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Article published In:
Conceptual transfer, (re)conceptualisation and other cognitive aspects of crosslinguistic influence in L2 acquisition
Edited by Cecilia Gunnarsson-Largy
[Language, Interaction and Acquisition 14:1] 2023
► pp. 127–166

The impact of the cognitive effects of L1 orthographic depth and morphological complexity on L2 French morphographic processing

ORCID logo | Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès
| Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès
| Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès

Orthographic depth has been shown to influence the default orthographic processing mechanisms. However, the question of the impact of L1 orthographic depth on the processing of L2 orthography is still open. Crucially, current studies on orthographic depth tend to focus on the processing of simple words and do not consider other factors that interact with orthographic depth, such as morphological complexity. Our study is a preliminary investigation of whether the processing of L2 written inflected words shows crosslinguistic cognitive transfer effects of L1 orthographic depth and L1 morphological complexity. We focus on homophonic vs. heterophonic French subject-verb agreement (arrive / arrivent [aʁiv] (‘arrives’ (3sg) / ‘arrive’ (3pl)) vs. part [paʁ] / partent [paʁt] (‘leaves’ (3sg) / ‘leave’ (3pl)) in two groups of experienced L2 French learners whose L1 is Spanish or Italian (both exhibiting shallow orthography and complex morphology) vs. English (exhibiting deep orthography and simple morphology). Results suggest that during the processing of L2 written inflected words, L2 learners whose L1 is morphologically complex with shallow orthography rely more on orthography-oriented morphological (sub-lexical) processing; whilst L2 learners whose L1 is morphologically simple with deep orthography rely more on phonology-oriented lexical processing.

Keywords: cognitive transfer, orthographic depth, morphological complexity, inflection processing, orthographic processing, L2 morphography, L2 writing, oral/written interface
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Orthographic depth and transfer effects
    • 2.2Orthographic depth and morphological processing
    • 2.3French verb morphography (subject-verb agreement) and L2 processing
  • 3.The current study
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Sentences and target items
    • 3.3Tasks
    • 3.4Procedure
    • 3.5Data treatment and analyses
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Overall agreement performance and crosslinguistic differences
    • 4.2Inflection audibility and crosslinguistic effects
    • 4.3Qualitative analysis of non-canonical sentences
      • 4.3.1Structure modification
      • 4.3.2Verb form alteration
  • 5.Discussion
    • Morphographic performance in L2 French learners (statistical analyses)
    • Morphographic behavior in non-canonical sentences (qualitative analysis)
    • Morphographic performance in L1 French writers vs. L2 French learners
  • 6.Conclusions and future research
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.22013.ser
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