Second language acquisition and processing of Korean locative constructions by Chinese speakers

This study investigated offline and online comprehension of Korean locative alternation by Chinese-speaking second language (L2) learners of Korean. An acceptability judgment task and an online self-paced reading task were conducted with Chinese learners of Korean at higher-and lower-proficiency levels along with a control group of native Korean speakers. The outcomes of the acceptability judgment task showed that both L2 groups acquired the knowledge of Korean locative alternation. The results from the self-paced reading task demonstrated that native speakers and highly proficient L2 learners, but not learners with lower proficiency, showed sensitivity to the mismatch between case marking and verb semantics in their processing of locative constructions. These findings suggest that proficient Chinese speakers can process Korean locative constructions in a native-like manner, inconsistent with the claim that L2 processing is substantially different from native speaker processing.