Le séminaire doctoral de MoDyCo (UMR 7114, CNRS/Paris Nanterre), a le plaisir d’accueillir

• Cheryl Frenck-Mestre, Directrice de Recherche CNRS (Laboratoire Parole et Langage, UMR 7309, CNRS/Aix-Marseille université)  

“Auditory and visual processing of Korean case online by native Korean speakers and second language learners as revealed by eye movements”

et

• Ching-chun Wang, PhD student (Modyco, CNRS/Université Paris Nanterre)

         “Functional connectivity changes during French-Chinese second

           language vocabulary acquisition: Integrated EEG and iVR for the

           study of effects of learning context”

Vous y êtes cordialement invités.

Quand ? : Mardi 5 novembre 2019, de 10h à 12H

Où ? : Université Paris Nanterre. Salle Séminaire 2 au Rez-de-chaussée du bâtiment Max Weber (en face du bâtiment A, René Rémond).

RER A, Ligne SNCF L, station « Nanterre Université »

Résumés

Cheryl Frenck-Mestre, (Laboratoire Parole et Langage, UMR 7309, CNRS/Aix-Marseille université) 

Abstract: How quickly do native speakers use case marking to interpret sentence meaning and when, if ever, do non-native speakers do such? Eye movement data suggest that native speakers immediately use case to compute sentence structure (Koh, 1997) and to anticipate upcoming arguments (Kamide et al., 2003). There is some evidence that adult learners of Korean whose L1 lacks case marking on full NPs are at a disadvantage compared to those whose L1 does (Brown & Iwasaki, 2013). Indeed, despite its universal nature, correctly interpreting and producing case is a source of difficulty for L2 learners (Ahn & Herschensohn, 2013; Frenck-Mestre et al., 2018; Hopp, 2010). Herein, we examined how quickly native Koreans and adult L2 learners of Korean process case particles in spoken Korean sentences.via the recording of eye movements.  In a first experiment we used a modified visual world paradigm, with auditory sentences and visual depictions. In our second study, we compared auditory to written processing in native Koreans and L2 learners.

In our first study, we compared two L2 groups who differed as concerns the linguistic overlap between their L1 and Korean to address the question of how the learner’s native language may affect L2 acquisition. One group comprised native speakers of Kazakh, an agglutinative head final language with canonical SOV word order and rich case morphology.  The other group comprised native speakers of French, which lacks case marking on full nouns and has basic SVO word order. Both L2 groups were living in Korea at the time of experimentation. Our results for online processing showed that native Koreans used case marking prior to the end of the utterance (the verb) to visually identify the image that depicted it, and did so regardless of word order or specific case marking. Neither L2 group processed nominal case marking quickly enough to show anticipatory looks to the correct image prior to the final auditory verb. Both L2 groups demonstrated superior performance for the dative compared to the accusative.. However, the French L1 group showed a specific deficit for the accusative in scrambled utterances that the Kazakh L1 group did not. As concerns the accuracy of response, native Koreans were at ceiling level.  Both the French and the Kazakh groups showed higher accuracy for canonical than scrambled sentences, and for accusative than dative. In similar fashion to the eye movement data, the French group showed a specific deficit for scrambled accusative sentences, which they basically construed as SOV rather than OSV order.  This was not true of the Kazakh group nor of native speakers.

Our second study compared processing across auditory and written format. Native Koreans and L2 learners of Korean whose L1 was French participated. Results showed that L2 learners were able to process case online better during reading than during auditory processing, and that in both formats the dative resisted scrambling better than the accusative. Native Koreans showed clear evidence of incremental processing based on nominal case morphology during auditory processing, with no effect of scrambling or case. During reading, however, akin to the L2 group, they showed a cost of scrambling specifically for the dative. These results provide a complete and complex picture of the factors that affect the online processing of nominal morphology.

Overall, the present set of results provides further evidence of the incremental nature of processing in head final languages such as Korean for native speakers and, for L2 learners, the effects of the particular case marking and of their L1 in the capacity to exploit case morphology.

Ching-chun Wang (Modyco, UMR 7114, CNRS/Université Paris Nanterre; in collaboration with Prof Ping Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Brain, Language, and Computation lab)

Abstract: My PhD project aims to study how learning context during second language vocabulary acquisition leads to change in functional brain architecture. We plan to use the innovative technology of integrated EEG and immersive Virtual Reality (iVR). Critically, we will compare to which extent word-picture training, iVR and face-to-face social interaction influence learning of Chinese words (Cantonese) in participants with no prior experience with this language. Pre- and post training resting state quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) will be recorded in each individual for predicting subsequent individual differences in learning outcome (accuracy in recall and retention). EEG power in the different frequency ranges, cordance and regional coherence values will be employed as markers of functional connectivity in the cerebral network supporting word processing. We will apply graph analytical approaches of resting-state data enabling the exploration of the overall organization of functional communication channels within the brain network. Graph analytical methods constitute a new advances in resting-state analysis techniques since it has shown the possibility of examining the overall structure of the brain network, still with a high level of spatial details. Moreover, based on data from both behavioral (reaction times semantic priming) and electroencephalographical methods (event-related brain potentials N400 lexical-semantic incongruity effect), we will explore the brain changes at a more fine-grained level by identifying successful and non successful learners based on data analytics. The current project also allows us to better understand the neurobiological basis of individual differences in second language acquisition (SLA) and will open new perspectives in both applied linguistics and pedagogical applications of foreign language teaching. In particular, it will make it possible to consider new SLA learning by implementing digital learning tools through serious games to accelerate the acquisition of foreign language vocabulatory.