This sample of 232 student essays is drawn from RULEC, the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Wri... more This sample of 232 student essays is drawn from RULEC, the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing, which contains texts written for class assignments by heritage and second language (L2) learners enrolled in Portland State University's Russian Language Flagship program between 2008 and 2013. In addition to learner type, the sample is divided between essays that students wrote with and without a time limit; that is, under both timed and untimed conditions. Using oXygen XML Editor software, a native Russian-speaking graduate student in the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Linguistics annotated all inflectional morphology errors on nouns, adjectives and determiners in the sample texts. Additionally, all T-units (sentences or independent clauses with any accompanying dependent clauses) in the texts have been annotated by the author of the thesis for which this sample was used, "Representational and Processing Constraints on the Acquisition of Case and Gender by L1 E...
Inflectional morphology errors have been found to be prevalent in adult second language productio... more Inflectional morphology errors have been found to be prevalent in adult second language production, even by learners with high overall proficiency and extensive L2 exposure. Particular difficulties are observed with acquisition of complex inflectional systems by learners whose first languages are less morphologically rich. Thus, L1 English learners acquiring the Russian case and gender systems can provide a testing ground for competing approaches to L2 morphological acquisition. This study utilizes the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing, consisting of texts by advanced learners in Portland State University’s Russian Language Flagship program, to compare frequencies of case and gender-marking errors in timed versus untimed compositions by a sample of heritage and traditional L2 learners in order to gauge the putative effect of processing pressure on such errors. It was predicted that significantly more frequent errors in timed compositions would support the position that infl...
This paper is an update to the author’s 2015 thesis, which presented a corpus study on the acquis... more This paper is an update to the author’s 2015 thesis, which presented a corpus study on the acquisition of case and gender by L1 English learners of Russian, including both heritage and second language learners. To ensure replicability of this study and increase the potential usefulness of the corpus data to other researchers, the author of the paper has annotated all T-units in each of the sample learner texts with XML tags. In this updated paper, the author has recalculated the rates of learners' nominal morphology errors per T-unit and words per T-unit reported in the 2015 paper and repeated the statistical tests that were based on those rates. While the key findings of the 2015 paper remain unchanged, the precise statistical results and the level of significance of some previous results have been updated.
Morphological errors are prevalent in adult second language production, particularly among learne... more Morphological errors are prevalent in adult second language production, particularly among learners whose first languages have less complex inflectional systems. Thus, U.S. learners of Russian can provide a testing ground for competing approaches to L2 morphological acquisition. This study utilizes the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing to compare case and gender-marking error frequencies in timed versus untimed essays by advanced heritage and traditional L2 learners in Portland State University's Russian Language Flagship program.
It was predicted that higher error rates in timed compositions would support the position that advanced learners' morphological errors reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, such differences did not reach significance for either heritage or L2 learners; in the latter group, error rates were higher in students' untimed texts. These results could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, greater complexity (words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the higher untimed error rate among this group. The heritage group had lower overall case and gender-marking error rates than the L2 group, suggesting heritage learners are less likely to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.
This paper is an update to the author’s 2015 thesis, which presented a corpus study on the acquis... more This paper is an update to the author’s 2015 thesis, which presented a corpus study on the acquisition of case and gender by L1 English learners of Russian. To ensure replicability of this study and increase the potential usefulness of the corpus data to other researchers, the author of the paper has annotated all T-units in each of the sample learner texts with XML tags. In this updated paper, the author has recalculated the rates of nominal morphology errors per T-unit and words per T-unit reported in the 2015 paper and repeated the statistical tests that were based on those rates. While the key findings of the 2015 paper remain unchanged, the precise statistical results and the level of significance of some previous results have been updated.
Among the factors that led to the current prominence of Optimality Theory (OT) in the field of ph... more Among the factors that led to the current prominence of Optimality Theory (OT) in the field of phonology is the potential for this theory to address the problem of how learners acquire the phonological rules or constraints of their native language. Somewhat similarly to the concept of parameter setting in Universal Grammar, OT posits that phonological constraints are universal and innate and that learners must only learn the correct ranking of constraints in their specific language, rather than having to discover the entire set of constraints while starting from a complete lack of knowledge of these constraints. Yet the implications of OT for language learning are not limited to L1 acquisition. OT also provides an explanatory framework that some researchers claim can be applied to the interlanguage of L2 learners, thus helping to account for the frequently observed presence of phonological forms in interlanguage grammar that do not conform to the grammar of either the L1 or the L2.
