In the 1970s, Clyne conducted linguistic research on German-English and Dutch-English bilinguals in Australia. In the course of the study, he found evidence for second language attrition and first language reversion among his elderly informants (Clyne, 1981). In 1987, some 40 of the 200 Dutch informants tested in 1971 were retested in order to get longitudinal data on language maintenance and loss. The data show surprisingly little loss of proficiency in both Dutch and English over the years. This calls for a revision of the language reversion hypothesis as stated by Clyne in 1981. In the present article the hypothesis is modified to the extent that there seems to be some kind of “critical threshold” (Neisser, 1984) that has to be reached in order to retain the second language. First language reversion seems to be a common phenomenon among those immigrants who did not reach this threshold, but not among immigrants who did.

Some earlier SLA research suggests that zero pronouns should be easily acquired by second language learners, yet this has not been carefully examined because studies of nominal reference are usually limited to the acquisition of languages that do not have zero pronouns. This study examines how speakers of languages with zero pronouns (Japanese) and without them (English) use zero pronouns when acquiring a language that has them (Mandarin Chinese). The findings show that second language learners do not use zero pronouns as often as native speakers and that their use increases with proficiency. When examined more closely, it can be seen that the speakers have no difficulty using zero pronouns when there is a syntactic or semantic restriction, but they do have difficulty at the discourse level. It is claimed that this underuse of zero pronouns corresponds with other research that shows that second language learners tend to avoid pronouns in favor of full noun phrases. Some explanations for these phenomena are postulated.

The study of language attrition, whether it is concerned with first or second languages, focuses on the effects resulting from an individual's reduced use of the attrited language. Such reduction in use can be due to a change in the linguistic environment or to the termination of an instructional program. In either case, some other language (or languages) is or becomes the dominant one.

The present article reports on a series of studies, all focusing on individual attrition of English as a second language (ESL) in an environment where Hebrew is the dominant language. The predictor variables discussed are age, sociolinguistic features, input variables, and linguistic variables. The attrition process affecting English as a second language in a Hebrew dominant context seems to exhibit two major trends of change in language use: (a) a greater variability in the application of peripheral and highly marked structural rules, and (b) lower accessibility of specific lexical items. In each of these trends one can identify a limited reversal of the acquisition process, particularly with young children (5–8-year-olds) as well as a typological transfer process from the dominant language.

This paper describes recent theoretical developments in cognitive psychology that can be applied to second language acquisition and uses the theory to analyze phenomena discussed regularly in the second language literature. Some limitations of linguistic theories in addressing the role of mental processes in second language acquisition are identified, and current cognitive learning theory in general is outlined. The paper then examines the theoretical model developed by John Anderson (1983, 1985) as it applies to memory representation, learning, and language skill acquisition. The remainder of the paper describes possible applications of this model to issues in second language acquisition and suggests that the theory is useful both in explaining second language acquisition processes and in identifying areas in which research is needed.

The term formulaic sequence (FS) is used with a multiplicity of meanings in the SLA literature, some overlapping but others not, and researchers are not always clear in defining precisely what they are investigating, or in limiting the implicational domain of their findings to the type of formulaicity they focus on. The first part of the article provides a conceptual framework focusing on the contrast between linguistic or learner-external definitions, that is, what is formulaic in the language the learner is exposed to, such as idiomatic expressions or collocations, and psycholinguistic or learner-internal definitions, that is, what is formulaic within an individual learner because it presents a processing advantage. The second part focuses on the methodological consequences of adopting a learner-internal approach to the investigation of FSs, and examines the challenges presented by the identification of psycholinguistic formulaicity in advanced L2 learners, proposing a tool kit based on a hierarchical identification method.

The current study aims to make an initial neuroimaging contribution to central implicit-explicit issues in second language (L2) acquisition by considering how implicit and explicit contexts mediate the neural representation of L2. Focusing on implicit contexts, the study employs a longitudinal design to examine the neural representation of L2 syntax and also considers how the neural circuits underlying L2 syntax vary among learners who exhibit different levels of performance on linguistic and cognitive tasks. Results suggest that when exposed to a L2 under an implicit context, some learners are able to quickly rely on neural circuits associated with first language grammar and procedural memory, whereas other learners increasingly use extralinguistic neural circuits related to control mechanisms to process syntax. Thus, there may be multiple ways in which L2 is represented neurally, at least when learned under implicit contexts.

This article synthesizes the conclusions of the empirical studies in this special issue and outlines key questions in future research. The research reported in this volume has identified several fundamental issues in pronunciation-focused task design that are discussed in detail and on which suggestions for further research are outlined. One crucial issue is how attention to pronunciation resulting in language-related episodes effectively leads to robust gains in accuracy. Another important aspect discussed is the need to adapt task design features to the phonological domain under focus and how to incorporate systematic patterns of first language interference into the task structure. Finally, we propose that future research in task-based pronunciation teaching and second language phonetics and phonology should systematically examine learner factors known to affect task performance and task features established in the research domains of lexical and grammatical development.

