The Perception and Production of Arabic Lexical Stress by Learners of Arabic: A Usage-Based Account By Cheng-Wei Lin A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Near Eastern Studies) in The University of Michigan 2018 Doctoral Committee: Professor Mohammad T. Alhawary, Chair Professor Patrice S. Beddor Professor Nick C. Ellis Professor Emeritus Raji M. Rammuny Cheng-Wei Lin [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7295-9120 © Cheng-Wei Lin 2018 Acknowledgements It has been a long journey, and I would like to thank all the people who have helped me and encouraged me these years. First of all, I would like to thank the committee members for their feedback and time dedicated to my dissertation. I would like to especially thank my advisor Professor Mohammad Alhawary, who opened to me the different fields of Arabic linguistics, and has always motivated me while intellectually challenged me with his thorough feedback on my work to help me become a better researcher. I would like to thank Professor Patrice Beddor, who taught the first theoretical linguistics class I have ever taken formally, and has provided me inspiration and feedback since. I would also like to thank Professor Nick Ellis, who has inspired me of the paradigm examined in this dissertation, and has provided substantial advice in experimental testing. Lastly, I would like to thank Professor Raji Rammuny, who has taught me how to be a better Arabic teacher and who has always been supportive of my research. Secondly, I would like to thank the people who made the experiment in this dissertation possible. I would like to thank the faculty members at National Chengchi University and Georgetown University for their help. I would like to especially thank Professor Huey-Tsyr Jeng and Professor Felicitas Opwis for giving me the permission to conduct my research there. I also sincerely thank all the learners of Arabic who participated in the experiment. If it were not for them, nothing would come out of this dissertation. ii Thirdly, I would like to thank the people around me for their understanding and support. I would like to thank my cohorts from the department of Near Eastern Studies, especially for Lizz Huntley for her support and help with the dissertation. I would like to thank the members of the Phondi discussion group and the Psycholinguistics discussion group at U of M for allowing me to present my work and for their feedback on this study. My colleagues at Michigan State University must be thanked as well for their constant support and understanding, which makes juggling between teaching Arabic and completing my dissertation possible. I would like to thank Y for her constant support and company through the toughest times. Lastly, I am deeply indebted to my parents for the years that I have been intermittently absent. I would like to thank their constant support of me and their belief in me. Without them, none of this could have been possible. This dissertation is dedicated to them. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ ii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... x LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... xii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Arabic L2 Stress Perception and Production Studies ............................................................... 2 1.2 Objectives of the Dissertation ................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Organization of the Dissertation ............................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2 Background: Perception and Production of L2 Stress .................................................................... 6 2.1 Lexical Stress in Arabic ............................................................................................................ 7 2.1.1 The Phonology of Stress ................................................................................................. 7 2.1.2 The Phonetics of Lexical Stress in Arabic .................................................................... 12 2.2 Studies in L2 Stress Perception and Production ..................................................................... 13 2.2.1 L2 Stress Perception Studies ......................................................................................... 14 2.2.2 L2 Stress Production Studies ........................................................................................ 23 2.2.3 L1 and L2 Stress and Perception and Production and Arabic ...................................... 26 2.2.4 Conclusions from L2 Stress Perception and Production Studies .................................. 28 2.3 Studies on Frequency Effect In Language Processing and Learning ..................................... 29 2.3.1 Frequency Effect on L1 Learning and Processing ........................................................ 29 2.3.2 A Usage-Based Approach to Second Language Acquisition ....................................... 32 2.4 Frequency and Stress Perception and Production ................................................................... 33 iv 2.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 35 Chapter 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 37 3.1. Experiment Design................................................................................................................. 38 3.1.1 Warm-Up Activity: Speed Reading .............................................................................. 39 3.1.2 Stress Identification Task .............................................................................................. 40 3.1.3. Lexical Decision Task .................................................................................................. 43 3.1.4. Stress Production Task ................................................................................................. 45 3.1.5. Post-Experiment Questionnaire ................................................................................... 49 3.1.6. Organization of the Experiment ................................................................................... 53 3.2. Stimulus Design ..................................................................................................................... 57 3.2.1 Estimating Frequency Distribution of Stress Patterns in Arabic .................................. 62 3.2.2 Data Extraction ............................................................................................................. 64 3.2.3 Frequency Distribution of Stress Pattern in Arabic ...................................................... 70 3.2.4 Correlation between the Sources .................................................................................. 