ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the acquisition of English transitivity alternation by adult Chinese learners from a cognitive second language acquisition perspective. The findings held true for existing verbs and nonce verbs, which means that participants at both proficiency levels were able to generalize what they had learned to nonce verbs in new contexts. The findings suggested that input flood with the target form embedded in meaningful, comprehensible reading comprehension tasks, even if comprehended, cannot promote learning. The study regarding the relationship between awareness and learning presents mixed results. Quantitative analysis reported that awareness level at noticing was sufficient to bring more learning for both low and intermediate proficiency learners. Awareness at the level of understanding appeared to have beneficial results for learners at the intermediate level but not for those at the low proficiency level. The interactive relationship between language proficiency levels and instruction types provides a new dimension in the ongoing discussion upon differential effects of inductive versus deductive learning.