Form-focused instruction studies generally report larger gains for explicit types of instruction over implicit types on measures of controlled production. Studies that used online processing measures—which do not readily allow for the application of explicit knowledge—however, suggest that this advantage occurs primarily when the target structure is similar in the first language (L1) and the second language (L2). This study investigated how explicit knowledge of a structure that does not exist in the L1 affects the initial stage of adult L2 acquisition. Fifty-one Dutch L1 speakers received a short auditory exposure (instruction) to a new language that included differential object marking (DOM), in which animate but not inanimate direct objects are preceded by a preposition. For 26 learners, the instruction was complemented by a brief rule explanation. Afterward, learners’ online processing and explicit knowledge of DOM were measured by means of eye-tracking (visual world paradigm) and oral grammaticality judgments. Results show that metalinguistic information promoted learners’ performance on the grammaticality judgment task. Although differences between the groups were also found on the eye-tracking measure, learners were not able to use DOM to predict the following object.

The development of the concept of word is discussed in terms of specific metalinguistic advantages that might be available to bilingual children when compared with their monolingual peers. Three studies are reviewed in which bilingual children show more advanced understanding of some aspects of the concept of word than do monolingual children. The specific advantages demonstrated by these three studies are summarized and related to processes in more general cognitive development.

Frequency and contingency (i.e., co-occurrence probability of words in multiword sequences [MWS]) are two driving forces of language acquisition and processing. Previous research has demonstrated that L1 and advanced L2 speakers are sensitive to phrasal frequency and contingency when processing larger-than-word units. However, it remains unclear whether such statistical sensitivity is robust across tasks and among subcategories of MWS. In addition, little is known about whether cognitive aptitudes can moderate such sensitivity. This study examined L1 and advanced L2 speakers’ statistical sensitivity to phrasal frequency and contingency as well as cognitive aptitudes’ moderating effects on such sensitivity when processing English adjective-noun collocations. Participants performed a phrasal acceptability judgment task (PJT). Meanwhile, their aptitude profiles were measured by six aptitude tests, which loaded separately onto implicit language aptitude, explicit language aptitude, and working memory capacity. Linear mixed-effects modeling revealed that both L1 and L2 English speakers were sensitive to phrasal frequency and contingency of collocations, although L2 speakers’ sensitivity was much stronger than that of L1 speakers. None of the aptitudes was found to moderate language users’ statistical sensitivity to either collocation frequency or contingency. Interestingly, disassociation patterns between the PJT performance and the involvement of implicit or explicit language aptitude among the L1 and L2 speakers were found. It was concluded that L1 and L2 speakers differed in terms of the way they processed the collocations, as well as the nature of their collocational knowledge.

This study examined whether musical training, ethnicity, and experience with a natural tone language influenced sensitivity to tone while listening to an artificial tone language. The language was designed with three tones, modeled after level-tone African languages. Participants listened to a 15-min random concatenation of six 3-syllable words. Sensitivity to tone was assessed using minimal pairs differing only in one syllable (nonword task: e.g., to-kà-su compared to ca-fí-to) or only in tone (tone task: e.g., to-kà-su compared to to-ká-su). Proficiency in an East Asian heritage language was the strongest predictor of success on the tone task. Asians without tone language experience were no better than other ethnic groups. We conclude by considering implications for research on second language learning, especially as approached through artificial language learning.

This study investigates the degree to which native-English-speaking learners of Spanish can generate expectations for information likely to occur in upcoming portions of an unfolding linguistic signal. We examine Spanish clitic left dislocation, a long-distance dependency between a topicalized object and an agreeing clitic, whose felicity depends on the discourse. Using a self-paced reading task, we tested the predictions of the shallow structure hypothesis (Clahsen & Felser, 2006a, 2006b) and the reduced ability to generate expectations hypothesis (Grüter, Rohde, & Schafer, 2014). Learners successfully demonstrated sensitivity to the violation of expectations set up by the syntactic and discourse context. In addition, the behavior of the second language (L2) learners was dependent on proficiency: the higher their proficiency, the more their behavior mirrored native-speaker processing. These results support a view of SLA in which knowledge of L2 discourse-grammatical relationships is acquired slowly over the course of L2 learning.

The relation between experimental psychology and second language acquisition research has gone through at least two major swings of the pendulum. During the heyday of behaviorism, the pendulum swung strongly toward psychology. The behaviorist psychologists advised us to think of language learning as nothing more than habit formation (Mowrer, 1960), and second language learning materials reflected an emphasis on repetition, drill, rewards, practice, and conditioning. During the early years of the cognitive revolution, Chomsky (1959) argued that viewing language as a conditioned response (Skinner, 1957) ignores the complexities of both language structure and cognition. Persuaded by these arguments, second language researchers turned away from behaviorist psychology and sought the explanation for language acquisition in universals of language structure (Dulay & Burt, 1974).

