Syntactic Priming, Type Frequency, and EFL Learners' Production of Wh-Questions

Abstract

Previous interaction studies have reported a positive relationship between syntactic priming and English second language (L2) learners' subsequent production of wh-questions. Syntactic priming research has shown that a speaker's production of a structure during syntactic priming activities is influenced by the individual lexical items that occur in the immediate discourse context. The current study brings together these 2 lines of research to determine whether variation in the type frequency of the lexical verbs and wh-question words targeted in syntactic priming activities impacts learners' subsequent production of wh-questions. Thai English as a foreign language learners (n = 85) met individually with a researcher for 2 20-minute sessions over a 3-week period during which they carried out pretest, priming, and posttest activities. The sessions were digitally recorded and transcribed, and the transcripts were analyzed in terms of the type and number of wh-questions produced by the learners. The results indicated that syntactic priming materials that prompted learners to produce wh-questions with a wide variety of lexical verbs facilitated their subsequent production of wh-questions. The implications are discussed in terms of the role of type frequency during priming activities in L2 learners' acquisition of wh-questions.