Two experiments investigated whether low- and intermediate-level Japanese EFL learners can successfully construct syntactic and semantic structures after listening to and reading object relative clauses (ORCs) and passives. Experiment 1 investigated whether 120 learners utilize animacy when comprehending ORCs. After listening to or reading sentences, including 20 stimuli with the manipulation of animate or inanimate sentential subjects, the participants answered comprehension questions. The results showed that 70 low-level participants achieved only 50% accuracy for animate noun questions but a higher rate for inanimate ones, possibly guided by their world knowledge, thus illustrating the participants’ lack of ability in constructing syntactic structures. To clarify whether they constructed syntactic structures online, Experiment 2 utilized a passive/active sentence–picture verification task with the manipulation of animacy for two nouns. After listening to or reading 12 stimuli and 48 fillers, 48 participants performed correctness judgments by matching pictures. The accuracy rates and response times were compared to examine the influence of animacy, syntax, proficiency, and modality. The low-level participants, who were poorer at listening than reading, showed a lower accuracy rate for animate than inanimate passives and a slower latency for animate than inanimate actives, which revealed their difficulty in constructing syntactic structures.

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