82 3.2.5 Stimulus Organization .................................................................................................. 91 3.2.6 Stimulus Construction ................................................................................................... 97 3.3. Participants ........................................................................................................................... 106 3.2.1 Recruitment Criteria .................................................................................................... 107 3.2.2 Recruitment Procedure ................................................................................................ 113 3.2.3 Recruitment Results .................................................................................................... 113 3.4. Data Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 115 3.5 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 119 Chapter 4 Results ......................................................................................................................................... 123 4.1 Observation of Classroom Instruction .................................................................................. 124 4.2 Warm-Up Task: Speed Reading ........................................................................................... 131 4.3 Stress Identification Task ...................................................................................................... 134 4.3.1 Native Language and Performance ............................................................................. 135 4.3.2 Proficiency and Performance ...................................................................................... 138 v 4.3.3 Stress Pattern and Performance .................................................................................. 142 4.3.4 Relative Frequency and Performance ......................................................................... 146 4.3.5 Summary of Results .................................................................................................... 153 4.4 Lexical Decision Task........................................................................................................... 155 4.4.1 Native Language and Performance ............................................................................. 155 4.4.2 Proficiency and Performance ...................................................................................... 158 4.4.3 Stress Pattern and Performance .................................................................................. 164 4.4.4 Relative Frequency and Performance ......................................................................... 165 4.4.5 Summary of Results .................................................................................................... 168 4.5 Stress Production Task .......................................................................................................... 171 4.5.1 Native Language and Performance ............................................................................. 172 4.5.2 Proficiency and Performance ...................................................................................... 176 4.5.3 Stress Pattern and Performance .................................................................................. 180 4.5.4 Relative Frequency and Performance ......................................................................... 181 4.5.5 Summary of Results .................................................................................................... 186 4.6 Sub-Group Comparisons – Input Variance ........................................................................... 189 4.7 Sub-Group Comparisons – Type of Nonsense Word ........................................................... 192 4.8 External Factors from the Questionnaire .............................................................................. 193 4.8.1 Instruction and Textbook ............................................................................................ 195 4.8.2 Self-Awareness of Stress ............................................................................................ 198 4.8.3 Extracurricular Engagement ....................................................................................... 200 4.8.4 Explicit Knowledge .................................................................................................... 201 4.8.5 External Factors and Experiment Results ................................................................... 203 4.9 Summary of Results .............................................................................................................. 206 4.9.1 Native Language ......................................................................................................... 206 4.9.2 Proficiency .................................................................................................................. 207 4.9.3 Relative Frequency ..................................................................................................... 208 4.9.4 External Factors .......................................................................................................... 209 Chapter 5 Discussion and Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 211 vi 5.1 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 213 5.1.1 L1 Transfer.................................................................................................................. 213 5.1.2 The Effect of Proficiency ............................................................................................ 220 5.1.3 Frequency Effect ......................................................................................................... 222 5.1.4 Other External Factors ................................................................................................ 224 5.2 Limitations of the Study........................................................................................................ 227 5.3 Conclusion and Pedagogical Implications ............................................................................ 229 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 234 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 283 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Layout of the Control Panel....................................................................................................... 39 Figure 3.2 Sample of Stimuli Presentation in the Stress Identification Task .............................................. 42 Figure 3.3 Procedure of Stress Identification and Lexical Decision Task .................................................. 44 Figure 3.4 Procedure of Stress Production Task ......................................................................................... 