Most recent papers:

• Exploring Learner Language Through Corpora: Comparing and Interpreting Corpus Frequency Information.
  Dana Gablasova, Vaclav Brezina, Tony McEnery.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. March 15, 2017
  This article contributes to the debate about the appropriate use of corpus data in language learning research. It focuses on frequencies of linguistic features in language use and their comparison across corpora. The majority of corpus‐based second language acquisition studies employ a comparative design in which either one or more second language (L2) corpora are compared to a first language (L1) production corpus or two or more L2 corpora are compared to each other. This article critically examines some of the central tenets of the comparative method related to the interspeaker variation in L1 and L2 use, the representativeness and comparability of corpus data, the interpretation of difference found between corpora and the appropriate use of statistics.  Using and discussing a set of five L1 spoken English corpora and three L2 English corpora (two spoken and one written), we approach these areas empirically exploring different sources of variations and methodological options that corpus‐based SLA studies offer.

  March 15, 2017   doi: 10.1111/lang.12226   open full text
• Evidence and Interpretation in Language Learning Research: Opportunities for Collaboration With Computational Linguistics.
  Detmar Meurers, Markus Dickinson.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. February 20, 2017
  This article discusses two types of opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration between computational linguistics (CL) and language learning research. We target the connection between data and theory in second language (L2) research and highlight opportunities to (a) enrich the options for obtaining data and (b) support the identification and valid interpretation of relevant learner data. We first characterize options, limitations, and potential for obtaining rich data on learning: from Web‐based intervention studies supporting the collection of experimentally controlled data to online workbooks facilitating large‐scale, longitudinal corpus collection for a range of learning tasks and proficiency levels. We then turn to the question of how corpus data can systematically be used for L2 research, focusing on the central role that linguistic corpus annotation plays in that regard. We show that learner language poses particular challenges to human and CL analysis and requires more interdisciplinary discussion of analysis frameworks and advances in annotation schemes.

  February 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/lang.12233   open full text
• Collocations in Corpus‐Based Language Learning Research: Identifying, Comparing, and Interpreting the Evidence.
  Dana Gablasova, Vaclav Brezina, Tony McEnery.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. February 20, 2017
  This article focuses on the use of collocations in language learning research (LLR). Collocations, as units of formulaic language, are becoming prominent in our understanding of language learning and use; however, while the number of corpus‐based LLR studies of collocations is growing, there is still a need for a deeper understanding of factors that play a role in establishing that two words in a corpus can be considered to be collocates. In this article we critically review both the application of measures used to identify collocability between words and the nature of the relationship between two collocates. Particular attention is paid to the comparison of collocability across different corpora representing different genres, registers, or modalities. Several issues involved in the interpretation of collocational patterns in the production of first language and second language users are also considered. Reflecting on the current practices in the field, further directions for collocation research are proposed.

  February 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/lang.12225   open full text
• Empirical Learner Language and the Levels of the Common European Framework of Reference.
  Katrin Wisniewski.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. January 12, 2017
  The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is the most widespread reference tool for linking language tests, curricula, and national educational standards to levels of foreign language proficiency in Europe. In spite of this, little is known about how the CEFR levels (A1–C2) relate to empirical learner language(s). This article sums up recent trends to meet the need of empirical CEFR level research, where learner corpus‐based analyses play an increasing role. A first focus of the article is on studies that aim at illustrating CEFR levels by analyzing rated learner texts (“criterial features”). Furthermore, research that tries to disentangle the empirical validity of the CEFR scales by operationalizing its descriptors is presented. Before concluding with an outline of the most urgent research needs, potentials, and boundaries of interdisciplinary work between the fields of language testing and assessment, second language acquisition, and learner corpus research are discussed.

