This study investigated the potential of phonetic symbols and keywords as response labels for perceptual training of L2 sounds. Seventy-one Spanish learners of English were assigned to three groups: symbols, keywords, and control. Students in the symbols and keywords groups followed a 4-week High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) program based on identification tasks. The target aspects addressed were eight English vowels that tend to be problematic for Spanish EFL learners (/iː ɪ æ ʌ ɜː e ɒ ɔː/). Training stimuli consisted of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonwords featuring these vowels on a range of phonetic contexts. Overall, the results revealed significant differences between the perception gains made by the two experimental groups, which performed similarly, and the control group. Both experimental groups were able to transfer gains to untrained nonwords, and to untrained voices. Moreover, gains were maintained over time. Improvements were also made in real words, especially by the symbols group, although no significant differences were found between groups. The results suggest that both phonetic symbols and keywords are effective labels for perceptual training and the creation/consolidation of perceptual sound categories. The study offers further evidence of the effectiveness of HVPT for pronunciation training as well as implications for perceptual training studies and language teaching.

The relationship between working memory (WM) and second-language (L2) reading has been extensively examined, with mixed results. Our meta-analysis models the potential impact of underresearched variables considered to moderate this relationship. Results from 74 studies (228 correlations) showed a significant, small relationship between WM and L2 reading (r = .300). Of the eight moderators examined, the WM–L2 reading relationship differed between studies using first-language (L1) and L2 WM tasks and between studies reporting and not reporting WM task reliability. Methodological features of reading comprehension measures or learners’ proficiency did not moderate the relationship. These results suggest that measurement practices of WM—rather than L2 reading measures or learner characteristics—matter in understanding the WM–L2 reading relationship. Implications and future directions are discussed.

I investigated the trajectory of processing variability, as measured by coefficient of variation (CV), using an intentional word learning experiment and reanalyzing published eye-tracking data of an incidental word learning study (Elgort et al., 2018). In the word learning experiment, native English speakers (N = 35) studied Swahili-English word pairs (k = 16) before performing 10 blocks of animacy judgment tasks. Results replicated the initial CV increase reported in Solovyeva and DeKeyser (2018) and, importantly, captured a roughly inverted U-shaped development in CV. In the reanalysis of eye-tracking data, I computed CVs based on reading times on the target and control words. Results did not reveal a similar inverted U-shaped development over time but suggested more stable processing of the high-frequency control words. Taken together, these results uncovered a fuller trajectory in CV development, differences in processing demands for different aspects of word knowledge, and the potential use of CV with eye-tracking research.

The present semantic priming study explores the integration of newly learnt L2 German words into the L2 semantic network of German advanced learners. It provides additional evidence in support of earlier findings reporting semantic inhibition effects for emergent representations. An inhibitory mechanism is proposed that temporarily decreases the resting levels of the representations with which the new representation is linked and thus enables its selection despite its low resting level.

It is easy for learner-centred approaches to classroom method to fall into the trap of appearing to advocate the virtual abdication of the teacher. The purpose of this paper is to try to redress the balance by setting out an approach (in Section II), initially quite neutral with respect to the ‘teacher-centred or learner-centred’ issue, that instead simply specifies the ‘things that have to happen’ in a classroom if the experience is to have any chance of being a profitable one for the learners. These things are necessary but not sufficient, because attempting to ensure that they happen entails running a number of major risks (to be specified in Section II) that threaten to destroy the value of the classroom experience.

Gundel and Tarone (1981) studied the acquisition of pronouns by Chinese and Spanish speaking adults learning English. On the basis of this study it was proposed that when L1 and L2 differ in the relative order of object pronoun and verb, the acquisition of direct object pronouns proceeds in three stages: (1) direct transfer of the native language pattern; (2) zero anaphora, i.e. no overt form at all, in direct object position; (3) the correct L2 pattern. The present paper presents further evidence for this proposal, and hence for a hypothesis-testing view of second language acquisition, on the basis of longitudinal data from English speaking children learning French in the Toronto French Immersion Program.

