Article published in:
Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International EducationVol. 5:2 (2020) ► pp. 258–280
The impact of learning context on L2 Chinese word order structure development
From the beginning
Yanyin Zhang | The Australian National University
Studies on the impact of learning context in second language (L2) acquisition seldom look at
ab-initio learners and their learning journey from the very beginning. Consequently, it is difficult to know
for certain whether the findings of study-abroad vs. at-home research are applicable to this group of learners. The present study
examines six ab-initio learners’ L2 developmental processes of three Chinese word order structures in two
settings: China and Australia. The analysis of two longitudinal corpora showed no impact of the learning setting on the
acquisition sequence. The impact, however, was found in learning efficiency. Measured by the number of hours of formal
instruction, the three learners in Australia progressed faster than the three learners in China although the latter had received
much more classroom instruction and were in an immersive environment. The findings suggest that learning an L2 at home is not
inferior for early L2 grammatical development.
Keywords: learning context,
learners, learning processes, acquisition sequences, rate of learning word order
Published online: 07 October 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.16021.zha
https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.16021.zha
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