Research Symposium

BIO

Allie is a second-year student at Florida State University seeking a dual-degree in Psychology and Sport Management with a minor in Spanish. During her time in UROP, she focused on factors that influence one's ability to learn a second language and specifically, ways to improve success in learning English as a second language; as a bilingual student, this is an important topic to her and she hopes to help others become fluent in English as she did. Post-graduation, Allie plans to pursue a master's degree in Sport Psychology and someday work in the NFL to increase awareness of mental health and diversity in professional sports.

Learning a Second Language Unconsciously

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the bearing of 3 different implicit language aptitude scores [LLAMAD, Artificial Grammar (AG), and Passive Priming (p)] on L2 speech performance. It was hypothesized that all three of these implicit aptitude scores would have significant positive correlations with L2 speech performance. 250 speech samples were recorded by Chinese college student English-L2 learners and rated on comprehensibility and accentedness. The averaged ratings were then compared to the students’ corresponding LLAMAD-, AG- and p-scores resulting from separate tests. It was found that LLAMAD-scores had a significant positive correlation, AG-scores had no significant correlation, and p-scores had a significant negative correlation with L2 speech performance. These results have a bearing on L2 education at large; L2 education traditionally centers on conscious (explicit) language-learning and scholars have called into question the exclusion of unconscious (implicit) language-learning. This data suggests conflicting support for the inclusion of unconscious language-learning streams into L2 curriculum.

Keywords: language, aptitude, syntax