In order to test the viability of the above claim through a case study, this paper will apply the OT framework to examine L2 acquisition of Russian stress assignment. Previous analyses such as that of David Hart (1998) have approached this phenomenon from a generative perspective, focusing on the major differences between phonological rules of stress assignment in Russian and English and the problem of L1 transfer for learners attempting to acquire the Russian grammatical system. This study will present an alternative analysis of Hart’s data on L2 learner errors with Russian stress assignment that seeks to account for these non-targetlike interlanguage forms not only through L1 transfer, but also in terms of universal markedness constraints from Optimality Theory. This analysis is based on proposals by Fred Eckman (2004) and Ellen Broselow (2004) that as second language learners undergo a gradual process of reranking the phonological constraints from their L1 to more closely match those of the L2, they experience a transitional phase in which their IL grammar is strongly influenced by universal markedness constraints that may not be highly ranked in either language. As a result, learners who have begun to differentiate from the phonology of their L1, but still have incomplete knowledge of the L2 system, can produce phonological outputs that diverge from both systems in favor of cross-linguistically unmarked forms, particularly with regard to structures that are highly marked in the L2 grammar.
Inflectional morphology errors have been found to be prevalent in adult second language productio... more Inflectional morphology errors have been found to be prevalent in adult second language production, even by learners with high overall proficiency and extensive L2 exposure. Particular difficulties are observed with acquisition of complex inflectional systems by learners whose first languages are less morphologically rich. Thus, L1 English learners acquiring the Russian case and gender systems can provide a testing ground for competing approaches to L2 morphological acquisition. This study utilized the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing, consisting of texts by advanced learners in Portland State University’s Russian Language Flagship program, to compare frequencies of case and gender-marking errors in timed versus untimed compositions by a sample of heritage and traditional L2 learners in order to gauge the putative effect of processing pressure on such errors.
It was predicted that significantly more frequent errors in timed compositions would support the position that inflectional morphology errors by advanced learners largely reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, results for the heritage group showed that while descriptive tendencies appeared to point toward processing difficulties, the difference between timed and untimed error rates did not reach statistical significance. In the L2 group, error rates were higher in students’ untimed texts than in their timed texts, although this difference also did not reach significance. The lack of reliable differences between timed and untimed error rates could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in learners’ interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, the greater complexity (measured by words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the unexpected finding of a higher untimed error rate among the L2 learners, for whom the correlation between differences in complexity and error rates for timed and untimed texts approached significance. For the heritage learners, error rates appeared to be affected more by time pressure than text complexity. In addition, the heritage group had lower case-marking and significantly lower gender-marking error rates than the L2 group. This finding suggests that heritage learners are less likely than traditional L2 learners to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.
Introduction. Constraints on U.S. students' acquisition of advanced foreign language proficiency ... more Introduction. Constraints on U.S. students' acquisition of advanced foreign language proficiency within the traditional learning context of a four-year university classroom instructional program are a well-known problem in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). This problem is particularly acute for languages that are categorized by the Defense Language Institute as relatively difficult for native English speakers to learn, such as Slavic and East Asian languages and Arabic, among others. For example, Rifkin found that students who learned Russian only in the traditional domestic classroom context at the University of Wisconsin-Madison typically scored at the Intermediate Mid level on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) scales of speaking and reading proficiency at the conclusion of their fourth-year language courses. Some exceptional U.S. students in traditional language programs attain scores of Intermediate High, but very few are able to enter the Advanced proficiency range.
