The Relationship Between Artificial and Second Language Learning |
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| Authors: | Marc Ettlinger Kara Morgan‐Short Mandy Faretta‐Stutenberg Patrick C.M. Wong |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Research Service, Department of Veterans AffairsNorthern California Health Care System;2. Department of Hispanic and Italian StudiesUniversity of Illinois at Chicago;3. Department of PsychologyUniversity of Illinois at Chicago;4. Department of Foreign Languages and LiteraturesNorthern Illinois University;5. Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages and the CUHK‐Utrecht University Joint Centre for Language, Mind, and BrainThe Chinese University of Hong Kong;6. The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Feinberg School of MedicineNorthwestern University |
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| Abstract: | Artificial language learning (ALL) experiments have become an important tool in exploring principles of language and language learning. A persistent question in all of this work, however, is whether ALL engages the linguistic system and whether ALL studies are ecologically valid assessments of natural language ability. In the present study, we considered these questions by examining the relationship between performance in an ALL task and second language learning ability. Participants enrolled in a Spanish language class were evaluated using a number of different measures of Spanish ability and classroom performance, which was compared to IQ and a number of different measures of ALL performance. The results show that success in ALL experiments, particularly more complex artificial languages, correlates positively with indices of L2 learning even after controlling for IQ. These findings provide a key link between studies involving ALL and our understanding of second language learning in the classroom. |
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| Keywords: | Second language learning Artificial grammar Artificial language learning Classroom learning Language pedagogy Language learning |
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