Learning via Processing: Structural Priming Across Grammatical Structures and Languages in Early Second Language Development

Abstract

We employed structural priming to test whether targeted exposure to unambiguous form–meaning mappings led to learning of noncanonical word orders, specifically in object relative clauses, among 165 low-to-intermediate-level L1 German L2 learners of English. We further investigated the scope of structural priming by assessing whether priming with related grammatical structures that had been acquired earlier, namely English questions or German relative clauses, similarly led to learning of L2 English object relative clauses. Based on the assumption that relative clauses and questions are related at the level of sentence processing, we tested whether priming went hand in hand with processing changes, as assessed in visual-world eye tracking. Results showed that learning generalized from L2 questions to L2 relative clauses via cumulative and longer-term priming. In contrast, there was no priming from L1 relative clauses. Longer-term L2 priming co-occurred with changes in initial sentence processing, suggesting that prediction errors may drive learning via priming.