Flege, Bohn, and Jang (1997) and Escudero and Boersma (2004) analyzed first language-Spanish second language-English listeners' perception of English /i/–/i/ continua that varied in spectral and duration properties. They compared individuals and groups on the basis of spectral reliance and duration reliance measures. These reliance measures indicate the change in identification rates from one extreme of the stimulus space to the other; they make use of only a portion of the data collected and suffer from a ceiling effect. The current paper presents a reanalysis of Escudero and Boersma's data using first-order logistic regression modeling. All of the available data contribute to the calculation of logistic regression coefficients, and they do not suffer from the same ceiling effect as the reliance measures. It is argued that—as a metric of cue weighting—logistic regression coefficients offer methodological and substantive advantages over the reliance measures.My thanks to Paola Escudero and Paul Boersma for making their data available, and thanks to Terrance M. Nearey for comments on an earlier draft of this paper (any defects are my own responsibility). This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Studies of learner-learner interactions have reported varying degrees of pronunciation-focused discourse, ranging from 1% (Bowles, Toth, & Adams, 2014) to 40% (Bueno-Alastuey, 2013). Including first language (L1) background, modality, and task as variables, this study investigates the role of pronunciation in learner-learner interactions. Thirty English learners in same-L1 or different-L1 dyads were assigned to one of two modes (face-to-face or audio-only synchronous computer-mediated communication) and completed three tasks (picture differences, consensus, conversation). Interactions were coded for language-related episodes (LREs), with 14% focused on pronunciation. Segmental features comprised the majority of pronunciation LREs (90%). Pronunciation LREs were proportionally similar for same-L1 and different-L1 dyads, and communication modality yielded no difference in frequency of pronunciation focus. The consensus task, which included substantial linguistic input, yielded greater pronunciation focus, although the results did not achieve statistical significance. These results help clarify the role of pronunciation in learner-learner interactions and highlight the influence of task features.

We test the interpretation of pronominal forms in L2 speakers of English whose L1 is Spanish. Previous research on learners of nonnull subject languages has shown conflicting results. The aim of the present study is to reconcile previous evidence and shed light on the factors that determine learners’ difficulty to interpret pronominal forms in the L2. In six comprehension experiments, we found that intermediate L2 speakers did not show increased difficulty compared to native speakers in integrating multiple sources of information (syntactic, discourse, pragmatic) to resolve ambiguous pronouns in intrasentential anaphora and cataphora conditions. However, we also found that when two referents with equal prominence are introduced using a conjoined noun phrase in the preceding context, the learner’s performance is significantly different than the performance of the native speakers, both in intrasentential and intersentential anaphora. We suggest that L2 speakers may encounter difficulties evaluating the salience of the antecedents during pronoun resolution.

Recent literature has sought to understand the presence of epenthetic vowels after the productions of postvocalic word-final consonants by second language (L2) learners whose first languages (L1s) restrict the presence of obstruents in coda position. Previous models include those in which epenthesis is seen as a strategy to mitigate the effects of coda licensing restrictions in the L1; others see epenthesis as a result of misperception of consonant releases in the L2 as indicating the presence of an additional syllable nucleus. The current study examines segmental identification and syllable counting in inexperienced Korean learners of English as a foreign language. Across stimuli, two effects were found. Increased perceptual epenthesis correlated with increased identification of a segment as voiceless, indicating a joint perception of voicelessness and an epenthetic vowel. Also, rate of epenthesis increased with accuracy of detecting sibilants and coronal segments, sounds characterized by salient consonant noise. Taken together, these results indicate a perceptual mechanism that evaluates segmental content and prosodic structure from an integrated percept. Analyses across individual listeners do not support a model in which perceptual epenthesis is a strategy to increase segmental accuracy; rather, they support models in which both syllable counting and segmental identification are skills that are reflections of increased proficiency in the L2. These results are discussed with respect to models of L2 phonology that rely on the robust encoding of lexical items.

