Meta-analyses play an instrumental role in informing second language (L2) theory and practice. However, current (i.e., classic) approaches to meta-analysis are limited in their ability to do so because they often fail to capture the complexity inherent in primary studies’ research designs. As we argue in this article, when complex L2 studies are represented by simplistic meta-analyses, the latter cannot reach its potential to contribute to the development of cumulative knowledge. To mitigate this issue, we first discuss the fundamental problems of the classic approaches to meta-analysis of complex L2 research. Second, we introduce an alternative meta-analytic framework that will address those problems. Third, we apply the meta-analytic framework discussed to a complex L2 domain. Fourth, we offer free software to facilitate the conduct of the alternative meta-analytic approach described. Finally, we discuss the implications of this alternative framework for making evidence-based recommendations to the relevant stakeholders.

In this article I discuss some key points that are raised in the papers in this special issue. The first issue is that a variety of theoretical tools are necessary for a complete understanding of the issues raised in these papers. Second, although the methodology that is used in studies of second language knowledge has improved, it is clear we still lack an agreed-on set of protocols that will permit reliable comparisons across studies. In spite of these challenges, we are making progress in using complementary theories of the role of lexical representation, predication, and crosslinguistic variation to get a full picture of this complex area of lexico-morphosyntactic knowledge.

The present study explores the initial stages of incidental acquisition of two grammatical properties of verbs (subcategorization and [ir]regularity) during reading in first language (L1) and second language (L2) German using an adjusted self-paced reading paradigm. The results indicate that L1 speakers are superior to L2 speakers in the incidental acquisition of grammatical knowledge (experiments on subcategorization), except when the new knowledge interferes with previously acquired knowledge and mechanisms (experiments on [ir]regularity): Although both populations performed equally well regarding the acquisition of the subcategorization of verbs from the input (i.e., whether the verbs are transitive or intransitive), they differed with respect to the regularity status of new verbs. L1 speakers (in contrast to L2 learners) seem to disprefer irregularly conjugated verb forms in general, irrespective of their conjugation in the previous input. The results further show that the syntactic complexity of the context and morphological markedness positively affect the incidental acquisition of new words in the L2, triggering learners’ shift of attention from the text level to the word level.

This study investigates learner's construction of oral texts on topics of specialization. Using the framework of the discourse domain hypothesis, which holds that second language proficiency is acquired with reference to individual, specialized contexts of production, termed discourse domains, the study tests the prediction that learners will construct more independent and coherent texts on such topics. Data were elicited from advanced ESL learners at a U.S. university: Discourse domain talk on academic major topics by five invested subjects is compared with the performance of the same subjects on a general topic and with a control group who talked on two comparable general topics. Analysis focuses on discourse organization, including turntaking patterns and episode structure. Results suggest that text construction is facilitated by learners' expertise and investment in the topic of conversation. Invested subjects constructed more coherent episodes and, in some cases, more independent turns on their topics of specialization. In the absence of such expertise, however, recent rehearsal of topics by some control subjects appeared to permit similarly enhanced discourse organization. Thus, the study reveals a complex relationship between specialized knowledge and text construction that suggests new avenues for future research into topic-related interlanguage variation.

The current study examined the effects of task condition (TC; single vs. dual) and proficiency level (PL) on self-monitoring of second language (L2) speakers. Data were collected from sixty-six female L2 learners of English performing two speaking tasks under two task conditions. While performance in the single-task condition involved only narrating a picture-based oral narrative, the dual-task condition involved performing the same oral narrative as well as a secondary task. Factor analysis, MANOVA, and two-way ANOVAs were used to examine the effects of PL and TC on a range of self-monitoring measures. The results indicated that the higher proficiency learners made significantly fewer filled pauses, repetitions, and hesitations, and a higher ratio of error correction and error-free clauses than the lower proficiency learners. These results suggest that with the development of proficiency L2 learners’ performance becomes more fluent, and a more active and effective monitoring process seems to be at work. Compared to the single-task condition, performance in the dual-task condition led to significantly more repetitions implying the increased demand of TC triggers more dysfluency. These results are discussed in relation to the L1 monitoring models.