  January 12, 2017   doi: 10.1111/lang.12223   open full text
• A Shared Platform for Studying Second Language Acquisition.
  Brian MacWhinney.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. December 14, 2016
  The study of second language acquisition (SLA) can benefit from the same process of datasharing that has proven effective in areas such as first language acquisition and aphasiology. Researchers can work together to construct a shared platform that combines data from spoken and written corpora, online tutors, and Web‐based experimentation. Many of the methods and tools for building this platform are already available as a result of earlier work on corpus sharing in first language acquisition. By working together on a shared platform in a coordinated manner, researchers will be able to construct a rich new empirical basis for the study of SLA.

  December 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12220   open full text
• Cognition, Corpora, and Computing: Triangulating Research in Usage‐Based Language Learning.
  Nick C. Ellis.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. December 14, 2016
  Usage‐based approaches explore how we learn language from our experience of language. Related research thus involves the analysis of the usage from which learners learn and of learner usage as it develops. This program involves considerable data recording, transcription, and analysis, using a variety of corpus and computational techniques, many of them specially devised for learner language. This article surveys relevant developments across the psychology of learning, first and second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, corpus linguistics, and computational linguistics and identifies challenges and future priorities relating to the following issues: (1) analyzing the distributional characteristics of linguistic constructions and their meanings in large collections of language that are representative of the language that learners experience, (2) the longitudinal analysis of learner language, and (3) Natural Language Processing analyses of the dimensions of language complexity.

  December 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12215   open full text
• Combining Language Corpora With Experimental and Computational Approaches for Language Acquisition Research.
  Padraic Monaghan, Caroline F. Rowland.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. December 14, 2016
  Historically, first language acquisition research was a painstaking process of observation, requiring the laborious hand coding of children's linguistic productions, followed by the generation of abstract theoretical proposals for how the developmental process unfolds. Recently, the ability to collect large‐scale corpora of children's language exposure has revolutionized the field. New techniques enable more precise measurements of children's actual language input, and these corpora constrain computational and cognitive theories of language development, which can then generate predictions about learning behavior. We describe several instances where corpus, computational, and experimental work have been productively combined to uncover the first language acquisition process and the richness of multimodal properties of the environment, highlighting how these methods can be extended to address related issues in second language research. Finally, we outline some of the difficulties that can be encountered when applying multimethod approaches and show how these difficulties can be obviated.

  December 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12221   open full text
• Traces of An Early Learned Second Language in Discontinued Bilingualism.
  Jasmin Sadat, Rita Pureza, F.‐Xavier Alario.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. September 07, 2016
  Can an early learned second language influence speech production after living many years in an exclusively monolingual environment? To address this issue, we investigated the consequences of discontinued early bilingualism in heritage speakers who moved abroad and switched language dominance from the second to the primary learned language. We used two fluency tasks to compare European Portuguese monolinguals with early European Portuguese‐French bilinguals who no longer use French. The occurrence of cognate words in retrieval performance was used as an index for the influence of the early learned second language (French). Results showed that bilinguals used more cognates than noncognates relative to monolinguals. Also, monolinguals and bilinguals produced the same number of responses in the fluency tasks, and the produced words were of similar frequency. Our findings highlight that early learning of a second language, even when discontinued, plays a lasting role for word selection.

  September 07, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12199   open full text
• A Shared Mechanism of Linguistic, Cultural, and Bodily Relativity.
  Daniel Casasanto.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. July 26, 2016
  What's special about the way language influences thought? In some cases, the answer may be: nothing at all. Language influences nonlinguistic cognition via numerous mechanisms. Other forms of experience can also influence our thinking via some of the same mechanisms. This article illustrates how separable streams of linguistic, cultural, and bodily experience can influence the way people think, feel, and make decisions by strengthening some implicit associations in long‐term memory while weakening others. As a result, people with different experiences think differently, in predictable ways. Distinct kinds of physical and social experiences can shape our minds via similar processes, suggesting continuity between different facets of experiential relativity: linguistic relativity, cultural relativity, and bodily relativity.

