INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE L1 AND L2 PROCESSING OF MORPHOLOGICALLY COMPLEX WORDS

2022-2-1
Kahraman, Hasibe
The aim of this study was to examine how native speakers (L1) of Turkish, a morphologically rich language, process a second language (L2) which is morphologically less productive such as English. Critically, the study examined morphological priming effects together with a transposed-letter (TL) methodology using the same target word and compared the processing of derived word forms in L1 English speakers to that of L1 Turkish speakers of L2 English. Two masked primed lexical decision experiments were conducted in which the same target (e.g., BRAVE) was preceded by a morphological prime (braveness), a TL-within prime (braevness), an SL-within prime (braocness), a TL-across prime (bravneess), an SL-across prime (bravruess) or an Unrelated prime (directness). Furthermore, to clarify the conflicting empirical evidence in L1 and L2 morphological processing, the potential impact of individual differences in the reading networks of individuals was explored. The average group data yielded robust morphological priming in both L1 and L2 speakers, while significant TL priming for within-morpheme transpositions was obtained only in L1 speakers. Nevertheless, the findings of exploratory analyses into the potential effects of individual variability suggested individual differences might indeed moderate the size and the magnitude of group-level priming in L1 and L2 speakers, leading to the emergence of TL priming effects for particular groups in L2 speakers. These results provided some resolution to the earlier inconsistent empirical evidence, highlighting the importance of considering individual differences while testing L1 and L2 populations.

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Citation Formats
H. Kahraman, “INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE L1 AND L2 PROCESSING OF MORPHOLOGICALLY COMPLEX WORDS,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2022.