Cognitive Factors and Spoken Syntactic Development of L2 Korean Learners: Regularities and Variations (Cognitive Factors and Spoken Syntactic Development of L2 Korean Learners: Regularities and Variations)

In the present study, we examined regularities and variations of the syntactic structure of L2 Korean spoken by L2 learners along with their cognitive factors. The participants were 61 L2 learners of Korean whose L1s were English, Chinese, Japanese, and others; in addition, 30 native speakers of Korean were tested as the control group. In the study, we employed the letter span test, paired associates test, serial response test, visual memory test, spatial memory test, and phonological memory test to measure the participants’ executive functioning and working memory.
A mini Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) was conducted as an index of learners’ general linguistic proficiency, and spoken production was transcribed after participants watched a short video clip. The study applied the Pearson correlation coefficient to find out the relationship between the types of syntactic structures and the cognitive factors. The study showed three main results.
First, each learner’s cognitive uniqueness produces variation of syntactic development. Second, general learning factors, including the period of learning and level of proficiency, produce regularities between learners. Lastly, the use of complex predicate forms seems to be an index of native-likeness, where learners with high statistical learning abilities used these forms more than others did.

In the present study, we examined regularities and variations of the syntactic structure of L2 Korean spoken by L2 learners along with their cognitive factors. The participants were 61 L2 learners of Korean whose L1s were English, Chinese, Japanese, and others; in addition, 30 native speakers of Korean were tested as the control group. In the study, we employed the letter span test, paired associates test, serial response test, visual memory test, spatial memory test, and phonological memory test to measure the participants’ executive functioning and working memory.
A mini Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) was conducted as an index of learners’ general linguistic proficiency, and spoken production was transcribed after participants watched a short video clip. The study applied the Pearson correlation coefficient to find out the relationship between the types of syntactic structures and the cognitive factors. The study showed three main results.
First, each learner’s cognitive uniqueness produces variation of syntactic development. Second, general learning factors, including the period of learning and level of proficiency, produce regularities between learners. Lastly, the use of complex predicate forms seems to be an index of native-likeness, where learners with high statistical learning abilities used these forms more than others did.