This article makes a case for studying the perceptions that young people have of the ways of speaking of both themselves and others on the supposition that constructions of ambient sociolinguistic variation have an impact on the language development and use of individual language users. Such a study is particularly relevant in multilingual contexts in which differences with regard to social as well as ethnic and linguistic background may generate significantly different perceptions. In a speaker evaluation study, Swedish speech stimuli from 12 young Stockholmers were evaluated by 343 listeners from different backgrounds. The results show that young people may divide and relate to the linguistic space of Stockholm in very different ways and that they vary in their degree of accuracy regarding linguistic self-perception.

While monolingual speakers can use contrastive pitch accents to predict upcoming referents, bilingual speakers do not always use this cue predictively in their L2. The current study examines the role of recent exposure for predictive processing in native German (L1) second language learners of English (L2). In Experiment 1, participants followed instructions to click on two successive objects, for example, Click on the red carrot/duck. Click on the green/GREEN carrot (where CAPS indicate a contrastive L + H* accent). Participants predicted a repeated noun following a L + H* accent in the L1, but not in the L2, where processing was delayed. Experiment 2 shows that after an exposure period with highly consistent prosodic cues, bilinguals engaged in predictive processing in both their L1 and L2. However, inconsistent prosodic cues showed different effects on bilinguals’ L1 and L2 predictive processing. The results are discussed in terms of exposure-based and resource-deficit models of processing.

Concerns have recently been raised about the validity of scales used in the L2 motivational self system tradition, particularly in relation to sufficient discriminant validity among some of its scales. These concerns highlight the need to systematically examine the validity of scales used in this tradition. In this study, we therefore compiled a list of 18 scales in widespread use and administered them to Korean learners of English (N = 384). Testing the factorial structure of these scales using multiple exploratory and confirmatory factor-analytic criteria revealed severe discriminant validity issues. For example, the ideal L2 self was not discriminant from linguistic self-confidence, suggesting that participant responses to such ideal L2 self items is not driven by actual–ideal discrepancies as previously presumed but more likely by self-efficacy beliefs. We discuss these results in the context of the need to encourage systematic psychometric validation research in the language motivation field.

This study investigated whether L2 English learners’ prosodic properties in speech acts change as they are immersed in the English-speaking academic community over time, and if so, what individual and contextual factors (proficiency, orientation to language study, and target language contact) potentially affect these changes. Forty-seven Japanese learners of English in an English-medium university in Japan completed a speaking task that elicited two speech acts (request and opinion) three times over one academic year (8 months). Their speech was analyzed for discourse intonational features (e.g., tone choices, prominence ratio, and pitch range). Results showed that all prosodic properties changed over time, although the pace and patterns of changes differed among the properties. Proficiency and language contact significantly affected the change in tone choice, but no other relationship was found between individual/contextual factors and changes in prominence ratio or pitch range.

The study reported here extends Tyler and Bro's (1992) investigation of the sources of native speakers' perceptions of incoherence in English text produced by nonnative speakers. Using paper-and-pencil tasks, the original study examined two competing hypotheses: (a) The primary source of interference was the order in which the ideas were presented versus (b) the primary source of interference was mismatches in discourse structuring cues. They found no effect for order of ideas but a strong effect of discourse structuring cues. In the present study, 80 subjects were tested on the same texts as those used in Tyler and Bro (1992) but using microcomputers. Subjects rated the text for comprehensibility and answered three questions concerning the propositional content. The computer format represented a more sensitive measure of subjects' reactions to the text because it did not allow looking back and because it provided information concerning differences in reading time for each manipulation. Once again, the results of the comprehensibility ratings showed a strong effect for miscues and no significant effect for order of ideas. Results of the true/false questions indicated that presence of miscues affected subjects' comprehension of the propositional content but that order of ideas had no discernible effect. Finally, reading time results also showed a strong effect for miscues and a mixed effect for order of ideas, suggesting that order of ideas does make a minor contribution to comprehensibility.

This article examines sensitivity to structural parallelism in verb phrase ellipsis constructions in English native speakers as well as in three groups of advanced second language (L2) learners. The results of a set of experiments, based on those of Tanenhaus and Carlson (1990), reveal subtle but reliable differences among the various learner groups. These differences are interpreted as showing that some L2 learners can acquire sensitivity to parallelism in the absence of surface transfer. Furthermore, the results cast doubt on two conventional theoretical claims: that the parallelism effect has a syntactic basis and that it is uniquely linked to instances of surface anaphora (Hankamer & Sag, 1976).

