Increasing Second Language Learners' Production and Comprehension of Developmentally Advanced Syntactic Forms

This investigation extended the use of the priming methodology to 5- and 6-year-olds at the beginning stages of learning English as a second language (L2). In Study 1, 14 L2 children described transitive scenes without an experimenter's input. They produced no passives and minimal actives; most of their utterances were incomplete. In Study 2, 56 additional L2 children were exposed to an experimenter's transitives (actives or passives) to determine whether and how it affected their English production and comprehension of these forms. Results showed that exposure to passives increased children's production of passives. Repetition of the experimenter's sentences increased both production and comprehension of passives and actives. Further, exposure to passives increased children's use of complete sentences (transitives, nontransitives), primarily those with a focus on the putative patient of the transitive scene. Findings suggest that exposure to developmentally advanced forms activates the relevant transitive conceptual structure which facilitates the acquisition of syntactic forms.