. (2012). That's not so different from the: Definite and demonstrative descriptions in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 28, 68–100.Google Scholar
Ivanov, I. (2012). L2 acquisition of Bulgarian clitic doubling: A test case for the Interface Hypothesis. Second Language Research, 28, 345–368.Google Scholar
Jegerski, J., VanPatten, B., & Keating, G. D. (2011). Cross-linguistic variation and the acquisition of pronominal reference in L2 Spanish. Second Language Research, 27, 481–507.Google Scholar
Jiang, L. (2009). A referential/quantified asymmetry in the second language acquisition of English reflexives by Chinese-speaking learners. Second Language Research, 25, 469–491.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. S., & Newport, E. L. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keating, G., VanPatten, B., & Jegerski, J. (2011). Who was walking on the beach? Anaphora resolution in Spanish heritage speakers and adult second language learners . Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 193–221.Google Scholar
Kim, J.-H., Montrul, S., & Yoon, J. (2009). Binding interpretations of anaphors by Korean heritage speakers. Language Acquisition, 16 (1), 3–35.Google Scholar
Kraš, T. (2011). Acquiring the syntactic constraints on auxiliary change under restructuring in L2 Italian: Implications for the Interface Hypothesis. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1, 413–438.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T. (2012). Specific and generic subjects in the Italian of German-Italian simultaneous bilinguals and L2 learners. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 736–756.Google Scholar
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. (2005). Second language research: Methodology and design. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Marsden, H. (2009). Distributive quantifier scope in English-Japanese and Korean-Japanese Interlanguage. Language Acquisition, 16, 135–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDaniel, D., McKee, C., & Smith Cairns, H. (Eds.). (1996). Methods for assessing children's syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S. (1999). Causative errors with unaccusative verbs in L2 Spanish. Second Language Research, 15, 191–219.Google Scholar
Montrul, S., Dias, R., & Santos, H. (2011). Clitics and object expression in the L3 acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese: Structural similarity matters for transfer. Second Language Research, 27, 21–58.Google Scholar
Murphy, V. (1997). The effect of modality on a grammaticality judgment task. Second Language Research, 13, 34–65.Google Scholar
Papadopoulou, D., Varlokosta, S., Spyropoulos, V., Kaili, H., Prokou, S., & Revithiadou, A. (2011). Case morphology and word order in second language Turkish: Evidence from Greek learners. Second Language Research, 27, 173–205.Google Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, A., Munn, A., Schmitt, C., & DeIrish, M. (2004). Learning definite determiners: Genericity and definiteness in English and Spanish. In Brugos, A., Micciulla, L., & Smith, C. (Eds.), BUCLD 28 Online Proceedings Supplement. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/bucld/files/2011/05/28-perez-leroux.pdfGoogle Scholar
Rebuschat, P. (2013). Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge in second language research. Language Learning, 63, 595–626.Google Scholar
Schmitt, C., & Miller, K. (2010). Using comprehension methods in language acquisition research. In Blom, E. & Unsworth, S. (Eds.), Experimental methods in language acquisition research (pp. 35–56). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 10 (1–4), 209–232.Google Scholar
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A., Filiaci, F., & Baldo, M. (2009). Bilingual children's sensitivity to specificity and genericity: Evidence from metalinguistic awareness. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 239–257.Google Scholar
Slabakova, R., Kempchinsky, P., & Rothman, J. (2012). Clitic-doubled left dislocation and focus fronting in L2 Spanish: A case of successful acquisition at the syntax-discourse interface. Second Language Research, 28, 319–343.Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2010). Using Magnitude Estimation in developmental linguistic research. In Blom, E. & Unsworth, S. (Eds.), Experimental methods in language acquisition research (pp. 57–72). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Sprouse, J. (2011). A test of the cognitive assumptions of magnitude estimation: Commutativity does not hold for acceptability judgments. Language, 87, 274–288.Google Scholar
Sprouse, J. (2013). Acceptability judgments. In Aronoff, M. (Ed.), Oxford bibliographies online: Linguistics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stavrakaki, S., & Clahsen, H. (2009). The perfective past tense in Greek child language. Journal of Child Language, 36, 113–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tanenhaus, M., & Carlson, G. N. (1990). Comprehension of deep and surface verb phrase anaphors. Language and Cognitive Processes, 5, 257–280.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. (1991). Universal grammar and the interpretation of reflexives in a second language. Language, 67, 211–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valenzuela, E., Faure, A., Ramírez-Trujillo, A. P., Barski, E., Pangtay, Y., & Diez, A. (2012). Gender and heritage Spanish bilingual grammars: A study of code-mixed determiner phrases and copula constructions. Hispania, 95, 481–494.Google Scholar
VanPatten, B., & Cadierno, T. (1993). Explicit instruction and input processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 225–225.Google Scholar
VanPatten, B., & Borst, S. (2012). The roles of explicit information and grammatical sensitivity in the processing of clitic direct object pronouns and word order in Spanish L2. Hispania, 95, 270–284.Google Scholar
White, L., & Genesee, F. (1996). How native is near-native? The issue of ultimate attainment in adult second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 12, 233–265.Google Scholar
White, L., Hirakawa, M., & Kawasaki, T. (1996). Effect of instruction on second language acquisition of the Japanese long-distance reflexive zibun. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 41, 135–154.Google Scholar
Year, J., & Gordon, P. (2009). Korean speakers’ acquisition of the English ditransitive construction: The role of verb prototype, verb frequency, and input distribution. The Modern Language Journal, 93, 399–417.Google Scholar
Yuan, B., & Dugarova, E. (2012). Wh-topicalization at the syntax-discourse interface in English speakers’ L2 Chinese grammars. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 34, 533–560.Google Scholar
Zhao, L. X. (2012). Interpretation of Chinese overt and null embedded arguments by English-speaking learners. Second Language Research, 28, 169–190.Google Scholar
Zyzik, E. (2014). Causative verbs in the grammar of Spanish heritage speakers. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 4, 1–33.Google Scholar
Zyzik, E., & Azevedo, C. (2009). Word class distinctions in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 1–29.Google Scholar