Processing 'words' in early stage SLA: a comparison of first exposure and early stage learners

First exposure to a second language

This study compares first exposure learners on a segmentation and word learning task to beginners. The study shows that while beginners are advantaged initially in that they require fewer trials to learn target items presented auditorily in sentences, once learners had acquired items, there were no differences between the groups, even after a two-week hiatus when neither group were exposed to stimuli items. The study thsu shows that both groups were equally able to access memory traces on a forced-choice discrimination task.

Cambridge University Press