Thanks to the generous support of the PhilSoc Travel and Fieldwork Bursary, I had the opportunity to attend PacSLRF 2025 – Pacific Second Language Research Forum 2025 – that took place in Shanghai, China, from 30 May to 1 June 2025. PacSLRF is a key international conference that has been providing a forum for dissemination of Second Language Acquisition research in the Asia-Pacific region. At this conference, I presented my paper entitled “Online and Offline Anaphora Dependency Resolution with Mandarin Third-Person Pronoun ‘ta’ in L1-, L2-, and L3-Mandarin” based on a subset of my PhD research.

My PhD project investigates how Mandarin third person pronouns are interpreted by third language learners of Mandarin: native Japanese speakers who are learning Mandarin as a third language (L3) after learning English as a second language (L2). The aim is to explore the possible influence of both the first language (L1) and second language (L2) English — a compulsory language at school in Japan — on L3-Mandarin. 

In this presentation, I shared my findings obtained from Mandarin temporal biclausal sentences such as (1-2). Two types of anaphora are defined by the linear order of the pronoun “ta” (=s/he) and the potential sentence-internal referent: Backward (pronoun-first) (1) versus Forward (pronoun-second) (2). 

(1) Backward

Dang  ta    kan  zazhi        de-shihou, Lili zai-chi     xiangjiao.            (ta =  她 ‘she’)

When she read magazine at-time       Lili eat-PRG banana.

‘While she reads a magazine, Lili is eating a banana.’ 

(2) Forward

Dang  Lili kan  zazhi        de-shihou, ta   zai-chi     xiangjiao.             (ta =  她 ‘she’)

When Lili read magazine at-time      she eat-PRG banana.

‘While Lili reads a magazine, she is eating a banana.’ 

The structures were selected due to the unique similarity/dissimilarity of preferred interpretation of pronouns between the languages. Findings from existing L1 research on Mandarin, English, and Japanese are summarised in Table 1. 

The structures were selected due to the unique similarity/dissimilarity of preferred interpretation of pronouns between the languages. Findings from existing L1 research on Mandarin, English, and Japanese are summarised in Table 1. 

Table 1: L1 Findings in Mandarin, English, and Japanese on Acceptance of Sentence-internal Coreference Reading

	Backward	Forward
Mandarin	No	Yes
English	Yes	Yes
Japanese	No	No

(Su et al., 2024; Su, 2020; Nagano, 2015; Zhao, 2014)

Yes means that sentence-internal coreference reading between the pronoun she and the sentence-internal referent Lili is accepted, and No represents that it is rejected. 

The varying interpretation patterns allow us to explore how the similarity/dissimilarity between learners’ L1/L2 and L3 on the interpretation of a particular property — in this case overt third person pronouns — affect their L3. We used a combination of a coreference judgement task and a real-time reading task on three groups of participants: L1-Japanese L2-English L3-Mandarin speakers; L1-English L2-Mandarin speakers; and L1-Mandarin speakers. The aim of using two different tasks was to shed light on the multifaceted nature of the prior language influences.

In the poster, I shared the results obtained from the L1-/L2-/L3-Mandarin speakers in both tasks, along with possible takeaways from the findings. I received many useful comments and feedback from audience members. Those included alternative point of views on my target Mandarin sentences, pros and cons of using certain L3 acquisition models to discuss my findings, and possible effects of task designs on pronoun interpretation in Mandarin. Importantly, due to the location, there were many L1-Mandarin-speaking researchers present at the conference, including those who are actually working on acquisition of Mandarin as an L3. It was such a great honour to have discussions with them. I truly appreciate the support from the PhilSoc travel grant, by giving me this valuable opportunity to attend the conference all the way from the UK!   

References:

Nagano, M. (2015). Interpretation of Overt Pronouns in L1 and L2 Japanese: The Role of Context [Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York]. 

Su, Y.-C. (2020). Backward/forward anaphora in child and adult Mandarin Chinese. Language Acquisition, 27(2), 187–216.

Su, Y.-C., Sorace, A., Hirose, Y., Mochizuki, K., Hirakawa, M., Nakayama, M., Chen, C.-H., & Hsieh, H.-Y. (2025). Backward anaphora in L2 acquisition of English, Mandarin and Japanese. Second Language Research. 

Zhao, L. X. (2014). Ultimate attainment of anaphora resolution in L2 Chinese. Second Language Research, 30(3), 381–407.