Dissertation

Haydee Carrasco-Ortiz – Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Aix-Marseille Université

Title: Morphosyntactic learning of French as a second language

Field: Psycholinguistics

Date of defense: 27th July 2012

Funding: PhD Grant from the Ministère français de la Recherche et de l’Enseignement Supérieur and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT Mexico)

Director: Cheryl Frenck-Mestre, Directeur de Recherche, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, CNRS -Aix-Marseille Université

Jury:

Philippe Blache, Directeur de Recherche, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, CNRS -Aix-Marseille Université

Sonja Kotz, Professeur, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, Leipzig

Laurie Stowe, Professeur, Center for Language and Cognition Groningen, University of Groningen

Abstract. This thesis investigates morphosyntactic learning in adult second language (L2) learners of French. It examines the assumption posited by linguistic and neurocognitive models according to which L2 learners’ difficulty in fully mastering morphosyntactic knowledge is due to a failure to mentally represent and process morphosyntactic information in a native-like manner. The series of experiments presented in this thesis use ERPs to investigate whether the difficulties that late L2 learners encounter in processing morphosyntactic agreement can be explained by (a) the phonological realization of inflectional morphology in the target language and (b) interference from the learners’ native language (L1). The findings demonstrate that late L2 learners can achieve native-like processing of morphosyntactic knowledge at high levels of proficiency, regardless of the status of the morphosyntactic system in their L1. In addition, we provide evidence that phonological information contained in inflectional morphology plays an important role in the acquisition and processing of morphosyntactic agreement in L2. It is thus argued that L2 learners’ processing of morphosyntactic agreement is less influenced by the L1 at high levels of proficiency, while still being potentially affected by the specific morphosyntactic properties of the target language. These findings give further support to linguistic and neurocognitive models positing that morphosyntactic processing in adult L2 learners involves mental representations and cognitive mechanisms similar to those used by native speakers. In accordance with previous reading models, we argue that morphosyntactic information can be activated at the phonological level of representation during language comprehension in both native and non-native readers.

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