Abstract

In terms of structure, languages of the world can be either subject-verb-object (SVO) or subject-object-verb (SOV). English is an example of a SVO language while Korean is a SOV language. Such a difference between languages may have implications for second language (L2) learners learning a language with a different structure from their first language (L1). In view of this, the study investigates the interpretation of verb initial English sentences, i.e. verb-object-subject (VOS) command sentences and verb-subject-object (VSO) inverted reported speech sentences by forty-eight L1 Korean and nine L1 Malaysian Malay L2 English learners. Each group simultaneously heard and read forty randomly sequenced English sentences, each accompanied by two pictures, labeled A and B. Each picture has a girl and a boy. If picture A depicts the girl playing the role of doer and the boy, the role of receiver, then the other picture where their roles are reversed, is picture B. Upon listening to and reading each sentence, participants circled either A or B on a Pictorial Sentence Interpretation Task Sheet provided. Results from independent T-tests comparing the misinterpretation means showed no significant difference between both groups, suggesting that Universal Processing Strategy exhibited by the First Noun Principle accounts for adult L2 acquisition. Furthermore, the findings of the study also revealed that both groups of L2 learners made more misinterpretations in VOS compared to VSO sentences, suggesting that L2 learners tend to (mis)interpret the first noun or pronoun of a sentence as the subject or doer of an action, regardless of its position in the sentence, thus validating VanPatten's First Noun Principle (2007).