  July 26, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12192   open full text
• Recent Advances in the Study of Linguistic Relativity in Historical Context: A Critical Assessment.
  John A. Lucy.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. July 26, 2016
  This article outlines the history of empirical research on linguistic relativity, surveys current research, and appraises critically the trends of the past decade, highlighting conceptual and methodological issues. Initial research arose in anthropology from an interest in the significance of language differences for thought, but was soon followed by work in psychology targeting the assessment of language and thought connections. During a subsequent period, efforts were made to synthesize these approaches, yielding two dominant lines of research, one structure‐ and one domain‐centered, both shaped by new input from those studying language acquisition. The contemporary period is marked by an expanded focus on varieties of linguistic input (e.g., deaf and multilingual speakers) and by greater effort to understand the conditions and mechanisms shaping cognitive effects. Overall, research continues to be marked by a tension between the requirements for adequate linguistic analysis and the requirements for effective cognitive assessment.

  July 26, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12195   open full text
• Introduction to the Special Issue: New and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Linguistic Relativity.
  Panos Athanasopoulos, Emanuel Bylund, Daniel Casasanto.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. July 26, 2016
  This Special Issue of Language Learning presents an interdisciplinary state‐of‐the‐art overview of current approaches to linguistic relativity. It contains empirical and theoretical studies and reflections on linguistic relativity from a variety of perspectives, such as associative learning, conceptual transfer, multilingual awareness, perceptual learning, semantic priming, and neurophysiology. This introduction presents the context and rationale of the Special Issue.

  July 26, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12196   open full text
• Whorf's Lost Argument: Multilingual Awareness.
  Aneta Pavlenko.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. June 23, 2016
  Debates about linguistic relativity commonly focus on one question: Does language affect thought? This yes‐or‐no question does not do justice to the complexity of Whorf's ideas and skirts several issues of great importance to Whorf. My first aim in this article is to recover the arguments that got lost in translation of Whorf's ideas into the Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis. I will show that, for Whorf, languages were also one of the ways in which we think, scientists were not immune to language effects, and the key to advancement of Western science was multilingual awareness. My second aim is to draw on these insights to articulate a Whorfian agenda for the field of second language acquisition (SLA) that asks new questions about second language learning and cognition and expands the boundaries of the field and the scope, duration, and locations of SLA research.

  June 23, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12185   open full text
• Interactions Between Language and Mental Representations.
  Ercenur Ünal, Anna Papafragou.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. June 23, 2016
  It has long been recognized that language interacts with visual and spatial processes. However, the nature and extent of these interactions are widely debated. The goal of this article is to review empirical findings across several domains to understand whether language affects the way speakers conceptualize the world even when they are not speaking or understanding speech. A second goal of the present review is to shed light on the mechanisms through which effects of language are transmitted. Across domains, there is growing support for the idea that although language does not lead to long‐lasting changes in mental representations, it exerts powerful influences during momentary mental computations by either modulating attention or augmenting representational power.

  June 23, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12188   open full text
• Neurolinguistic Relativity: How Language Flexes Human Perception and Cognition.
  Guillaume Thierry.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. June 19, 2016
  The time has come, perhaps, to go beyond merely acknowledging that language is a core manifestation of the workings of the human mind and that it relates interactively to all aspects of thinking. The issue, thus, is not to decide whether language and human thought may be ineluctably linked (they just are), but rather to determine what the characteristics of this relationship may be and to understand how language influences—and may be influenced by—nonverbal information processing. In an attempt to demystify linguistic relativity, I review neurolinguistic studies from our research group showing a link between linguistic distinctions and perceptual or conceptual processing. On the basis of empirical evidence showing effects of terminology on perception, language‐idiosyncratic relationships in semantic memory, grammatical skewing of event conceptualization, and unconscious modulation of executive functioning by verbal input, I advocate a neurofunctional approach through which we can systematically explore how languages shape human thought.

