English determiner-noun agreement processing and effects of dependency length for Korean EFL

Abstract

As has been claimed by the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (SSH) (Clahsen & Felser, 2006), L2 learners are reported to exhibit a limited ability to process grammatical forms when they are reading sentences for comprehension (Chen, Shu, Liu, Zheo, & Li, 2007; Jiang, 2004, 2007). Relatively less addressed is another claim by the SSH, that L2 learners native-like agreement processing is restricted to local mismatches (Keating, 2009, 2010). This study investigates English determiner-noun number agreement processing by Korean EFL learners and whether their sensitivity to ungrammaticality decreases when there is an interference within the determiner phrase (DP). 13 native English speakers and 16 Korean early learners with high English proficiency participated in a self-paced reading task. In order to test the effect of dependency length, stimuli sentences were created that belong to either the short condition or the long condition. The results showed that the nonnative groups performance was highly modulated by dependency length while that of the native group was not.