This study presents research on the affective reactions of native French speakers to 15 types of grammatical error made by an American speaking French. The native French judges are divided into three age groups, C.E.S. students, lycée students, and adults, and an error hierarchy is provided for each. Results show a continuum by age as to how these judges react to gender errors, that is errors of non-agreement with definite articles and adjectives with nouns. The younger, C.E.S. students are most sensitive to gender errors, lycée students slightly less sensitive, and adults the least irritated of the three, to the point that, for the adults, the five gender errors are rated as the five least serious errors in the error hierarchy. Possible explanations for this difference in error sensitivity are offered, with special attention to the possible influence of socioeconomic status. These results are compared to findings in English, French, German, and Spanish, with particular focus on results obtained in German by Politzer (1978) and Delisle (1982).

The present study investigated the effects of exposure to Chinese orthography on learning phonological forms of new words in learners of Chinese as a second language. A total of 30 adult learners of Chinese studied spoken label and picture associations presented either with phonologically accurate characters, characters with partial phonological information, or no orthography. Half the phonologically accurate or partially accurate characters were semantically transparent or opaque. Spoken labels were recalled without orthography presence. Results showed that exposure to phonologically accurate and semantically transparent characters during learning did not enhance the recall of the spoken labels compared to no orthography. But exposure to characters with partial phonological information and semantically opaque characters significantly hindered vocabulary learning. The implications for Chinese as a second language vocabulary acquisition and instruction are discussed.

This study replicates Felser and Roberts (2007), which used a cross-modal picture priming task to examine indirect-object dependency processing in classroom L2 learners. The replication focuses on early L2 learners with extensive naturalistic L2 exposure (n = 22)—an understudied group in the literature—and investigates whether these learners, in contrast to those in the original study, reactivate the moved element at its original position in the sentence. Bayesian multilevel regression is used to analyze the data. The results suggest that higher-working-memory participants did reactivate the moved element at its structural origin. By extending previous research to an understudied group, the study contributes to our knowledge regarding sensitivity to abstract syntactic structure in L2 processing.

A handful of second/foreign language (L2) studies have examined the effects of practice schedules and reported the advantage of interleaved practice (i.e., practice multiple skills simultaneously) over blocked practice (i.e., practice one skill first and then proceed to the next one). However, no studies in the realm of L2 pragmatics have explored this theme. This study investigated the influence of interleaved corpus-based practice and blocked corpus-based practice on L2 pragmatic development. Sixty-three L2 learners of English from a university in China received instruction on two pragmatic features: suggestions and requests. After the instruction, they were randomly assigned to an interleaved-practice group (n = 31) or a blocked-practice group (n = 32). Results from multimedia discourse completion tasks on the immediate and delayed posttests showed facilitative and long-term effects of interleaved practice on pragmatic accuracy. Moreover, the results revealed positive and durable influence of blocked practice on fluency. Implications are discussed.

Little research has been done on the effect of learning context on L2 listening development. Motivated by DeKeyser’s (2015) skill acquisition theory of second language acquisition, this study compares L2 listening development in study abroad (SA) and at home (AH) contexts from both language knowledge and processing perspectives. One hundred forty-nine Chinese postgraduates studying in either China or the United Kingdom participated in a battery of listening tasks at the beginning and at the end of an academic year. These tasks measure auditory vocabulary knowledge and listening processing efficiency (i.e., accuracy, speed, and stability of processing) in word recognition, grammatical processing, and semantic analysis. Results show that, provided equal starting levels, the SA learners made more progress than the AH learners in speed of processing across the language processing tasks, with less clear results for vocabulary acquisition. Studying abroad may be an effective intervention for L2 learning, especially in terms of processing speed.

This study examined the role of discourse organization in second language (L2) comprehensibility ratings. Twelve English for Academic Purposes teachers listened to 60 L2 speech samples elicited through a TOEFL–type integrated speaking task, evaluating each sample for comprehensibility and coherence (perceived interconnectedness of ideas). The samples were analyzed for the occurrence of discourse features at micro and macro levels. Results revealed a strong association between coherence and comprehensibility (r = .70). Whereas L2 speakers’ use of additive connectives (e.g., and) uniquely predicted comprehensibility, ordering of ideas and source–speech similarity in speakers’ performances predicted coherence. Lexical overlaps predicted both constructs. Findings underscore the importance of coherence to comprehensible academic L2 speech demonstrating that the two constructs include partially overlapping yet distinct characteristics.

LANGUAGE, COGNITION, AND THE BRAIN: INSIGHTS FROM SIGN LANGUAGE RESEARCH. Karen Emmorey. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. Pp. xvii + 383. $99.95 cloth, $49.95 paper.

