Effect of proficiency on subject-verb agreement processing in French learners of English: An ERP study

Maud Pélissier , Jennifer Krzonowski , Emmanuel Ferragne (1)

1 CLILLAC-ARP (EA_3967) - Centre de Linguistique Inter-langues, de Lexicologie, de Linguistique Anglaise et de Corpus

This study explored the effect of proficiency on the native-likeness of syntactic processing in a second language. ERP responses to violations of third-person singular subject-verb agreement were obtained from advanced and intermediate adult French learners of English as well as English native speakers. Our findings show a proficiency effect only in early ERP responses to violations, and suggest that the highest level of proficiency attainable through instruction in France is not enough to exhibit entirely native-like responses.

Keywords: ERP; L2 processing; syntax; proficiency

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Linguistics

Maud Pélissier, Jennifer Krzonowski, Emmanuel Ferragne. Effect of proficiency on subject-verb agreement processing in French learners of English: An ERP study. 6th ISEL Conference on Experimental Linguistics, University of Athens, International Speech & Communication Association, Jun 2015, Athens, Greece. ⟨hal-01240143⟩