This sample of 232 student essays is drawn from RULEC, the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Wri... more This sample of 232 student essays is drawn from RULEC, the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing, which contains texts written for class assignments by heritage and second language (L2) learners enrolled in Portland State University's Russian Language Flagship program between 2008 and 2013. In addition to learner type, the sample is divided between essays that students wrote with and without a time limit; that is, under both timed and untimed conditions. Using oXygen XML Editor software, a native Russian-speaking graduate student in the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Linguistics annotated all inflectional morphology errors on nouns, adjectives and determiners in the sample texts. Additionally, all T-units (sentences or independent clauses with any accompanying dependent clauses) in the texts have been annotated by the author of the thesis for which this sample was used, "Representational and Processing Constraints on the Acquisition of Case and Gender by L1 E...
Inflectional morphology errors have been found to be prevalent in adult second language productio... more Inflectional morphology errors have been found to be prevalent in adult second language production, even by learners with high overall proficiency and extensive L2 exposure. Particular difficulties are observed with acquisition of complex inflectional systems by learners whose first languages are less morphologically rich. Thus, L1 English learners acquiring the Russian case and gender systems can provide a testing ground for competing approaches to L2 morphological acquisition. This study utilizes the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing, consisting of texts by advanced learners in Portland State University’s Russian Language Flagship program, to compare frequencies of case and gender-marking errors in timed versus untimed compositions by a sample of heritage and traditional L2 learners in order to gauge the putative effect of processing pressure on such errors. It was predicted that significantly more frequent errors in timed compositions would support the position that infl...
This paper is an update to the author’s 2015 thesis, which presented a corpus study on the acquis... more This paper is an update to the author’s 2015 thesis, which presented a corpus study on the acquisition of case and gender by L1 English learners of Russian, including both heritage and second language learners. To ensure replicability of this study and increase the potential usefulness of the corpus data to other researchers, the author of the paper has annotated all T-units in each of the sample learner texts with XML tags. In this updated paper, the author has recalculated the rates of learners' nominal morphology errors per T-unit and words per T-unit reported in the 2015 paper and repeated the statistical tests that were based on those rates. While the key findings of the 2015 paper remain unchanged, the precise statistical results and the level of significance of some previous results have been updated.
Morphological errors are prevalent in adult second language production, particularly among learne... more Morphological errors are prevalent in adult second language production, particularly among learners whose first languages have less complex inflectional systems. Thus, U.S. learners of Russian can provide a testing ground for competing approaches to L2 morphological acquisition. This study utilizes the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing to compare case and gender-marking error frequencies in timed versus untimed essays by advanced heritage and traditional L2 learners in Portland State University's Russian Language Flagship program.
It was predicted that higher error rates in timed compositions would support the position that advanced learners' morphological errors reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, such differences did not reach significance for either heritage or L2 learners; in the latter group, error rates were higher in students' untimed texts. These results could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, greater complexity (words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the higher untimed error rate among this group. The heritage group had lower overall case and gender-marking error rates than the L2 group, suggesting heritage learners are less likely to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.
This paper is an update to the author’s 2015 thesis, which presented a corpus study on the acquis... more This paper is an update to the author’s 2015 thesis, which presented a corpus study on the acquisition of case and gender by L1 English learners of Russian. To ensure replicability of this study and increase the potential usefulness of the corpus data to other researchers, the author of the paper has annotated all T-units in each of the sample learner texts with XML tags. In this updated paper, the author has recalculated the rates of nominal morphology errors per T-unit and words per T-unit reported in the 2015 paper and repeated the statistical tests that were based on those rates. While the key findings of the 2015 paper remain unchanged, the precise statistical results and the level of significance of some previous results have been updated.
Among the factors that led to the current prominence of Optimality Theory (OT) in the field of ph... more Among the factors that led to the current prominence of Optimality Theory (OT) in the field of phonology is the potential for this theory to address the problem of how learners acquire the phonological rules or constraints of their native language. Somewhat similarly to the concept of parameter setting in Universal Grammar, OT posits that phonological constraints are universal and innate and that learners must only learn the correct ranking of constraints in their specific language, rather than having to discover the entire set of constraints while starting from a complete lack of knowledge of these constraints. Yet the implications of OT for language learning are not limited to L1 acquisition. OT also provides an explanatory framework that some researchers claim can be applied to the interlanguage of L2 learners, thus helping to account for the frequently observed presence of phonological forms in interlanguage grammar that do not conform to the grammar of either the L1 or the L2.
