The Effect of Syntactically Different L2 Input on L2 Parsing Preference

This study investigates whether L2 input affects L2 parsing preference of ambiguous relative clauses that are structurally dissimilar to L1, looking at how 23 L1 Korean L2 English and 29 L1 Mandarin L2 English speakers resolve ambiguous relative clauses in L2 through a timed comprehension test. Mandarin has the same parsing preference of ambiguous relative clause as English and is a head-mixed language unlike English whereas Korean has the opposite parsing preference to English and is a head-final language contrary to English. All the participants are advanced L2 learners and have varying L2 immersion experiences. The results show that the parsing preference of L1 Korean L2 English speakers is influenced by intensive L2 input while that of L1 Mandarin L2 English speakers is not, implying considerable impact of crosslinguistic structural differences on the effect of L2 input on L2 parsing preference