Study of Number Attraction Effect on English Subject??Verb Agreement among Chinese Learners of English

ZHANG Shao-Lin, ZENG Peng, LIU Yue-Jun

Foreign Language Learning Theory and Practice ›› 2011, Vol. 1 ›› Issue (3) : 42.

PDF(1010 KB)
PDF(1010 KB)
Foreign Language Learning Theory and Practice ›› 2011, Vol. 1 ›› Issue (3) : 42.
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Study of Number Attraction Effect on English Subject??Verb Agreement among Chinese Learners of English

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Abstract

The construction of subject-verb agreement in English involves complicated cognitive processing and thus often elicits mistakes in English production among Chinese learners of English. This experimental research, by adopting a two-choice response time paradigm, explores number attraction effect and the cognitive mechanism involved in English S-V agreement processing on the part of middle level English learners in Chinese universities. The results show that number attraction effect leads to the prolonged response time in correct judgment and the lower accuracy in S-V agreement processing, having strong effect size; the negative effect caused by collective head noun in the subject is neutralized in the presence of the number attractor compared with the cases of singular heard noun; and the students at the middle English level incline to process English information in a serial way instead of the hierarchical way .

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number attraction / S-V agreement processing / response time / accuracy / cognitive mechanism

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ZHANG Shao-Lin, ZENG Peng, LIU Yue-Jun. Study of Number Attraction Effect on English Subject??Verb Agreement among Chinese Learners of English[J]. Foreign Language Learning Theory and Practice. 2011, 1(3): 42
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