  June 19, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12186   open full text
• VAC Usage, Processing, Acquisition, and Transmission.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.10_12177   open full text
• Computational Models of Language Usage, Acquisition, and Transmission.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.9_12177   open full text
• VACs in L2 Acquisition.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.8_12177   open full text
• VACs in Parent and Child LanguageWritten With David C. Ogden.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.7_12177   open full text
• Online Processing of VACs.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.6_12177   open full text
• VACs in L2 Knowledge and Processing.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.5_12177   open full text
• VACs in L1 Knowledge and Processing.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.4_12177   open full text
• VACs in Usage.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.3_12177   open full text
• Determinants of Construction Learning.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.2_12177   open full text
• Constructions and Usage‐based Approaches to Language Acquisition.
  
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 25, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.1_12177   open full text
• Learning Additional Languages as Hierarchical Probabilistic Inference: Insights From First Language Processing.
  Bozena Pajak, Alex B. Fine, Dave F. Kleinschmidt, T. Florian Jaeger.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. March 14, 2016
  We present a framework of second and additional language (L2/Ln) acquisition motivated by recent work on socio‐indexical knowledge in first language (L1) processing. The distribution of linguistic categories covaries with socio‐indexical variables (e.g., talker identity, gender, dialects). We summarize evidence that implicit probabilistic knowledge of this covariance is critical to L1 processing, and propose that L2/Ln learning uses the same type of socio‐indexical information to probabilistically infer latent hierarchical structure over previously learned and new languages. This structure guides the acquisition of new languages based on their inferred place within that hierarchy and is itself continuously revised based on new input from any language. This proposal unifies L1 processing and L2/Ln acquisition as probabilistic inference under uncertainty over socio‐indexical structure. It also offers a new perspective on crosslinguistic influences during L2/Ln learning, accommodating gradient and continued transfer (both negative and positive) from previously learned to novel languages, and vice versa.

  March 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12168   open full text
• Modeling Systematicity and Individuality in Nonlinear Second Language Development: The Case of English Grammatical Morphemes.
  Akira Murakami.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. February 17, 2016
  This article introduces two sophisticated statistical modeling techniques that allow researchers to analyze systematicity, individual variation, and nonlinearity in second language (L2) development. Generalized linear mixed‐effects models can be used to quantify individual variation and examine systematic effects simultaneously, and generalized additive mixed models allow for the examination of systematicity, individuality, and nonlinearity within a single model. Based on a longitudinal learner corpus, this article illustrates the usefulness of these models in the context of L2 accuracy development of English grammatical morphemes. I discuss the strengths of each technique and the ways in which these techniques can benefit L2 acquisition research, further highlighting the importance of accounting for individual variation in modeling L2 development.

  February 17, 2016   doi: 10.1111/lang.12166   open full text
• The Centrality of Language in Human Cognition.
  Gary Lupyan.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. December 11, 2015
  The emergence of language—a productive and combinatorial system of communication—has been hailed as one of the major transitions in evolution. By enabling symbolic culture, language allows humans to draw on and expand on the knowledge of their ancestors and peers. A common assumption among linguists and psychologists is that although language is critical to our ability to share our thoughts, it plays a minor, if any, role in generating, controlling, and structuring them. I examine some assumptions that led to this view of language and discuss an alternative according to which normal human cognition is language‐augmented cognition. I focus on one of the fundamental design features of language—the use of words as symbolic cues—and argue that language acts as a high‐level control system for the mind, allowing individuals to sculpt mental representations of others as well as their own.

