Changing comprehenders’ pronoun interpretations: Immediate and cumulative priming at the discourse level in L2 and native speakers of English

Abstract

Existing research on second language (L2) pronoun resolution has not yet looked at immediate and cumulative priming effects. By using a sentence comprehension task, the present study aims at priming dis-preferred interpretations for ambiguous pronouns. We test a group of native speakers and a group of intermediate-proficiency L2 learners of English, whose first language (L1) is Mexican Spanish. The results suggest that the magnitude of the immediate priming effect is comparable in L2 and native speakers. In addition, we found that priming at the discourse level can be persistent for L2 speakers that have successfully acquired pronoun interpretation constraints in the L2. Based on the findings, we hypothesize that priming can be determined by the degree to which the structure is a stable representation in the leaner’s system, regardless of the amount of experience with that structure/preference.