In order to test the viability of the above claim through a case study, this paper will apply the OT framework to examine L2 acquisition of Russian stress assignment. Previous analyses such as that of David Hart (1998) have approached this phenomenon from a generative perspective, focusing on the major differences between phonological rules of stress assignment in Russian and English and the problem of L1 transfer for learners attempting to acquire the Russian grammatical system. This study will present an alternative analysis of Hart’s data on L2 learner errors with Russian stress assignment that seeks to account for these non-targetlike interlanguage forms not only through L1 transfer, but also in terms of universal markedness constraints from Optimality Theory. This analysis is based on proposals by Fred Eckman (2004) and Ellen Broselow (2004) that as second language learners undergo a gradual process of reranking the phonological constraints from their L1 to more closely match those of the L2, they experience a transitional phase in which their IL grammar is strongly influenced by universal markedness constraints that may not be highly ranked in either language. As a result, learners who have begun to differentiate from the phonology of their L1, but still have incomplete knowledge of the L2 system, can produce phonological outputs that diverge from both systems in favor of cross-linguistically unmarked forms, particularly with regard to structures that are highly marked in the L2 grammar.
Inflectional morphology errors have been found to be prevalent in adult second language productio... more Inflectional morphology errors have been found to be prevalent in adult second language production, even by learners with high overall proficiency and extensive L2 exposure. Particular difficulties are observed with acquisition of complex inflectional systems by learners whose first languages are less morphologically rich. Thus, L1 English learners acquiring the Russian case and gender systems can provide a testing ground for competing approaches to L2 morphological acquisition. This study utilized the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing, consisting of texts by advanced learners in Portland State University’s Russian Language Flagship program, to compare frequencies of case and gender-marking errors in timed versus untimed compositions by a sample of heritage and traditional L2 learners in order to gauge the putative effect of processing pressure on such errors.
It was predicted that significantly more frequent errors in timed compositions would support the position that inflectional morphology errors by advanced learners largely reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, results for the heritage group showed that while descriptive tendencies appeared to point toward processing difficulties, the difference between timed and untimed error rates did not reach statistical significance. In the L2 group, error rates were higher in students’ untimed texts than in their timed texts, although this difference also did not reach significance. The lack of reliable differences between timed and untimed error rates could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in learners’ interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, the greater complexity (measured by words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the unexpected finding of a higher untimed error rate among the L2 learners, for whom the correlation between differences in complexity and error rates for timed and untimed texts approached significance. For the heritage learners, error rates appeared to be affected more by time pressure than text complexity. In addition, the heritage group had lower case-marking and significantly lower gender-marking error rates than the L2 group. This finding suggests that heritage learners are less likely than traditional L2 learners to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.
Introduction. Constraints on U.S. students' acquisition of advanced foreign language proficiency ... more Introduction. Constraints on U.S. students' acquisition of advanced foreign language proficiency within the traditional learning context of a four-year university classroom instructional program are a well-known problem in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). This problem is particularly acute for languages that are categorized by the Defense Language Institute as relatively difficult for native English speakers to learn, such as Slavic and East Asian languages and Arabic, among others. For example, Rifkin found that students who learned Russian only in the traditional domestic classroom context at the University of Wisconsin-Madison typically scored at the Intermediate Mid level on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) scales of speaking and reading proficiency at the conclusion of their fourth-year language courses. Some exceptional U.S. students in traditional language programs attain scores of Intermediate High, but very few are able to enter the Advanced proficiency range.
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It was predicted that higher error rates in timed compositions would support the position that advanced learners' morphological errors reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, such differences did not reach significance for either heritage or L2 learners; in the latter group, error rates were higher in students' untimed texts. These results could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, greater complexity (words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the higher untimed error rate among this group. The heritage group had lower overall case and gender-marking error rates than the L2 group, suggesting heritage learners are less likely to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.
