English motion verbs: How difficult are they to learn for second language learners?
What is it about?
English has many manner verbs to describe how people or things move. Instead of simply saying someone is walking, one can choose from various verbs such as ambling, strutting, scurrying, or tiptoeing. However, not all languages are like this; many Latin-derived languages and others have noticeably fewer manner-describing verbs and use alternative methods to express the nuanced manner of motion. For instance, in Spanish, all of the movements described above would be conveyed mainly with the verb 'caminar.' Imagine people whose native language has fewer such verbs trying to learn various manner verbs in English. Would it be easy for them to learn to use the verbs? Would some verbs be easier than others? To test this, we did an experiment on English learners whose mother tongue is Korean.