  December 11, 2015   doi: 10.1111/lang.12155   open full text
• Clarifying the Scope of Conceptual Transfer.
  Scott Jarvis.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. November 02, 2015
  This article clarifies the purposes of research on conceptual transfer by defining it as cross‐linguistic influence in the expression and interpretation of conceptual meaning and by discussing what conceptual meaning entails and how conceptual meaning and conceptual transfer relate to the pursuits of linguistic relativity research, on the one hand, and traditional research on cross‐linguistic influence on the other. I focus on three general questions that span the scope of conceptual transfer research, and I discuss the types of empirical evidence they call for. I also explore a case of meaning‐related transfer whose specific causes have not yet been identified, and I describe how a combination of types of evidence can be used to determine whether learners from different language backgrounds rely on different conceptual considerations when deciding how to refer to a particular spatial relationship. The article concludes with a summary of the purposes and importance of this line of inquiry.

  November 02, 2015   doi: 10.1111/lang.12154   open full text
• Cross‐Language Similarity Modulates Effectiveness of Second Language Grammar Instruction.
  Leida C. Tolentino, Natasha Tokowicz.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. May 07, 2014
  We investigated the effects of instruction method and cross‐language similarity during second language (L2) grammar learning. English speakers learned a subset of Swedish using contrast and color highlighting (Salience Group), contrast and highlighting with grammatical explanations (Rule & Salience Group), or neither (Control Group with exposure only). Comprehension of grammatical features corresponding to three levels of L1–L2 similarity (similar, dissimilar, unique to L2) were contrasted in three posttests. Grammaticality judgments on L2 sentences: (a) improved across tests for all three training groups, (b) were least accurate for dissimilar features in all groups, and (c) were most accurate for cross‐linguistically similar features in both the Control and Salience groups. Only a trend was found for high language‐learning aptitude (as measured by the Words‐In‐Sentences instrument of the Modern Languages Aptitude Test) possibly facilitating the learning of grammatical features that are distinct from L1. The findings suggest that ideal instructional conditions for L2 morphosyntax may vary with cross‐language similarity.

  May 07, 2014   doi: 10.1111/lang.12048   open full text
• Cue Reliance in L2 Written Production.
  Daniel Wiechmann, Elma Kerz.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. April 30, 2014
  Second language learners reach expert levels in relative cue weighting only gradually. On the basis of ensemble machine learning models fit to naturalistic written productions of German advanced learners of English and expert writers, we set out to reverse engineer differences in the weighting of multiple cues in a clause linearization problem. We found that, while German advanced learners succeeded in identifying important cues, their assignment of cue importance differed from that of the expert control group. Even at advanced levels, learners are found to rely on a smaller set of perceptually salient cues than native speakers do, focusing on cues that exhibit relatively high cue availability and relatively low cue reliability. Our findings suggest that the principles of the Unified Model of first and second language acquisition, which have been extensively supported for comprehension also underlie the written production of advanced second language learners.

  April 30, 2014   doi: 10.1111/lang.12047   open full text
• A Role for Chunk Formation in Statistical Learning of Second Language Syntax.
  Phillip Hamrick.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. April 30, 2014
  Humans are remarkably sensitive to the statistical structure of language. However, different mechanisms have been proposed to account for such statistical sensitivities. The present study compared adult learning of syntax and the ability of two models of statistical learning to simulate human performance: Simple Recurrent Networks, which learn by predictive computation, and PARSER, which learns chunks as a byproduct of general principles of associative learning and memory. In the first stage, a semiartificial language paradigm was used to gather human data. In the second stage, a simulation paradigm was then used to compare the patterns of performance of the SRN and PARSER. After the human adults and the computational models were trained on sentences from the semiartificial language with probabilistic syntax, their learning outcomes were compared. Neither model was able to fully reproduce the human data, which may indicate less robust statistical learning effects in adults; however, PARSER was able to simulate more of the adult learning data than the SRN, suggesting a possible role for chunk formation in early phases of adult learning of second language syntax.

