Abstract
This study examined the effects of experience-based learning on Japanese EFL learners’ (JEFLLs) relative clause processing. Forty-six JEFLLs, comprising a relative clause group and a contrast group, participated in four sessions involving a pre-test, a repeated exposure, a posttest, and a delayed-post-test conducted one day after the exposure. During the exposure session, the relative clause group read 40 subject relatives (SRs) and 40 object relatives (ORs), answered comprehension questions, and were given correct answers, whereas the contrast group read 80 sentences without relative clauses, and then went through the same procedure as the relative clause group. In the test sessions, the participants read 12 SRs and 12 ORs in a self-paced word-by-word manner and answered comprehension questions. Their accuracy rates for the comprehension questions and reading times in the matrix verb region were compared between the groups and between the clause types. The results showed that the relative clause group read better than the contrast group and underwent more facilitation for OR than SR, indicating that JEFLLs benefited from repeated exposure and that experience-based learning could facilitate sentence processing adjustment as well as implicit learning.
https://ror.org/05t70xh16 