In the preface, Emmorey states her goal for this book: to illustrate what can be learned about human language, cognition, and the brain by studying signed languages and the deaf people who use them. She clearly achieves that goal in this excellent volume. Her scholarship is impeccable, something we have come to expect from this author. First of all, the organization of the book is impressive. Each chapter explicitly presents specific goals and then proceeds through those goals in an organized and clear style. The conclusion of each chapter includes suggested readings with a brief explanation of how these suggestions support the chapter. Second, this volume includes research on a variety of signed languages—Nicaraguan, Australian, Danish, and Irish, to name a few—and provides a truly comprehensive approach to the topic.

Research on mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) has revealed that high rates of attrition among users can undermine the potential benefits of this learning method. To explore this issue, we surveyed 3,670 adult MALL users based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and also conducted an in-depth analysis of their historical app usage data. The results of hierarchical k-means cluster analysis and recurrent event survival analysis revealed three major findings. First, three distinct profiles of learners were characterized by different MALL acceptance and engagement experiences. Second, those with greater MALL acceptance displayed more intense, frequent, and durable app usage (behavioral engagement). Lastly, high levels of MALL acceptance were associated with more frequent pauses in app usage but also (a) longer active usage, (b) shorter breaks before returning to the app, and, ultimately, (c) fewer dropouts. We argue that persistence is a multidimensional process involving cyclical phases of engagement, disengagement, dormancy, and reengagement, with each aspect, like intensity, frequency, and duration, building up cumulatively over time. Implications for promoting persistent MALL engagement are discussed.

The present study investigates how L2 learners adapt their production preferences following immediate and cumulative experience with a syntactic structure when an L2 structure differs from an L1 structure in terms of verb subcategorization frame and argument structure. Korean learners of English described causative events in English in a picture-matching game. The meaning of a causative sentence in English (e.g., Jen had her computer fixed) is expressed with an active transitive sentence in Korean (e.g., Jen-NOM computer-ACC fixed). The results demonstrated that both immediate and cumulative experience with a causative structure increased the likelihood of producing grammatical causative descriptions (e.g., Jen had her computer fixed), while decreasing the production of ungrammatical active transitive descriptions (e.g., Jen fixed her computer). The findings provide novel evidence that an implicit learning mechanism is involved in L2 learners’ processing and learning of an L2 structure that is different from L1.

This study assessed knowledge of numerically quantified English sentences in two learner populations—second language (L2) learners and deaf learners—whose acquisition of English occurs under conditions of restricted access to the target language input. Under the experimental test conditions, interlanguage parallels were predicted to arise from acquisitional pressures imposed by derivational economy on universal grammar (UG)–guided semantic interpretation. The results of a task in which participants matched sentences to multiple discourse depictions confirmed the predicted parallels. However, in matching underinformative sentences to depicted contexts, the L2 and deaf learner groups overactivated discourse-pragmatic knowledge. The restriction of indefinite noun phrases to singleton indefinites and the cancellation of scalar implicatures rendered sentences more informative in underinformative contexts, producing incorrect—although principled—interpretations. These results inform English acquisition at the interface of semantics and discourse pragmatics and provide further support that economy pressures yield L2 learner and deaf learner interlanguage parallels as observed, for instance, in learners’ interpretative knowledge of universally quantified English sentences.

DEVELOPING LITERACY IN SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNERS: REPORT OF THE NATIONAL LITERACY PANEL ON LANGUAGE-MINORITY CHILDREN AND YOUTH.Diane August and Timothy Shanahan (Eds.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2006. Pp. vii + 669. $65.00 paper.

This is the outcome of work by the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. The panel included experts from the United States and Canada selected by the Institute of Education Sciences. The topics addressed include second language (L2) development, cognitive development, curriculum and instruction, assessment, and methodology. Concerned with how best to improve literacy achievement for language-minority students, the collection is a synthesis of more than 200 systematically selected research reports on the development of literacy for language-minority students. The panel (with August as principal investigator and Shanahan as Chair) undertook a comprehensive review of studies on language-minority students based mainly in the United States but also incorporated studies from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Finland, and Israel.

This study addresses the effects of the timing of explicit instruction within the three phases of a task cycle (pretask, task, posttask) while considering learner’s previous knowledge. Eight intact groups (N = 165) of French L2 university-level students (4 B1- and 4 B2-level groups) completed two tasks. Groups were formed according to previous knowledge. Three groups received explicit instruction on the French subjunctive during the pretask, task, or posttask phase of each task. The control groups completed the task without prior instruction. Participants completed an elicited imitation test and a grammaticality judgment test as pretests, immediate posttests, and delayed posttests. Results showed that explicit instruction embedded in a task facilitates the development of explicit and implicit knowledge and that the efficacy of instruction is not significantly influenced by the timing at which it is provided or by the learners’ level of previous knowledge.