  April 30, 2014   doi: 10.1111/lang.12049   open full text
• L2 Vocabulary Learning From Reading: Explicit and Tacit Lexical Knowledge and the Role of Learner and Item Variables.
  Irina Elgort, Paul Warren.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. April 28, 2014
  This study investigates acquisition of second language (L2) vocabulary from reading a connected authentic text. Advanced and upper‐intermediate L2 (English) participants read a long expository text for general understanding, with embedded critical vocabulary items (pseudowords). Explicit knowledge of the critical items was examined using a meaning generation task, while their tacit knowledge was probed using form and semantic priming in lexical decision tasks. Results revealed a complex landscape of contextual L2 word learning in which individual differences (age, L2 lexical proficiency, first language, gender, learning strategies, levels of enjoyment) and lexical and text characteristics (concreteness, frequency, distribution, and saliency of use) individually and together affect L2 lexical development from reading. Implications of these results for contextual L2 word learning are discussed.

  April 28, 2014   doi: 10.1111/lang.12052   open full text
• The Roles of First Language and Proficiency in L2 Processing of Spanish Clitics: Global Effects.
  Aroline E. Seibert Hanson, Matthew T. Carlson.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. April 26, 2014
  We assessed the roles of first language (L1) and second language (L2) proficiency in the processing of preverbal clitics in L2 Spanish by considering the predictions of four processing theories—the Input Processing Theory, the Unified Competition Model, the Amalgamation Model, and the Associative‐Cognitive CREED. We compared the performance of L1 English (typologically different from Spanish) to L1 Romanian (typologically similar to Spanish) speakers from various L2 Spanish proficiency levels on an auditory sentence‐processing task. We found main effects of proficiency, condition, and L1 and an interaction between proficiency and condition. Although we did not find an interaction between L1 and condition, the L1 Romanians showed an overall advantage that may be attributable to structure‐specific experience in the L1, raising new questions about how crosslinguistic differences influence the processing strategies learners apply to their L2.

  April 26, 2014   doi: 10.1111/lang.12050   open full text
• Adults’ and 8‐Year‐Olds’ Learning in a Foreign Word Repetition Task: Similar and Different.
  Elisabet Service, Hely Yli‐Kaitala, Sini Maury, Jeong‐Young Kim.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. April 26, 2014
  Although the significance of age in second language acquisition is one of the most hotly debated issues in the field, very few studies have directly addressed age differences in the language learning process. The present study investigated learning in a foreign‐word repetition task. Young Finnish adults and 8‐year‐olds repeated back Korean words. Some words occurred once whereas others occurred five times. After the session, a surprise old/new recognition task was administered. Both groups’ repetition accuracy improved for recurring but not nonrecurring words. Latencies got shorter for all words. The groups were reliably able to recognize recurring but not nonrecurring words. However, the adults performed substantially better in this memory task with an explicit component. No advantages for children were detected.

  April 26, 2014   doi: 10.1111/lang.12051   open full text
• Elementary School ELLs' Reading Skill Profiles Using Cognitive Diagnosis Modeling: Roles of Length of Residence and Home Language Environment.
  Eunice Eunhee Jang, Maggie Dunlop, Maryam Wagner, Youn‐Hee Kim, Zhimei Gu.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. July 23, 2013
  The study examined differences in reading achievement and mastery skill development among Grade‐6 students with different language background profiles, using cognitive diagnosis modeling applied to large‐scale provincial reading test performance data. Our analyses revealed that students residing in various home language environments show different reading achievement growth patterns. Earlier gaps in their reading achievement disappear the longer they reside in the target language community. Additionally, students who come from home environments where they use English and another language equally demonstrate higher skill mastery achievement levels, indicating that immigrant students' diverse home language environments do not adversely affect their reading achievement in the longer term. The study results support the evidence that multilingual home language environments are not a cause of low achievement; however, the achievement patterns of Canadian‐born English language learners (ELLs) do differ from their immigrant counterparts, revealing that time alone is not a sufficient condition of reading skill achievement. ELLs' outperformance of monolinguals after 5 years of residence is a result of ongoing instructional support and a rich linguistic environment. The study results hold important policy implications: The evaluation of ELLs' academic achievement and school effectiveness for accountability purposes should be based on longitudinal data that track their developmental growths.

