The present study investigated the second language processing of grammatical mood in Spanish. Eye-movement data from a group of advanced proficiency second language users revealed nativelike processing with irregular verb stimuli but not with regular verb stimuli. A comparison group of native speakers showed the expected effect with both types of stimuli, but these were slightly more robust with irregular verbs than with regular verbs. We propose that the role of verb form regularity was due to the greater visual salience of Spanish subjunctive forms with irregular verbs versus regular verbs and possibly also due to less efficient processing of rule-based regular inflectional morphology versus whole irregular word forms. In any case, the results suggest that what appeared to be difficulty with sentence processing could be traced back to word-level processes, which appeared to be the primary area of difficulty. This outcome seems to go against theories that suggest that L2 sentence processing is shallow.

This study is a replication and extension of Morgan-Short et al.’s (2018) investigation into the role of attention in input processing by L1-Polish learners of L2-Spanish, with proficiency and language of assessment explored as two key methodological factors. Our aims were twofold: to investigate learners’ comprehension in different conditions with their L2 proficiency controlled for, and to examine this process when learners were tested using different languages. Data from three trials (N = 136) were analyzed: Trial-English, Trial-Polish, and Trial-Spanish, where comprehension was tested in English, Polish, or Spanish, respectively. Results showed that both L2 proficiency and language of assessment significantly affected learners’ performance, with their scores being lower in the -n morpheme condition but only when comprehension was tested in English or Spanish. We discuss these findings both theoretically and methodologically, making recommendations on designing future replication studies and improving the generalizability of L2 findings across multiple research sites.

Second language (L2) teachers may shy away from self-assessments because of warnings that students are not accurate self-assessors. This information stems from meta-analyses in which self-assessment scores on average did not correlate highly with proficiency test results. However, researchers mostly used Pearson correlations, when polyserial could be used. Furthermore, self-assessments today can be computer adaptive. With them, nonlinear statistics are needed to investigate their relationship with other measurements. We wondered, if we explored the relationship between self-assessment and proficiency test scores using more robust measurements (polyserial correlation, continuation-ratio modeling), would we find different results? We had 807 L2-Spanish learners take a computer-adaptive, L2-speaking self-assessment and the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview – computer (OPIc). The scores correlated at .61 (polyserial). Using continuation-ratio modeling, we found each unit of increase on the OPIc scale was associated with a 131% increase in the odds of passing the self-assessment thresholds. In other words, a student was more likely to move on to higher self-assessment subsections if they had a higher OPIc rating. We found computer-adaptive self-assessments appropriate for low-stakes L2-proficiency measurements, especially because they are cost-effective, make intuitive sense to learners, and promote learner agency.

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 investigates whether the use of prosodic cues during instruction facilitates the processing of German accusative case markers. Two groups of third semester L1 English learners of L2 German completed Processing Instruction (PI) with aural input: Learners in the PI+P group heard sentences that included focused prosodic cues; learners in the PI group heard sentences with monotone prosody. The effects of training were assessed through an offline comprehension task, a written production task, and an online self-paced reading (SPR) task. The results for the offline tasks showed that the groups were similar with respect to their offline comprehension and production. The SPR task showed that both groups used case markers to interpret word order online to some extent; however, only the PI+P group did so in all conditions. These results suggest that prosody does play a role in (morpho)syntactic processing, and that covert activation of prosodic structures can facilitate processing during online reading tasks.

This study examines the role of language proficiency and other individual factors (attitudes, input) in the acquisition of language-specific [ð] and dialect-specific [∅] allophones of Spanish intervocalic /d/ in the /ado/ context by L2 and heritage Spanish speakers during a short-term study abroad in Sevilla, Spain. Twenty L2-intermediate, 10 L2-advanced, and 10 Heritage-advanced Spanish speakers completed a reading task at the beginning and the end of the program. Based on an acoustic analysis, a mixed-effects linear regression model found that only L2-advanced and Heritage-advanced groups demonstrated more approximant-like [ð] over time. However, proficiency level interacted with attitudes and input. There were a few [∅] realizations, mostly produced by an L2-advanced speaker who also demonstrated metalinguistic awareness of the dialect-specific allophone. The findings imply that advanced (L2 and heritage) speakers with favorable attitudes toward the local variety are most likely to demonstrate gradient language-specific allophonic changes during a short-term SA program.

