Chapter 9
L2 proficiency and L2 dialect processing during study
abroad
In this chapter, we examine how proficiency and
L2 dialect processing interact over the course of a three-month
study abroad program in Buenos Aires, Argentina in L1 English/L2
Spanish learners. To measure dialect processing changes,
participants completed an auditory form-priming task in which primes
and targets were taken from Mexican and Buenos Aires Spanish. The
pretest results show differences within and across proficiency
levels for dialect processing, as do the posttests. This study adds
to the literature on advancedness and language acquisition by
highlighting how dialect-specific knowledge develops over the course
of study abroad and how advanced learners (vs. less-advanced)
develop dialect-specific representations.
Article outline
- Background
- Processing
- L2 learners and dialect processing
- Method
- Participants
- Tasks
- Spanish proficiency tasks
- Task one: Monologue
- Tasks two and three: Grammatical and lexical knowledge
- Tasks four and five: Timed processing speed
- Auditory form priming with lexical decision
- Procedure
- Results
- Proficiency tasks
-
Auditory priming task
- Discussion of auditory priming results
- Difference score and proficiency measures
- Discussion of difference score ~ proficiency results
- General discussion
- Changes in L2 dialect processing
- Conclusions
-
Notes
-
References
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Regan, Brendan
2023.
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