A foundation of second language motivational theory has been that motivation contributes to explaining variance in language learning proficiency; however, empirical findings have been mixed. This article presents an innovative approach to exploring L2 proficiency and motivations of teenage English language learners in Madrid, Spain (N = 1773). Participants completed a multiskill English language test, plus an eight-scale questionnaire operationalizing constructs from Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2005). Data were analysed using Latent Variable Mixture Modeling, a person-centered profiling approach. Results indicated five distinct classes of students, characterized by differing motivation-proficiency profiles. The importance of this study is that the analysis does not assume a homogenous relationship between motivational traits and proficiency levels across the learner sample; whilst there is undoubtedly a connection between the two areas, it is not a straightforward correlation, explaining to some extent discrepancies in previous findings and laying groundwork for further, more nuanced, investigation.

This study addresses the question of whether observed differences in the use of the strategy of monitoring (as defined by Krashen) is related to four rather stable cognitive styles. Subjects were 40 Spanish-speaking adults in a university ESL program. Each subject's use of monitoring was assessed by comparing the degree of correctness s/he demonstrated with respect to one morpheme, third-person-singular s, in elicited speech, taken to represent his/her acquired knowledge of the morpheme, and on three writing tasks—fill-in-the-blank, proofreading, and composition—taken to represent acquired knowledge modified by conscious application of the third-person-singular rule. It was hypothesized that the most monitoring would occur on the fill-in-the-blank test, and the least on the composition. The cognitive styles hypothesized to be related to monitor use were field independence, reflection, flexible control, and preference for processing information by written word.

No significant differences in the amount of monitoring on the three written tasks were noted. Field independence was positively related to the amount of monitoring on all written tasks, and reflection weakly but positively related to the amount of monitoring on the proofreading task. Implications for further research are discussed.

This article seeks to illuminate the degree of position-based variation observed in the acquisition of new segments in a second language and to explain such variability as the consequence of phonetic constraints; this approach contrasts with much previous research that has used typological markedness to the same end. Specifically, it is proposed that learners will have the least difficulty acquiring sounds that involve novel combinations of voicing and manner in positions that favor the phonetic implementation of these sounds. Moreover, on the assumption that not all parameters can be mastered simultaneously, it is predicted that learners will first acquire aspects of a segment's articulation that are perceptually salient and articulatorily easier. The data come from a study of the acquisition of French by 20 intermediate- and advanced-proficiency English-speaking learners of French. Acoustic analysis of the data reveals asymmetries that favor accuracy with manner in onsets versus more targetlike realization of voicing in codas, in which devoicing exists in the input. Beyond demonstrating the role of phonetic principles in determining position-based variation, the findings contribute to our understanding of the acquisition of new consonantal contrasts by providing empirical evidence from a non-Germanic language to bear on this line of inquiry.

A growing field of research has made use of a semiartificial language paradigm to investigate the role of awareness in L2 acquisition. A central and empirically still unresolved issue in this field concerns the possibility of learning implicitly, that is, without intention to learn and without awareness of what has been learned. Up until now, studies on implicit learning have mainly been conducted in laboratory settings under highly controlled conditions with university students as participants. The present study investigated whether and to what extent the results obtained in such settings can be extrapolated to the general population. Building on Williams (2005), we designed two crowdsourcing experiments that examined the learning of novel form-meaning mappings under incidental conditions in 163 participants. Our design allowed us to disentangle the effects of awareness at the level of noticing and understanding. The results of the two experiments demonstrated the implicit learning effect outside the lab in a more varied sample of participants and indicated that awareness at both levels appears to have a facilitative effect on learning outcomes.

This paper argues that crossing the boundaries between sociolinguistics and second language acquisition (SLA) is essential to both fields of study (Giacalone Ramat, 1995; Preston, 1993). Specifically, data collected in an investigation of the SLA of copula choice by 77 English-speaking learners of Spanish are examined in terms of similarities to data collected in studies of language change (Gutiérrez, 1992; Silva-Corvalán, 1994). The variables used to analyze these data, Frame of Reference and Susceptibility to Change, have been shown to be useful for examining the process of the extension of estar to new [copula + adjective] contexts from a sociolinguistic perspective. The application of these variables to SLA data allows an investigation of the mirror-image relationship predicted to exist between the process of language loss and the process of language acquisition.

