Cross-linguistic syntactic priming of ditransitive structures in L1-English L2-Chinese learners: evidence from comprehension and production tasks

Abstract Syntactic priming, wherein prior exposure to a linguistic structure influences subsequent processing, has been less extensively explored for ditransitive structures (double-object and prepositional-object) among L1-English L2-Chinese learners. This study investigates cross-linguistic priming in 57 native English-speaking L2 learners of Chinese, varying in proficiency, using a translation selection task (comprehension) and a picture description task (production). The results reveal significant cross-linguistic priming effects in both comprehension and production tasks. Notably, in Task 2, the production rates of both syntactic structures under priming conditions were significantly higher than those observed under non-priming conditions. In addition, advanced learners exhibited stronger priming effects than beginners. These findings tentatively support the developed version of the bilingual lexical-syntactic representation model and the error-based implicit learning model, indicating that cross-linguistic priming is modulated by learners’ proficiency, where increased exposure and error-driven adjustments strengthen the connection between L1 and L2 syntactic representations. Furthermore, there is also an indication that modality might influence structural preferences, with prepositional-object structures possibly being favored in comprehension and double-object structures potentially more common in production, although these observations remain tentative. Overall, the insights offer valuable implications for optimizing Teaching Chinese as a Second Language strategies, particularly through tailored comprehension and production activities to enhance syntactic acquisition.