Chapter 4
Is morpho-syntactic decoding governed by Processability Theory?
This study focuses on the comprehension of English morphological features by
adult learners of English based in Belgium. I explore the relationship between their
receptive grammatical processing and identified stages of the emergence of productive
capacities using the Processability Theory framework. I problematise the notion of emergence
in receptive grammatical processing, including recognising the additional challenges of
chance performance. I explore the effects of using different acquisition criteria for the
same data comparing the learners’ performance across multiple morphological features in
relation to PTs proposed developmental stages. I find no developmental systematicity on any
of the measures. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Processability Theory: Basic mechanisms
- 3.PT and grammar decoding: The psycholinguistic plausibility of mirrored
processors
- 4.PT, methodology and receptive grammar tasks
- 4.1Methodological challenges
- 4.2Receptive grammar instruments and PT
- 4.3Previous research
- 5.Design and methodology
- 5.1Participants
- 5.2Instrument
- 5.2.1Grammatical features
- 5.2.2Instrument design
- 5.3Administration procedure
- 5.4Scoring and analysis
- 5.4.1‘I do not know’ and ‘time out’
- 5.4.2Grammatical and ungrammatical test items
- 5.4.3Emergence criterion
- 5.5Results
- 5.5.1Grammatical items
- 5.5.2Ungrammatical items
- 5.5.3Grammatical and ungrammatical items
- 6.Discussion
- 7.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgments
-
Notes
-
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Italiano LinguaDue 15:2
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Grammar in Foreign and Second Language Classes. In
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