Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

The one-year longitudinal study compares the L2 acquisition of four key Chinese sentence structures in the foreign language (FL) and the target language (TL) settings respectively. The four sentence structures are a) canonical [SVO], b) Object-initial [OSV], c) Object-preverbal [SOV], and d) the BA structure [S BA-OV]. They are located at three stages of the processability hierarchy according to Processability Thoery (Pienemann 1998, 2005). The study addresses two questions: whether they are acquired in the predicated sequence in both learning contexts; whether the TL context facilitates faster acquisition? The speech data came from 6 zero-proficiency Chinese language learners at two universities: 3 in China and 3 in Australia. The results show no impact of the learning setting on the acquisition sequence. Impact is found in the acquisition rate. The learners in Australia appeared to progress faster as measured by classroom contact hours and by instructional weeks. The findings confirm previous research that the TL learning context does not exert influence on L2 grammar development, and that the FL context is at no disadvantage in this regard.