Cognitive predictors of child second language comprehension and syntactic learning

The present article examines the role of child cognitive abilities for implicit/procedural and declarative learning in the earliest stages of L2 exposure. Fifty-three L1 Italian monolingual children were aurally trained in a novel miniature language over three consecutive days in the context of a computerized game paradigm previously deployed in adult studies investigating relationships between L2 outcomes and long-term memory. A mixed effects model of the relationship between cognitive predictors and outcomes in morphosyntax (measured via a grammaticality judgment test) revealed that, unlike what previously observed in adults with comparable language exposure, procedural learning ability was a significant predictor of learning of word order. By contrast, declarative learning abilities predicted accuracy in sentence comprehension during the gaming task, although the model evidenced that an increasing role of procedural learning ability as practice progressed, as well as a negative interaction between declarative and procedural learning abilities, were also significant factors.