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Abstract:
Abstract: We examined ERP responses in auditory sentence
processing in foreign language acquisition. Participants were
native speakers of Russian and learned German as their foreign
language. Three types of German sentences were presented
auditorily. The sentences ended with a target word that was either
(a) correct, (b) semantically incorrect, i.e. violating the
selectional restriction of the verb, or (c) syntactically
incorrect, i.e. violating the phrase structure. Subjects were asked
to judge the correctness of the sentences. In native speakers,
these sentences elicited an N400 in the semantic violation
condition and an early anterior negativity followed by a P600 in
the syntactic violation condition (see Hahne & Friederici,
1998, 1999). Behavioral results showed that the foreign language
learners made more errors than native speakers but were clearly
above chance level. ERPs on correctly answered trials differed
remarkably from those of native speakers. The N400 component in the
semantic violation condition had a later onset latency, was reduced
in amplitude and longer in duration. Interestingly, in the
syntactic violation condition there was no early anterior
negativity, a component taken to reflect automatic syntactic
parsing procedures. The P600 component was reduced in amplitude.
These data suggest different processing mechanisms in foreign
language acquisition as compared to native language processing, in
particular with regard to automatic syntactic structuring
processes.
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