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).

In this study, neural representation of adult second language (L2) speakers’ implicit grammatical knowledge was investigated. Advanced L2 speakers of Japanese living in Japan, as well as L1 Japanese speakers, performed a word-monitoring task (proposed as an implicit knowledge test) in the MRI scanner. Behavioral measures were obtained from aptitude tests for explicit (language analytic ability) and implicit (statistical learning ability) learning. Findings indicate that, although both L1 and L2 speakers recruited neural circuits associated with procedural memory during the word-monitoring task, different brain regions were activated: premotor cortex (L1 speakers) and left caudate (L2 speakers). The premotor cortex activation was weaker in L2 than L1 speakers but was positively correlated with the left caudate activation, suggesting that their grammatical knowledge, while less automatized, was still developing. Behavioral sensitivity to errors was predicted only by explicit language aptitude, which may play a key role in the automatization of grammatical knowledge.

We investigated age-related decline in adult learning of Dutch as an additional language (Ln) in speaking, writing, listening, and reading proficiency test scores for 56,024 adult immigrants with 50 L1s who came to the Netherlands for study or work. Performance for all four language skills turned out to decline monotonically after an age of arrival of about 25 years, similar to developmental trajectories observed in earlier aging research on additional language learning and in aging research on cognitive abilities. Also, linguistic dissimilarity increased age-related decline across all four language skills, but speaking in particular. We measured linguistic dissimilarity between first languages (L1s = 50) and Dutch (Ln) for morphology, vocabulary, and phonology. Our conclusion is that the L1 language background influences the effects of age-related decline in adult language learning, and that the constraints involved reflect both biological (language learning ability) and experience-based (acquired L1 proficiency) cognitive resources.

Building on the control-value theory, the present study examined the independent and joint predictive effects of three emotions—enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom—on L2 achievement over time. The participants of the study were a group of junior secondary English learners in rural China, a population that has hitherto never featured in L2 learning research. Questionnaire data and achievement data were collected at four different time points (Time 1–Time 4: T1–T4) from a large sample of 954 learners. Structural equation modeling results show that: (a) the three emotions at T1 predicted English achievement at T2 (one week after T1) and T3 (five weeks after T1) independently, while only enjoyment predicted achievement at T4 (nine weeks after T1); (b) when combined, enjoyment was the strongest and most enduring predictor across T2–T4, followed by anxiety predicting achievement at T2–T3 negatively, while boredom completely lost its predictive power across T2–T4.

The current study examined the extent to which cognitive fluency (CF) contributes to utterance fluency (UF) at the level of constructs. A total of 128 Japanese-speaking learners of English completed four speaking tasks—argumentative task, picture narrative task, reading-to-speaking task, and reading-while-listening-to-speaking task—and a battery of linguistic knowledge tests, capturing vocabulary size, lexical retrieval speed, sentence construction skills, grammaticality judgments, and articulatory speed. Their speaking performance was analyzed in terms of speed, breakdown, and repair fluency (i.e., UF), and scores on linguistic knowledge tests were used to assess students’ L2 linguistic resources and processing skills (i.e., CF). Structural equation modeling revealed a complex interplay between the multidimensionality of CF and UF and speaking task types. L2 processing speed consistently contributed to all aspects of UF across speaking tasks, whereas the role of linguistic resources in speed and repair fluency varied, depending on task characteristics.

Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants’ reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research.

This study examined how discriminability and prototypicality of nonnative phones modulate the amplitude of the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) event-related brain potential. We hypothesized that if a frequently occurring (standard) stimulus is not prototypical to a listener, a weaker predictive memory trace will be formed and a smaller MMN will be generated for a phonetic deviant, regardless of the discriminability between the standard and deviant stimuli. The MMN amplitudes of Japanese speakers hearing the English vowels /æ/ and /ɑ/ as standard stimuli and /ʌ/ as a deviant stimulus in an oddball paradigm were measured. Although the English /æ/-/ʌ/ contrast was more discriminable than the English /ɑ/-/ʌ/ contrast for Japanese speakers, when Japanese speakers heard the /æ/ standard stimulus (i.e., less prototypical as Japanese /a/) and the /ʌ/ deviant stimulus, their MMN amplitude was smaller than the one elicited when they heard /ɑ/ as a standard stimulus (i.e., more prototypical as Japanese /a/) and /ʌ/ as a deviant stimulus. The prototypicality of the standard stimuli in listeners’ phonological representations modulates the MMN amplitude more robustly than does the discriminability between standard and deviant stimuli.

