L2英語関係節文の統語処理 : 熟達度の影響

抄録

The present study examines the relationship between syntactic processing of relative clause sentences in L2 English and learners' proficiency of the target language. Two groups of Japanese learners of English at different proficiency levels, as well as a control group of English native speakers, participated in a self-paced reading experiment. They read subject or object relative clause sentences which are either lexically demanding or not-demanding. The results showed that the reading time difference between the two structures was evident only for the advanced-level learners and in the sentences with minimum lexical demands. The intermediate-level learners failed to show the reading time difference, regardless of the lexical demands of the sentences. The finding was attributed to the heavy lexical demands for the intermediate learners, which could consume most of the processing resources and leave few for syntactic processes. Implications for models of L2 syntactic processing and L2 grammar instruction are elicited based on the findings.