Testing the Bottleneck Hypothesis: Chinese EFL Learners' Knowledge of Morphology and Syntax across Proficiency Levels

Autor/inn/en	Wu, Shiyu; Liu, Dilin; Li, Zan
Titel	Testing the Bottleneck Hypothesis: Chinese EFL Learners' Knowledge of Morphology and Syntax across Proficiency Levels
Quelle	In: Second Language Research, 39 (2023) 4, S.1191-1217 (27 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Wu, Shiyu) ORCID (Liu, Dilin)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0267-6583
DOI	10.1177/02676583221128520
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Grammar; Syntax; Morphology (Languages); Middle School Students; High School Students; College Students; Language Proficiency; China + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Grammatik; Morphology; Morphologie; Middle school; Middle schools; Student; Students; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; Schüler; Schülerin; High school; High schools; Oberschule; Studentin; Collegestudent; Language skill; Language skills; Sprachkompetenz
Abstract	This study tests the Bottleneck Hypothesis (BH) that functional morphology presents the greatest difficulty in second language acquisition by examining Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' knowledge of both functional morphological properties and core syntactic properties across three language proficiency levels. Specifically, this study compares Chinese EFL learners' grasp of subject-verb agreement (a functional morphological property) vs. their grasp of the syntactic formation rules (properties) of WH-questions including WH-movement, WH-"do"-insertion (i.e. the insertion of the auxiliary do), and WH-"do"-inversion (subject-auxiliary inversion): three core syntactic transformation rules. Analyses of the experimental results using generalized mixed-effects models yield complex results that generally support the BH. While subject-verb agreement was found to be persistently more difficult than WH-movement and WH-"do"-inversion, it was shown to pose essentially the same level of difficulty as WH-"do"-insertion due to the fact that the latter also involves the application of the functional features of SV-agreement and tense, i.e. the high level of difficulty of WH-"do"-insertion likely lies in its accompanying application of functional features. Possible explanations for the complex results and their implications are discussed. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01