Effect of saliency and L1-L2 similarity on the processing of English past tense by French learners: an ERP study

Abstract

This study explored the effect of saliency and L1-L2 similarity on the processing of second language morphosyntax. ERP responses to violations of past tense morphology were obtained from adult intermediate French learners of English. Results show that participants processed L2-specific violations as salient events and not as morphosyntactic incongruities.