  July 23, 2013   doi: 10.1111/lang.12016   open full text
• Reliably Biased: The Role of Listener Expectation in the Perception of Second Language Speech.
  Stephanie Lindemann, Nicholas Subtirelu.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. July 19, 2013
  Second language pronunciation research and teaching relies on human listeners to assess second language speakers’ performance. Most applied linguists working in this area have been satisfied that listener ratings are reasonably reliable when well‐controlled research protocols are implemented. We argue, however, that listeners demonstrate a certain amount of reliability in their ratings of speakers stemming from shared expectations of a speaker's language and social groups, rather than from the speech itself. In this article, we discuss evidence from perceptual psychology, sociolinguistics, and phonetics demonstrating a sizable listener influence on speech perception. We conclude by suggesting ways for research and teaching to acknowledge and contend with the role of the listener.

  July 19, 2013   doi: 10.1111/lang.12014   open full text
• The Acquisitional Value of Recasts in Instructed Second Language Speech Learning: Teaching the Perception and Production of English /ɹ/ to Adult Japanese Learners.
  Kazuya Saito.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. July 19, 2013
  The current study investigated the impact of recasts together with form‐focused instruction (FFI) on the development of second language speech perception and production of English /ɹ/ by Japanese learners. Forty‐five learners were randomly assigned to three groups—FFI recasts, FFI only, and Control—and exposed to four hours of communicatively oriented lessons. Whereas many FFI activities including explicit instruction were embedded into the treatment in order for the experimental groups to notice and practice /ɹ/ in a meaningful discourse, an instructor provided recasts only to the FFI‐recast group in response to their mispronunciation of /ɹ/. Perception was measured using a two‐alternative forced choice identification task, while pronunciation performance was elicited using controlled and spontaneous production tests and assessed by 10 naïve native‐speaking listeners. According to the statistical comparisons, whereas the FFI‐only group attained perception and production improvement particularly under trained lexical conditions, the FFI‐recast group demonstrated similar but generalizable gains both in trained and untrained lexical contexts. The results indicate that (a) FFI itself impacts various domains of L2 speech learning processes (perception, controlled, and spontaneous production) and (b) recasts promote learners’ attentional shift away from lexical units as a whole to phonetic aspects of second language speech (i.e., vocabulary to sound learning).

  July 19, 2013   doi: 10.1111/lang.12015   open full text
• Stability and Change in One Adult's Second Language English Negation.
  Eric Hauser.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. June 07, 2013
  This article reports on how, against a background of relatively stable patterns of second language negation, a Japanese‐speaking adult learning English made use of a negative formula, “I don't know,” and how, in and through interaction, analyzed it into its component parts and began using “don't” more productively. Making use of the micro‐analytic techniques of conversation analysis to analyze data collected over a seven‐month period, two relatively stable patterns of negation are described. This is followed by a description of how the learner used the formula and, over time, analyzed it. This often involved repetition and/or self‐repair. Changes in how “don't” was used included coming to use it with the verb “like,” as well as coming to use it with “you.”

  June 07, 2013   doi: 10.1111/lang.12012   open full text
• Hi‐LAB: A New Measure of Aptitude for High‐Level Language Proficiency.
  Jared A. Linck, Meredith M. Hughes, Susan G. Campbell, Noah H. Silbert, Medha Tare, Scott R. Jackson, Benjamin K. Smith, Michael F. Bunting, Catherine J. Doughty.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. June 04, 2013
  Few adult second language (L2) learners successfully attain high‐level proficiency. Although decades of research on beginning to intermediate stages of L2 learning have identified a number of predictors of the rate of acquisition, little research has examined factors relevant to predicting very high levels of L2 proficiency. The current study, conducted in the United States, was designed to examine potential cognitive predictors of successful learning to advanced proficiency levels. Participants were adults with varying degrees of success in L2 learning, including a critical group with high proficiency as indicated by standardized language proficiency tests and on‐the‐job language use. Results from a series of group discrimination analyses indicate that high‐level attainment was related to working memory (including phonological short‐term memory and task set switching), associative learning, and implicit learning. We consider the implications for the construct of high‐level language aptitude and identify future directions for aptitude research.

