PROJECTS
Processing Instruction for L3 English: Differences between balanced and unbalanced bilinguals? (PI-BI-L3)
This project received the research grant (24 months) from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and the Macedonian Ministry of Education and Science (MON). Please see this link https://pibilinguals.wixsite.com/pibil3.
A self-paced reading and listening study in processing Modern Standard Arabic transitive sentences by English speakers. Investigating initial transfer and First-Noun principle effects (with Carl O’Donoghue)
This study attempts to address the issue as to whether native English learners of L2 Modern Standard Arabic with zero to 560 hours of L2 exposure initially depend on the First Noun Principle or the L1 Transfer Principle when interpreting Arabic SVO and VSO sentences.
Bidirectional transfer-of-training effects on the English causative and English passive: An eye-tracking study
This project investigates bidirectional transfer-of-training effects on the English causative and English passive. NNS performance and NS performance is compared. Eye tracking is used to measure learners’ processing while reading the target sentences, while looking at two pictures (images), and while mouse clicking A or B as the correct answer and clicking finished to move forward.
Processing instruction versus input enhancement. Classroom effects and computerized online learning measurements (with Gaia Chiuchiu)
This empirical study investigates the effects of structured input tasks on the acquisition of Italian subjunctive of doubt using sentence off-line measurements and a self-paced reading task.
Non-intrusive input enhancement and incidental learning of multi-words units: A SPR and eye tracking study with Chinese learners of Italian L2 (with Ilaria Borro)
This study provides a theoretical and experimental basis for the design of pedagogic techniques capable of improving incidental learning and implicit knowledge of multi-word units. The effects structured input and structured output on the acquisition of the English causative: Online and offline (discourse) measurements
Testing the Effectiveness of Processing Instruction and Re-examining Input Processing: New Theoretical and Methodological Developments
(Alessandro Benati (Hong Kong University), James Lee (Tech Texas University) and Stephen Doherty (UNSW, Australia), Paul Malovrh (University of South Carolina, USA) and Dietmar Roehm (PLUS)) (funded by two Erasmus + projects with Australia and USA)
We are currently developing a new research project with a series of experiments to be conducted in our labs exploring theoretical and methodological issues concerning the pivotal role of input and output in Second Language Acquisition. The collaborative project will make use of online measurements by investigating the effect of specific variables on online interpretation tasks, as well as analyzing second-language elicited production. Based on previous research (Benati & Lee, 2008), carried out to measure how treatment of one linguistic form might influence processing another form affected by similar ‘processing problem’, the proposed project will look at the primary, secondary and cumulative effects of Processing Instruction and its components on the acquisition of L2 linguistic features across various target languages.