This study examined whether university students perceive holds (i.e., a listener’s temporary cessation of dynamic movement) as a visual cue of nonunderstanding. Conversations between English second language (L2) university students were sampled to extract episodes of other-initiated repair through open clarification requests (e.g., what?, sorry?). Brief, silent video clips were presented to 60 raters across two experiments who assessed the listener’s comprehension, which was their perception about how well the listener had understood the speaker. Experiment 1 tested whether raters can differentiate between the onset and release of listener holds while Experiment 2 examined whether they are sensitive to the sequential organization of holds. Results indicated that raters clearly differentiated between hold onsets and releases and were sensitive to the temporal position of holds in the entire repair sequence. Taken together, these findings suggest that holds are a reliable signal of nonunderstanding with potential implications for L2 teaching and assessment.

In comparative studies focusing on context of learning, the main contexts under investigation have been study abroad (SA), at-home formal instruction (AH), and domestic immersion (IM). With the global status of English and its burgeoning popularity as a medium of instruction in countries where English only holds the status of a lingua franca, a new SA context has emerged. This study compares the L2 learning of English in this new English as a lingua franca study abroad (ELFSA) context to Anglophone SA and AH in terms of oral and written complexity, accuracy, and fluency gains. Participants’ perceptions of contextual differences concerning the amount of language contact, use, development, and their views toward English are also explored qualitatively. Apart from indicating equal development on most CAF measures after a semester, the qualitative findings highlight ELFSA as providing a low-anxiety atmosphere that helps sojourners gain ownership of English. Thus, ELFSA emerges as an appealing study abroad context for future sojourners.

This study offers methodological synergy in the examination of factorial structure in second language (L2) research. It illustrates the effectiveness and flexibility of the recently developed exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) method, which integrates the advantages of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) into one complete measurement model. Two sets of data were collected using the L2 Passion Scale, which measures a dualistic model of passion. Study 1 participants were 220 L2 students. A comparison was made between the CFA and the ESEM models. The results demonstrated the superiority of the ESEM method relative to CFA in terms of better goodness-of-fit indices and realistic correlated factors. These results were replicated in another sample of 272 L2 students, providing support for the predictive validity using a structural ESEM model. Guidelines are provided and Mplus syntax files (codes) are included to help analysts apply the methods. We also make the data available publicly. Overall, this research demonstrated the usefulness of ESEM for examining the construct, discriminant, and convergent validity of L2 scales over CFA.

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.

Replication is a research methodology designed to verify, consolidate, and generalize knowledge and understanding within empirical fields of study. In second language studies, however, reviews share widespread concern about the infrequency of replication. A common but speculative explanation for this situation is that replication studies are not valued because they lack originality and/or innovation. To better understand and respond to the infrequency of replication in our field, 354 researchers were surveyed about their attitudes toward replication and their practices conducting replication studies. Responses included worldwide participation from researchers with and without replication experience. Overall, replications were evaluated as relevant and valuable to the field. Claims that replication studies lack originality/innovation were not supported. However, dissemination issues were identified: half of published replication studies lacked explicit labeling and one quarter of completed replications were unpublished. Explicit labeling of replication studies and training in research methodology and dissemination can address this situation.

The present study uses event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine nonlocal agreement processing between native (L1) English speakers and Chinese–English second language (L2) learners, whose L1 lacks number agreement. We manipulated number marking with determiners (the vs. that/these) to see how determiner-specification influences both native and nonnative processing downstream for verbal number agreement. Behavioral and ERP results suggest both groups detected nonlocal agreement violations, indexed by a P600 effect. Moreover, the manipulation of determiner-number specification revealed a facilitation effect across the board in both grammaticality judgment and ERP responses for both groups: increased judgment accuracy and a larger P600 effect amplitude for sentences containing violations with demonstratives rather than bare determiners. Contrary to some claims regarding the potential for nonnative processing, the present data suggest that L1 and L2 speakers show similar ERP responses when processing agreement, even when the L1 lacks the relevant distinction.