This study examined the development of automaticity in processing L2 collocations, and the roles of L1 collocational knowledge and practice conditions in the development process. Korean learners of English were assigned to one of two practice conditions (practice in identical or varied contexts). The learning gains for word combinations with and without equivalent counterparts in the L1 (L1-only and L2-only collocations) were assessed using response times (RTs) and coefficients of variation (CV) from a phrasal decision task. The results demonstrated that the learners in both groups showed significantly improved collocation processing for both types of items in terms of speed (RT) and automaticity (CV) over time. The RT and CV analyses indicated that both groups’ improvements in collocation processing in the later stages of learning were associated with automatization. Interestingly, L1 collocational knowledge played a facilitative role in processing speed only in the early stages of learning. No reliable evidence for the differential effects of the two types of practice conditions on developing automaticity in collocation processing was found.

Whereas many scholars have emphasized the relative importance of comprehensibility as an ecologically valid goal for L2 speech training, testing, and development, eliciting listeners’ judgments is time-consuming. Following calls for research on more efficient L2 speech rating methods in applied linguistics, and growing attention toward using machine learning on spontaneous unscripted speech in speech engineering, the current study examined the possibility of establishing quick and reliable automated comprehensibility assessments. Orchestrating a set of phonological (maximum posterior probabilities and gaps between L1 and L2 speech), prosodic (pitch and intensity variation), and temporal measures (articulation rate, pause frequency), the regression model significantly predicted how naïve listeners intuitively judged low, mid, high, and nativelike comprehensibility among 100 L1 and L2 speakers’ picture descriptions. The strength of the correlation (r = .823 for machine vs. human ratings) was comparable to naïve listeners’ interrater agreement (r = .760 for humans vs. humans). The findings were successfully replicated when the model was applied to a new dataset of 45 L1 and L2 speakers (r = .827) and tested under a more freely constructed interview task condition (r = .809).

The study aimed to examine the interrelationships between growth mindset, L2 aptitude, L2 grit, and L2 achievement, while also exploring the moderating role of gender in these interactions. A sample of 236 English-major students participated in the study by completing a language aptitude test and a questionnaire. The results of path analyses indicated that both aptitude and L2 grit similarly and positively predicted L2 achievement. The growth mindset had no direct effect on L2 achievement, whereas its indirect effects reached statistical significance. Moreover, growth mindset and L2 grit were found to be unrelated to L2 aptitude. Although female and male students did not differ significantly in their growth mindset, L2 aptitude, L2 grit, and L2 achievement scores, Multi-Group Path Analyses unveiled subtle gender differences.

As Kelly (1969) reminds us, the development or an art – and foreign language (FL) teaching is assuredly an art rather than a science – is cyclical. Viewed from a short-term perspective, say, the last two decades, FL teaching doctrine appears to have taken a dialectical course: the audiolingual method may be viewed as an antithetical reaction to grammar-translation-reading (GTR). In turn, the so-called cognitive-code approach of the late 1960s constitutes a rejection of overemphasis on outward form and of the behavioral model of learning. Finally, stress on communicative competence developed from a broadening of the narrow focus on linguistic structure shared by both structural linguists and generative-transformational grammarians.

The primary aim of this study was to investigate prosodic prominence across three groups of Sylheti-English bilinguals: first-generation who arrived as adults, first-generation who arrived as children, and second-generation, i.e., born in the United Kingdom to parents who grew up in Bangladesh. To measure prominence, f0, duration, and intensity were measured across disyllabic words in Sylheti and English. The results showed significant differences in the f0 analysis. Regarding monolinguals, Sylheti prominence displayed a rising contour, in contrast to the English falling contour. In Sylheti, the bilinguals born in the United Kingdom were the only group significantly different from the Sylheti monolinguals, displaying an English-like falling pattern in their Sylheti prominence. In English, the late arrival bilinguals displayed a Sylheti-like prominence realization, but the early arrivals and those born in the United Kingdom approximated the monolingual English prominence realization. Overall, language use patterns were the most significant factor related to the bilinguals’ prominence realization.

The notion of simplification has been a familiar one in language teaching for a long time. It underlies not only the production of “simplified readers” but also the whole process of syllabus design. Essentially, it is the pedagogic analogue of the linguist's idealization of data, from which it ultimately derives: the teacher simplifies by selecting and ordering the linguistic phenomena he is to deal with so as to ease the task of learning, and the linguist idealizes by selecting and ordering the linguistic phenomena he is to deal with to ease the task of analysis. In both cases the purpose of the operation is essentially a methodological one. And in both cases there is a danger that something crucial may be left out of account for the sake of methodological convenience. In this paper I want to suggest that something crucial IS generally left out of account and that the notion of simplification can be given a more general, and significant, definition. In the first part of the paper I shall try to work my way towards this definition and in the second part I shall cry to draw out a number of implications for language teaching pedagogy that seem to arise from it.