  June 04, 2013   doi: 10.1111/lang.12011   open full text
• Measuring Implicit and Explicit Knowledge in Second Language Research.
  Patrick Rebuschat.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. April 18, 2013
  This article reviews three types of measures which have been widely used in psychological research to assess the conscious or unconscious status of knowledge: retrospective verbal reports, direct and indirect tests, and subjective measures. The goal is to make these techniques available to a wide audience of second language (L2) researchers and to offer suggestions for their sound use in order to promote the study of implicit L2 learning. Each section begins with a brief definition of what it means to have acquired unconscious (implicit) knowledge according to the measure in question. This is followed by a description of representative studies that illustrate how the technique has been used and by a discussion of its limitations. Each section concludes with specific guidelines on how to apply the respective measure to the investigation of implicit and explicit L2 learning.

  April 18, 2013   doi: 10.1111/lang.12010   open full text
• What a Bayesian Analysis Can Do for SLA: New Tools for the Sociolinguistic Study of Subject Expression in L2 Spanish.
  Aarnes Gudmestad, Leanna House, Kimberly L. Geeslin.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. April 08, 2013
  This study constitutes the first statistical analysis to employ a Bayesian multinomial probit model in the investigation of subject expression in first and second language (L2) Spanish. The study analyzes the use of third‐person subject‐expression forms and demonstrates that the following variables are important for subject expression: perseveration, switch reference, number of the verb, specificity, verbal tense/mood/aspect, object pronoun, referent cohesiveness, the interaction of switch reference and referent cohesiveness, and the interaction of native language and four independent variables (number, specificity, tense/mood/aspect, and object pronoun). However, only certain parameters of these independent variables predicted use. The analysis highlights that, for advanced L2 speakers and native speakers, all forms of subject expression (i.e., lexical noun phrases, null subjects, personal pronouns, and other pronouns) allow variation and should be examined for a thorough understanding of subject expression in Spanish. The study offers theoretical and empirical evidence for the need to conduct cross‐disciplinary research in second language acquisition.

  April 08, 2013   doi: 10.1111/lang.12006   open full text
• Motivation and Vision: An Analysis of Future L2 Self Images, Sensory Styles, and Imagery Capacity Across Two Target Languages.
  Zoltán Dörnyei, Letty Chan.
  Language Learning / Language and Learning. April 05, 2013
  Recent theorizing on second language (L2) motivation has proposed viewing motivation as a function of the language learners’ vision of their desired future language selves. This would suggest that the intensity of motivation is partly dependent on the learners’ capability to generate mental imagery. In order to test this hypothesis, this study investigates whether learner characteristics are related to sensory and imagery aspects with indices of the strength of the learners’ future L2 self‐guides (ideal and ought‐to L2 selves) and how these variables are linked to learning achievement in two target languages, English and Mandarin, assessed both by self‐report and objective measures. One hundred seventy‐two Year 8 Chinese students (ages 13–15) completed a questionnaire survey, and the results reveal several significant associations between the future self‐guides and intended effort and actual grades, including a consistently positive relationship between the ideal self and the criterion measures. The findings also confirm the multisensory dimension of future self‐guides, suggesting the importance of a broad imagery capacity (including both visual and auditory components) in the development of individuals’ future self‐identities. Finally, the ideal‐self images associated with different languages were shown to form distinct L2‐specific visions, which has various implications for future research with regard to the potential positive or negative interaction of these self images.

  April 05, 2013   doi: 10.1111/lang.12005   open full text