Date of Thesis

Spring 2026

Description

In recent years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a widely accessible tool in academia, upon which students have increasingly come to rely and include in their writing process (Alharbi et al., 2023). Across the field of English second language learning, corrective feedback is widely recognized as a major influence for grammatical development (Lyster & Ranta, 1997). Corrective feedback may function implicitly, explicitly, or as an interaction between both mechanisms. Research suggests that grammatical knowledge may be largely acquired implicitly for adults learning a new language, with explicit learning playing a secondary role (Ivanova et al., 2012, Jackson & Ruf, 2016, Shin & Christianson, 2012). Syntactic priming is a behavioral indicator of implicit learning, revealing it to be a powerful tool for examining whether AI-generated feedback influences learners’ grammatical knowledge. In this study, we tested 29 participants to see if by utilizing Trinka, the selected AI-grammar checker, participants will implicitly learn which verbs work in double object dative constructions in English, and which do not through a syntactic priming paradigm. However, this study found no evidence that Trinka’s AI-generated grammar corrective feedback facilitated implicit learning of what verbs are appropriate in double object dative constructions. Instead, the evidence from this study suggests that the influence AI-grammar checkers have on implicit learning of an L2 may be limited and participants may have implicitly learned a general acceptance of DO constructions, instead of the more specific constraint distinguishing alternating from non-alternating verbs.

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence, grammar checkers, corrective feedback, syntactic priming, implicit learning, second language learning

Access Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Type

Bachelor of Arts

Major

Psychology

Second Major

Linguistics

Minor, Emphasis, or Concentration

Russian Studies

First Advisor

Heidi Lorimor

Second Advisor

Haley Kragness

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