Contributor: Yoonseo Kim | Reviewer: Yu-Han Lin
What is the study about?
Previous research shows that adult second language (L2) learners tend to rely on their existing knowledge of words, which makes them use fewer word groups. This can make it harder for them to learn certain grammar rules because it weakens the connection between different parts of the language. One of the grammar rules that adult L2 learners often find difficult is matching the gender of words correctly. This is called “grammatical gender agreement.” It means that certain words, like adjectives or articles, need to change depending on whether the noun they describe is considered masculine or feminine in the language. This study examines how adults’ prior knowledge of words influences L2 learning, proposing that their existing knowledge makes them less dependent on multiword units, which in turn impedes their ability to learn certain grammatical relationships between words.
What did the researchers do?
The first research question was: Will adults learn the connection between the article and the noun better if exposed to language without clear word breaks? Researchers recruited 44 native Hebrew-speaking students, dividing them into two groups. One group first heard sentences with a pause between the article (e.g., “the”) and noun (e.g., “cat”), then sentences without pauses, while the second group heard the sentences in reverse order. Afterward, participants were tested on how well they learned the article-noun connection. The second research question was: Will the benefit of learning from word groups disappear when the article conveys meaning about the noun? To explore this, another group of 44 native Hebrew-speaking students took part in the same experiment, but this time, noun classes were based on meaning—whether the objects were living or nonliving.
What did the researchers find? Why is the finding important?
Answering the first research question, the study found that participants who learned from speech without clear pauses first relied more on article–noun pairs (e.g., “the cat”) and learned the connection better than the other group. This suggests that the size of word groups affects learning. For the second research question, the study found that learning whole units from the start did not improve learning when the article-noun pairing was based on meaning (e.g., living vs. non-living). This finding shows how early learning experiences affect later learning and explains why adult L2 learners often struggle more than children. It suggests that for some areas, like grammatical gender agreement, learning language as whole units from the start may lead to better outcomes than learning in separate pieces.
Original Text:
Siegelman, N., & Arnon, I. (2015). The advantage of starting big: Learning from unsegmented input facilitates mastery of grammatical gender in an artificial language. Journal of Memory and Language, 85, 60-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.07.003
Cite this summary:
Kim, Y. (2025, January 26). The Advantage of Starting Big in Second Language Learning. Multiʻōlelo. https://multiolelo.wordpress.com/?p=4983
Multiʻōlelo 