46 Figure 3.5 Sample Stimulus for the Stress Production Task ....................................................................... 48 Figure 3.6 Sequencing of Questions in the Post-Experiment Questionnaire .............................................. 50 Figure 3.7 Sequencing of Tasks in the Experiment .................................................................................... 54 Figure 3.8 Data Processing Procedure for Frequency Dictionary ............................................................... 65 Figure 3.9 Correlation between Log Frequency and Rank of All Stress Patterns ...................................... 71 Figure 3.10 Correlation between Log Frequency and Syllable Number of All Stress Patterns .................. 72 Figure 3.11 Frequency Distribution of Bisyllabic Stress Patterns .............................................................. 73 Figure 3.12 Frequency Distribution of Trisyllabic Stress Patterns ............................................................. 73 Figure 3.13 Frequency Distribution of Quadrisyllabic Stress Patterns ....................................................... 74 Figure 3.14 Frequency Distribution of Syllabic Structure of Stress (All Stress Patterns) .......................... 75 Figure 3.15 Frequency Distribution of Syllabic Structure of Stress Grouped by Syllable Number ........... 77 Figure 3.16 Frequency Distribution of Stress Position (All Stress Patterns) .............................................. 78 Figure 3.17 Frequency Distribution of Stress Position Grouped by Syllable Number ............................... 79 Figure 3.18 Conditional Probability of Stress for All Stress Patterns ......................................................... 81 Figure 3.19 Correlation between Frequency Dictionary and Hans Wehr Dictionary ................................. 85 Figure 3.20 Correlation between Token-Type Frequency Ratio and Frequency Rank .............................. 87 Figure 3.21 Correlation between Frequency Dictionary and Al-Kitaab Textbooks ................................... 89 Figure 3.22 Stimuli Configuration ............................................................................................................ 104 Figure 3.23 Stress Typology Model .......................................................................................................... 107 Figure 3.24 Sample Analysis for Stress Production Responses ................................................................ 116 Figure 4.1 Boxplot for Duration of Completion for Speed Reading According to L1 ............................. 132 Figure 4.2 Boxplot for Duration of Completion for Speed Reading Drill According to L1 and Proficiency ...................................................................................................................................................... 133 Figure 4.3. Boxplot for the Response Accuracy for the Stress Identification Task According to L1 ....... 136 viii Figure 4.4. Boxplot for the Reaction Time Grouped by Native Language for the Stress Identification Task ............................................................................................................................................... 137 Figure 4.5. Boxplot for the Response Accuracy for the Stress Identification Task According to Participants’ L1 and Proficiency ............................................................................ 139 Figure 4.6. Boxplot for the Reaction Time Grouped by Participants’ L1 and Proficiency for the Stress Identification Task ........................................................................................................................ 140 Figure 4.7. Boxplot for the Response Accuracy (Real Words) Grouped by Participants’ L1 and Proficiency for the Stress Identification Task ............................................................................... 142 Figure 4.8. Boxplot for the Response Accuracy for the Lexical Decision Taskaccordingly to Participants’ L1 .................................................................................................................................................. 156 Figure 4.9. Boxplot for the Reaction Time Grouped by Native Language for the Lexical Decision Task ...................................................................................................................................................... 157 Figure 4.10. Boxplot for the Correctness Rate Grouped by Participants’ L1 and Proficiency for the Lexical Decision Task ................................................................................................................... 158 Figure 4.11. Boxplot for the Reaction Time Grouped by Participants’ L1 and Proficiency for the Lexical Decision Task ................................................................................................................................ 160 Figure 4.12. Boxplot for the Response Accuracy for the Lexical Decision Task According to L1 and Lexical Status of Stimuli ............................................................................................................... 161 Figure 4.13. Boxplot for the d-prime Score for the Lexical Decision Task According to L1 and Proficiency .................................................................................................................................... 163 Figure 4.14. Boxplot for the Response Accuracy for the Stress Production Task According to Native Language ....................................................................................................................................... 173 Figure 4.15. Boxplot for the Reaction Time for the Stress Production Task According to Native Language ...................................................................................................................................................... 175 Figure 4.16. Boxplot for the Correctness of Response Grouped by Participants’ L1 and Proficiency for the Stress Production Task (Trial 1) ................................................................................................... 176 Figure 4.17. Boxplot for the Reaction Time Grouped by Participants’ L1 and Proficiency for the Stress Production Task (Trial 1) .............................................................................................................. 179 Figure 4.18 Scores for Instruction and Textbook According to L1 and Proficiency ................................ 197 Figure 4.19 Scores for Self-Evaluation Grouped by L1 and Proficiency ................................................. 199 Figure 4.20 Scores for Extracurricular Engagement Grouped by L1 and Proficiency ............................. 201 Figure 4.21 Explicit Knowledge Score According to L1 and Proficiency 202 ix