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Morphophonemic transfer in English second language learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2010

SZE WEI PING  and
SUSAN J. RICKARD LIOW
SZE WEI PING*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore
SUSAN J. RICKARD LIOW
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore
*
Address for correspondence: Sze Wei Ping, Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Block AS4, #02-07, 9 Arts Link, Singapore117570weipingsze@gmail.com
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Abstract

Malay (Rumi) is alphabetic and has a transparent, agglutinative system of affixation. We manipulated language-specific junctural phonetics in Malay and English to investigate whether morphophonemic L1-knowledge influences L2-processing. A morpheme decision task, “Does this <nonword> sound like a mono- or bi-morphemic English word?”, was developed by crossing English Transitional Probability (high vs. low) with Malay Transitional Possibility (possible vs. impossible). The data for Malay-L1/English-L2 adults (N = 21) provide clear and reliable empirical evidence of L1-to-L2 morphophonemic transfer: Participants were more accurate at identifying transitional boundaries in English when they are also possible in Malay. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Keywords

bilingualismaffixationcross-linguisticmorphologyphonology
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 423 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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