Japanese EFL Learners' Implicit Knowledge and Algorithmic Processing of Dative Alternation : Perspective From Syntactic Priming in Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The priming method was recently introduced into the field of L2 studies as a new psycholinguistic tool to capture how and to what extent L2 learners possess their implicit knowledge or proceduralize their knowledge of specific grammatical structures. However, this line of studies exclusively explores the productive dimension, but not the receptive dimension, which is said to be better to obtain a deeper insight into the implicit knowledge (Jiang, 2007). In consideration of this, the current study investigated whether L2 learners can utilize syntactically driven algorithmic processing with implicit knowledge through a self-paced reading task with syntactic priming. Twenty highly proficient Japanese learners and 18 native speakers of English engaged in a phrase-by-phrase self-paced reading task after reading prime sentences. The results indicate that: (1) Japanese EFL learners seem to be able to utilize syntactic processing with implicit knowledge in terms of dative alternation; and (2) learners process sentences more "deeply" than natives under certain conditions. The results are discussed in terms of semantic/heuristic processing (good-enough processing) and syntactic/algorithm processing.