Syntactic priming in the classroom: using narratives to prime L2 Arabic speakers

Abstract

Abstract A robust finding in psycholinguistics is syntactic priming, namely that prior language experience influences subsequent language processing. However, most of the empirical evidence for L2 syntactic priming comes from lab-based experiments, which might not reflect how priming occurs in typical language activities in the L2 classroom. As such, we conducted a classroom-based priming study and exposed 52 L2 Arabic speakers to eight story-reading sessions over two weeks that either included a high proportion of the fronted temporal phrase (TP) strucutre (experimental group) or included no fronted TPs (controls). The effect of L2 proficiency was also investigated. Results revealed that the experimental group did not significantly increase their use of fronted TPs in the immediate posttest or the one-week delayed posttest. Similarly, there was no observed effect for Arabic L2 proficiency on priming. We discuss our findings in light of related priming theories and previous findings. This study highlights the need for more research on syntactic priming via common language tasks in the L2 classroom.