Effects of L1 knowledge and task type on bilingual acquisition and processing of English count and mass nouns

• Kim, Dohee ^[1] ; Kim, Hyunwoo ^[1]
  1. [1] Yonsei University

     Yonsei University

     Corea del Sur

     
• Localización: International Journal of Bilingualism: interdisciplinary studies of multilingual behaviour, ISSN 1367-0069, Vol. 30, Nº. 3, 2026, págs. 939-953
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1177/13670069251360171
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Aims and Objectives: This study examines how second language (L2) learners acquire and process count and mass nouns in English, with a particular emphasis on the influence of their first language (L1). Given the crosslinguistic similarities in plural-marking systems between English and Russian, as well as the differences between English and Korean, the study aims to compare Korean- and Russian-L1 learners, investigating their ability to detect plural-marking errors in English sentence comprehension. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study employs both offline acceptability judgment and online self-paced reading tasks to assess learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge, respectively. Participants consist of three groups: Korean-L1 learners (Korean group), Russian-L1 learners (Russian group), and native English speakers (English group). This comparative design enables a systematic analysis of L1 influence on L2 acquisition. Data and Analysis: Data from the acceptability judgment task were analyzed using a cumulative link mixed-effects model. For the self-paced reading task, a linear mixed-effects regression model was applied. Findings/Conclusions: The results indicate that the Russian group performed similarly to the English group in the acceptability judgment task, while the Korean group exhibited sensitivity to grammatical errors only for count nouns. In the self-paced reading task, both learner groups struggled with real-time processing, suggesting incomplete implicit knowledge. Originality: This paper uniquely integrates offline and online tasks to test the effects of L1 knowledge on L2 acquisition and processing of plural marking, as well as contributing to the understanding of explicit and implicit knowledge in L2 learners. Significance/Implications: The findings support theories emphasizing crosslinguistic differences as major obstacles in L2 morphosyntactic acquisition. The study also demonstrates the influential roles of task type and linguistic interfaces, suggesting that cognitive load from online processing and the management of multiple information sources can impede the application of L1 and explicit knowledge during real-time processing.

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