This article revisits the role of cognitive individual differences in creating synergies between second language (L2) writing and second language acquisition research that were proposed by Kormos (2012). It takes stock of the advances in research findings, in the past decade, on the role of working memory and language learning aptitude in L2 writing processes and performance. The article offers an overview of how cognitive factors can mediate learning gains when L2 users engage in writing. Using theoretical accounts of cognitive individual differences, the article discusses how the characteristics of writing tasks can interact with individual variation in cognitive functioning. The article concludes by proposing a Task-Mediated Cognitive Model of L2 Writing and Writing to Learn that describes the role of cognitive factors in L2 writing processes and in learning through writing, and an outline of a research agenda for future studies.

The purpose of this descriptive cross-sectional study was to describe and rate the writing of Hispanic students in a bilingual program and to compare their writing with that of Hispanic students in a submersion program and with native English speakers in a regular program. Five dependent variables were investigated: rhetorical effectiveness, overall quality of writing, productivity, syntactic maturity, and error frequency. Analyses of variance for both grade and program revealed that the sixth graders had significantly higher scores than did the fourth graders on all of the dependent variables except for error frequency. The students in the regular program had significantly higher scores on rhetorical effectiveness and overall quality of writing than did the submersion program students and the bilingual program students; they also made significantly fewer errors than did the bilingual program students. The bilingual program students had significantly higher scores on syntactic maturity and productivity than did the submersion program students. Results suggest that students who learn to write in their L1 before learning to write in their L2 will write just as effectively in their L2 as those students who learn to write only in their L2.

As survey research in second language acquisition grows in popularity, the adherence to best practices associated with questionnaire quality is critical for a better understanding of factors that influence second language (L2) development. To ensure that a self-report scale targets the construct of interest and does it consistently and accurately, authors of primary research should demonstrate that their instrument possesses acceptable evidence of validity and reliability. To this end, this methodological synthesis focused on the state of scale quality in L2 anxiety and willingness to communicate (WTC) research by examining key methodological issues of quantitative survey research and offering empirically grounded suggestions for future studies. A close examination of 232 peer-reviewed articles that used 385 L2 anxiety and WTC scales demonstrated, among other findings, the lack of evidence for scale content and construct validity. The implications of this study contribute to concurrent attempts at methodological reform in applied linguistics.

This study investigates whether repeating a prime sentence aloud strengthens short-term and longer-term priming of adverb-first word order among adult intermediate L1 English-German L2 learners (N = 30). Compared to an earlier study (Jackson & Ruf, 2017), in which similarly proficient L1 English-German L2 learners heard, but did not repeat, prime sentences, participants in the present study exhibited greater short-term priming for adverb-first word order during the priming phase and significant longer-term priming in a posttest phase immediately following the priming phase. However, additional analyses revealed that only those participants who exhibited stronger short-term priming without lexical overlap during the priming phase continued to produce adverb-first sentences in the posttest phase, highlighting that even prime repetition may not support longer-term priming among intermediate L2 learners more generally.

This study systematically examines the moderating effects of task type and L2 proficiency on the relationship between L1 and L2 simultaneously across reading and writing tasks with different levels of cognitive complexity. Main and moderating effects were evaluated through structural equation modeling analyses. First, both L1 skills and L2 proficiency were significant independent predictors of L2 reading and writing performance across tasks with different levels of cognitive complexity. Second, L2 proficiency had a much greater effect on L2 reading and writing performance across tasks with different cognitive loads than L1 skills. Third, the strength of the relationship between less cognitively demanding L1 and L2 reading tasks showed no significant difference between the low- and high-L2-proficiency groups. Fourth, the strength of the relationship between more cognitively demanding L1 and L2 reading tasks showed a significant difference between the low- and high-L2-proficiency groups. Fifth, the strength of the relationship between L1 and L2 writing tasks with different levels of cognitive complexity varied significantly depending on the level of L2 proficiency. These results are discussed theoretically and pedagogically.

This study contributes to a central debate within contemporary generative second language (L2) theorizing: the extent to which adult learners are (un)able to acquire new functional features that result in a L2 grammar that is mentally structured like the native target (see White, 2003). The adult acquisition of L2 nominal phi-features is explored, with focus on the syntactic and semantic reflexes in the related domain of adjective placement in two experimental groups: English-speaking intermediate (n = 21) and advanced (n = 24) learners of Spanish, as compared to a native-speaker control group (n = 15). Results show that, on some of the tasks, the intermediate L2 learners appear to have acquired the syntactic properties of the Spanish determiner phrase but, on other tasks, to show some delay with the semantic reflexes of prenominal and postnominal adjectives. Crucially, however, our data demonstrate full convergence by all advanced learners and thus provide evidence in contra the predictions of representational deficit accounts (e.g., Hawkins & Chan, 1997; Hawkins & Franceschina, 2004; Hawkins & Hattori, 2006).