This Introduction to the special issue first elaborates on the rationale for advocating the inclusion of L2 writing in SLA individual differences (IDs) research and subsequently provides an overview of empirical work on IDs in the domain of writing, with a focus on cognitive IDs and specifically working memory. Against this background, we synthesize the focus, structure, and contents of the special issue. We finish with substantive and methodological suggestions for moving forward in research agendas on IDs and L2 writing.

The study of SLA, as is true for much social science research, aims broadly at answering questions of causality—for instance, “Is one learning context more likely than another to promote gains in second language learning?” Context-of-learning research in the study of SLA, however, often involves observational, rather than experimental, manipulation of subjects. As is well known, this compromises the ability to draw causal inferences. There are some interesting possibilities for overcoming this handicap, arising from recent statistical theory. In particular, the so-called Rubin causal model has some advantages over other approaches, such as path analysis, that are more familiar to social scientists. The purpose of this article is to relate ideas of causal inference to the studies presented in this thematic issue and to suggest how they may be useful to future research in SLA, particularly in context-of-learning studies.

This study examined how linguistic complexity features contribute to second language (L2) processing effort by analyzing the Dutch English-L2 learners’ eye movements from GECO and MECO, two eye-tracking corpora. Processing effort was operationalized as reading rate, mean fixation duration, regression rate, skipping rate, and mean saccade amplitude. In Study 1, the lexical, syntactic, and discoursal indices in 272 snippets of a novel in GECO were regressed against these eye-movement measures. The results showed that the one-component partial least square regression (PLS-R) models could explain 11%–37% of the variance in these eye-movement measures and outperformed eight readability formulas (six traditional and two recent cognitively inspired formulas based on the readers’ perception on text difficulty) in predicting L2 processing effort. In Study 2, the eye-tracking data from MECO were used to evaluate whether the findings from Study 1 could be applied more broadly. The results revealed that although the predictability of these PLS-R components decreased, they still performed better than the readability formulas. These findings suggest that the linguistic indices identified can be used to predict L2 text processing effort and provide useful implications for developing systems to assess text difficulty for L2 learners.

The focus of this study is the development of control over anaphoric reference and relativization by children learning ESL in a pull-out classroom employing little overt grammar instruction. Twenty-three children aged 6.5–14 representing ESL proficiency levels 3–5 on the Bilingual Syntax Measure (BSM)were given paper-and-pencil tests to determine comprehension of anaphoric (reflexive and pronominal)reference in English; in addition, they were tested on both comprehension and production of restrictive relative clause types (SS, SO, OO, and OS)in English. Scores were higher on reflexives than on pronominals, with length of residence significant in ambiguous references. Relative clause interpretation varied significantly with proficiency level, but production was not predictable from general proficiency except at BSM level 5, and then only on SO and SS relativization. Transfer from the L1 was minimal. It is concluded that exposure and overall L2 proficiency, rather than age or L1 background, are the most significant factors in the development of these generally untaught and untested “late-learned” rules.

Recent experimental studies of bilinguals have provided evidence of less left lateralization (i.e. greater right hemisphere participation) for verbal tasks in the second language than in the first. Other clinical and experimental studies of adults suggest that the normal adult right hemisphere has certain residual language-related capacities and that it plays a role in the early stages of both child and adult language acquisition. These findings lead us to postulate a link between right hemisphere involvement in the early stages of first and second language acquisition.

Two studies were designed to investigate this issue. The subjects of the studies were adult French-English bilinguals, with one group dominant in English and a second in French. A single word dichotic listening paradigm was employed in both studies. Following Obler (1981), the hypotheses were 1) that the second language dichotic task would show less left lateralization (greater right hemisphere involvement) than the first and 2) that greater proficiency in the second language would correlate with a higher degree of left lateralization (less right hemisphere involvement) on the dichotic test in that language. The studies provide some support for these hypotheses and thus, indirectly, for a unified theory of first and second language acquisition.