The purpose of this commentary is to discuss some of the findings and claims of the five articles contained in this special issue that deals with the relationship between the noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH), first proposed by Keenan and Comrie (1977), and the acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) in three Asian languages—Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean. This topic is of interest to SLA theory for at least two reasons. First, as Ozeki and Shirai (this issue) pointed out, there is significant literature proposing to explain facts about the SLA of RCs involving European languages. This raises the question of whether the NPAH has the same explanatory value for languages that are genetically unrelated and geographically separated. The second reason is that Comrie (1998, 2002) recently proposed that nominal-attributive clauses in some Asian languages differ from RCs in European languages in important ways that might have an impact on whether the NPAH holds true for the acquisition of RCs in these languages.

The study investigates the role of causal reasoning in second language (L2) narrative comprehension. Subjects read and recalled texts that were either high or low in causal coherence. This read-and-recall procedure was repeated. Half of the subjects reported their thoughts during reading. The major finding was that first language (L1) readers recalled the high coherence texts better than the low coherence texts. Advanced L2 readers showed a similar advantage for thehigh coherence texts, but only in their second reading. Intermediate readers' recall was lower and showed no advantage for highly coherent texts. The verbal report data generally supported these patterns. These results indicate that L2 readers have difficulty detecting the higher order causal structure in texts. This structure is a central component of L1 readers' mental representation of the information in a text. As L2 readers' skills improve, their ability to detect causal relations increases, although even advanced L2 readers may need a second reading to do so.

Two eye-tracking experiments tested (a) whether L2 learners benefit from the consistency of input modality (auditory instead of written processing instruction [PI] training) and (b) whether they benefit from training using the same voice as the test voice. Results confirmed a robust effect of PI training on picture-selection accuracy, yet the improvement did not differ between training modalities. Eye-tracking data revealed resilient looks to the incorrect (first noun = agent) picture even after training, demonstrating the challenge in tuning to the grammatical forms while processing auditory L2 input. The effect of voice familiarity was larger for the male voice, which had longer duration for the later cue (à Marie/Pierre) than the female voice. Auditory PI training can be as effective as written PI training, but it does not immediately enhance learners’ sensitivity to grammatical cues. However, learners may benefit from hearing a salient grammatical cue toward the end of the sentence.

A large dataset of word recognition behavior from nonnative speakers (NNS) of English was collected using an online crowdsourced lexical decision task. Lexical features were used to predict NNS lexical decision latencies and accuracies. Predictors of NNS latencies and accuracy included contextual diversity, age of acquisition, and contextual distinctiveness, while length moderated the impact of contextual diversity and neighborhood size on accuracy. Results have implications for second language word recognition and demonstrate that NNS behavioral data collected through large crowdsourcing projects can afford a rich source for SLA research.

This article reports on the development and validation of the Informal Second Language Engagement questionnaire (ISLE) for capturing various aspects of learner engagement with informal second language practices. Whereas other questionnaires have primarily focused on learner behavior (the frequency, quantity, and diversity of informal activities in which learners engage), the ISLE additionally targets affective, cognitive, and linguistic aspects of engagement. Consequently, this questionnaire has the potential to help second language acquisition researchers better understand individual differences and variability in informal language engagement, how it changes over time, and the ways in which engagement affects language learning. The ISLE was developed and evaluated in three stages with a total of 382 German secondary school learners of English as a foreign language. The initial instrument development was informed by qualitative findings from focus group interviews. Subsequently, the questionnaire was piloted, and Exploratory Factor Analysis was applied to the data to uncover the underlying factor structures and reduce the number of items per construct. Finally, the revised instrument was evaluated further using Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

This study examines the acquisition process of speech rhythm in Dutch learners of Spanish (DLS) and Spanish learners of Dutch (SLD) at different proficiency levels to determine whether learning direction affects the success of rhythm acquisition in a foreign language (L2). Analyses of lengthening effects showed that the two learner groups followed different developmental paths in their acquisition of accentual and final lengthening: Both groups showed transfer effects from the L1, but while the DLS systematically approached their target until attainment, the SLD showed more variability in their development. In addition, syllable structure complexity affected L2 rhythm acquisition, and to a substantially larger extent for the SLD compared to the DLS. The results support a model of L2 rhythm acquisition in which learning direction is included as a factor, and that allows for the interaction of various language-specific properties that contribute to speech rhythm, like syllable structure complexity.