A frequently discussed hypothesis concerning the source of cross-linguistic communication difficulty in written discourse is conflicting organizational patterns (Kaplan, 1966, 1987). Extending the argument to oral discourse, Young (1982) argued that spoken English discourse produced by Chinese speakers evidenced a discourse-level topic-comment structure that native English speakers find difficult to follow. However, Tyler (1988) argued that the perception of incoherence might better be understood as the cumulative result of interacting miscues at the discourse level, that is, miscues in syntactic incorporation, lexical discourse markers, tense/aspect, and lexical The study reported here aims at testing these competing hypotheses. One hundred fifteen subjects rated four versions of the Chinese-produced English discourse presented in Young's study for comprehensibility. Results indicated that the effect of discourse miscues on comprehensibility was highly significant (F = 70, p <.0001). However, there was no significant effect for order of ideas (F = .47, p <.49).

To investigate the skill transfer and the effects of practice schedules in the learning of second language syntax, 129 intermediate-level English learners were divided into six groups, based on practice format (input vs. output practice) and practice schedule (blocked vs. interleaved vs. hybrid [blocked + interleaved]). Analyses revealed that the learners tested on the skill they had practiced outperformed those who were tested on the nonpracticed skill. This pattern was particularly pronounced in comprehension processing speed and production accuracy. Moreover, hybrid practice facilitated skill development more than blocked or interleaved practice alone. Furthermore, a dynamic interplay was detected among practice format, schedule, and learners’ prior knowledge. Hybrid practice led to the least transfer from receptive skills (gained through input practice) to productive skills. Unlike interleaved practice effects, the effects of blocked practice on comprehension speed were more susceptible to learners’ prior processing speed.

This study investigates the role of probabilistic grammatical constraints on the dative alternation in English as a second language (ESL). It presents the results of an experiment in which the different factors that are influential in first language (L1) English are tested with advanced learners of English whose L1 is German. Second language (L2) learners are influenced by the same determinants as L1 speakers but to a lesser degree. Together with the results of previous studies, the present results suggest that, initially, the learners do not make use of probabilistic constraints in spite of the constraints being influential in the L1 and only gradually acquire a sensitivity toward the constraints that govern the choice between the two dative constructions.

Research with native speakers indicates that, during word recognition, regularly inflected words undergo parsing that segments them into stems and affixes. In contrast, studies with learners suggest that this parsing may not take place in L2. This study’s research questions are: Do L2 Spanish learners store and process regularly inflected, morphologically complex words like native speakers? Does this depend on proficiency? Does type of inflection (verbal or adjectival) play a role? Native speakers, advanced learners, and intermediate learners of Spanish completed two lexical-decision tasks. Response times were measured to target words (verbs or adjectives) preceded by masked primes that were either identical to the targets, morphologically, orthographically, or semantically related, or unrelated. All groups responded more quickly to targets when they were preceded by identical and morphologically related primes than when they were preceded by unrelated primes, with no differences due to either proficiency or inflection type.

Learners must develop the ability to perceive linguistic and social meaning in their second language (L2) to interact effectively, but relatively little is known about how learners link social meaning to a single phonetic variable. Using a matched-guise test targeting coda /s/ (realized as [s] or debuccalized [h]), we explore whether L2 Spanish learners identify native speakers’ social characteristics based on phonetic variants. Our results indicate that advanced learners were more sensitive to sociophonetic information; advanced listeners who had completed a phonetics course were significantly more likely to categorize /s/ reducers as Caribbean and those who had studied abroad in aspirating regions recognized a relationship between coda /s/ and status. To account for the complex interplay among proficiency, explicit instruction, and dialectal exposure in the development of L2 sociophonetic perception, we suggest the union of the L2 Linguistic Perception Model with exemplar models of phonological representation and indexical meaning.