In order to test the viability of the above claim through a case study, this paper will apply the OT framework to examine L2 acquisition of Russian stress assignment. Previous analyses such as that of David Hart (1998) have approached this phenomenon from a generative perspective, focusing on the major differences between phonological rules of stress assignment in Russian and English and the problem of L1 transfer for learners attempting to acquire the Russian grammatical system. This study will present an alternative analysis of Hart’s data on L2 learner errors with Russian stress assignment that seeks to account for these non-targetlike interlanguage forms not only through L1 transfer, but also in terms of universal markedness constraints from Optimality Theory. This analysis is based on proposals by Fred Eckman (2004) and Ellen Broselow (2004) that as second language learners undergo a gradual process of reranking the phonological constraints from their L1 to more closely match those of the L2, they experience a transitional phase in which their IL grammar is strongly influenced by universal markedness constraints that may not be highly ranked in either language. As a result, learners who have begun to differentiate from the phonology of their L1, but still have incomplete knowledge of the L2 system, can produce phonological outputs that diverge from both systems in favor of cross-linguistically unmarked forms, particularly with regard to structures that are highly marked in the L2 grammar.
It was predicted that significantly more frequent errors in timed compositions would support the position that inflectional morphology errors by advanced learners largely reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, results for the heritage group showed that while descriptive tendencies appeared to point toward processing difficulties, the difference between timed and untimed error rates did not reach statistical significance. In the L2 group, error rates were higher in students’ untimed texts than in their timed texts, although this difference also did not reach significance. The lack of reliable differences between timed and untimed error rates could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in learners’ interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, the greater complexity (measured by words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the unexpected finding of a higher untimed error rate among the L2 learners, for whom the correlation between differences in complexity and error rates for timed and untimed texts approached significance. For the heritage learners, error rates appeared to be affected more by time pressure than text complexity. In addition, the heritage group had lower case-marking and significantly lower gender-marking error rates than the L2 group. This finding suggests that heritage learners are less likely than traditional L2 learners to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.
It was predicted that higher error rates in timed compositions would support the position that advanced learners' morphological errors reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, such differences did not reach significance for either heritage or L2 learners; in the latter group, error rates were higher in students' untimed texts. These results could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, greater complexity (words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the higher untimed error rate among this group. The heritage group had lower overall case and gender-marking error rates than the L2 group, suggesting heritage learners are less likely to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.
In order to test the viability of the above claim through a case study, this paper will apply the OT framework to examine L2 acquisition of Russian stress assignment. Previous analyses such as that of David Hart (1998) have approached this phenomenon from a generative perspective, focusing on the major differences between phonological rules of stress assignment in Russian and English and the problem of L1 transfer for learners attempting to acquire the Russian grammatical system. This study will present an alternative analysis of Hart’s data on L2 learner errors with Russian stress assignment that seeks to account for these non-targetlike interlanguage forms not only through L1 transfer, but also in terms of universal markedness constraints from Optimality Theory. This analysis is based on proposals by Fred Eckman (2004) and Ellen Broselow (2004) that as second language learners undergo a gradual process of reranking the phonological constraints from their L1 to more closely match those of the L2, they experience a transitional phase in which their IL grammar is strongly influenced by universal markedness constraints that may not be highly ranked in either language. As a result, learners who have begun to differentiate from the phonology of their L1, but still have incomplete knowledge of the L2 system, can produce phonological outputs that diverge from both systems in favor of cross-linguistically unmarked forms, particularly with regard to structures that are highly marked in the L2 grammar.
It was predicted that significantly more frequent errors in timed compositions would support the position that inflectional morphology errors by advanced learners largely reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, results for the heritage group showed that while descriptive tendencies appeared to point toward processing difficulties, the difference between timed and untimed error rates did not reach statistical significance. In the L2 group, error rates were higher in students’ untimed texts than in their timed texts, although this difference also did not reach significance. The lack of reliable differences between timed and untimed error rates could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in learners’ interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, the greater complexity (measured by words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the unexpected finding of a higher untimed error rate among the L2 learners, for whom the correlation between differences in complexity and error rates for timed and untimed texts approached significance. For the heritage learners, error rates appeared to be affected more by time pressure than text complexity. In addition, the heritage group had lower case-marking and significantly lower gender-marking error rates than the L2 group. This finding suggests that heritage learners are less likely than traditional L2 learners to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.