This study examined whether social bias manipulation can influence how naïve multiage listeners evaluate second language (L2) speech. Sixty native English-speaking listeners (Montreal residents) rated audio recordings of 40 Quebec French speakers of L2 English for five dimensions of oral performance (accentedness, comprehensibility, segmental accuracy, intonation, flow) using 1,000-point continuous scales. Immediately before rating, 20 listeners heard critical comments about Quebec French speakers’ English language skills, while 20 heard positive comments. Twenty listeners (baseline group) received no manipulation. Compared to baseline listeners, positively oriented listeners (younger and older) rated four of five dimensions more favorably. However, listeners’ behavior diverged under negative bias. Compared to age-matched baseline listeners, younger listeners upgraded speakers while older listeners downgraded speakers for all targeted measures. Findings cast doubt on the relative stability of L2 speech ratings and point to the importance of social context and generational differences in untrained rater assessments of L2 speaking performance.

This paper reports on a competition model experiment designed to investigate the sentence-processing strategies of English-speaking learners of Japanese (JFL learners) and Japanese-speaking learners of English. The participants were required to identify the sentence subject of a series of English and Japanese word strings, each consisting of one verb and two nouns, in which noun-animacy, word-order, and case-marking cues either competed or were consistent with each other. The results indicated a correlation between learners' proficiency in Japanese and case-marker dependency in Japanese strings. JFL learners primarily resorted to animacy cues to interpret Japanese strings, suggesting a prepotent role for lexical semantics. There was little evidence of transfer of surface word order, although some JFL learners resorted to the Japanese canonical SOV order to a greater extent than the native Japanese.

The present study investigated the potential benefits of extended exposure to captioned videos for second language pronunciation. We tested 90 L2 adult learners of English on speech processing skills (segmentation, speed of lexical access, and sentence processing) and phonological accuracy in perception (ABX discrimination) and production (accentedness ratings) before and after an 8-week treatment consisting of regular exposure to audiovisual materials. Participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions involving two viewing modes (captioned or uncaptioned) and two task focus conditions (focus on phonetic form or focus on meaning). Results showed benefits in speech segmentation and speech processing skills irrespective of viewing mode. No significant benefits were found for phonological accuracy in perception. In production, a focus on phonetic form improved pronunciation only in the absence of captions, whereas captioned viewing led to pronunciation gains as long as there was no focus on phonetic form. These findings suggest that pronunciation improvement can take place with the help of captions or, in the absence of captions, when learners’ attention is directed to pronunciation. Cognitive overload might explain why no benefits were obtained when attention was directed to pronunciation in a captioned viewing mode.

A large body of research has shown that suffixes—both inflectional and derivational—can be primed with adult native speakers, which informs our understanding of storage and access to morphology in mature systems. However, this line of research has not yet been conducted from an acquisition perspective: Little is known about whether or not representations of suffixes are formed after very little exposure to new morphology and, if so, about the nature of those representations or about the influence of attentional orientation and meaning at this initial stage. The three experiments reported here begin to address this gap by investigating the nature of suffixal representations following exposure to a small regular system of suffixed words. The experiment used crossmodal priming of recognition memory judgments to probe morphological representation. Although the lack of priming suggested that abstract morphological representations were not yet established, recognition judgments showed a clear sensitivity to sublexical morphemic units. The pattern of results was unaffected by the orientation of attention or the assignation of meaning to the words or suffixes during training. Offline tests of learning stem and suffix meanings also showed that both were learned to some extent even when attention was not oriented to their meanings and that the resulting knowledge was partially implicit. Thus, there was evidence of sensitivity to both the forms and meanings of the suffixes but not at the level required to support crossmodal priming. We argue that the reason for this may lie in the episodic nature of the knowledge gained after brief exposure.

This longitudinal study investigates the effect of mode of reading on the incidental learning of collocations and factors that affect learning. One hundred Vietnamese pre-intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were assigned to either an experimental group or a control group (no treatment). In 9 weeks, the experimental group read three graded readers containing 32 target collocations in three counterbalanced reading modes: reading-only, reading-while-listening, and reading with textual input enhancement (i.e., underlining). Learning gains were measured by a form recall pretest and delayed posttest. The results showed that reading mode had a significant effect on incidental collocation learning. Reading with textual input enhancement resulted in significantly higher learning gains than the other reading modes. Reading-while-listening was also more beneficial for collocation learning than reading-only. Learners’ prior vocabulary knowledge and congruency of collocations were significant predictors of the learning gains.

This paper seeks to resolve certain questions pertaining to the relationship between gender and second language vocabulary knowledge. One question we examine is whether female and male ESL students at the University of California at Irvine differ significantly in their knowledge of academic vocabulary in English as measured by scores on the Test of Academic Lexicon (TAL). One hundred ninety-two freshman university ESL students participated in the study. A t test, used to investigate differences in the TAL scores of males and females, reveals that the males performed better on the TAL than the females (t = 3.32, p = .001). Analyses of covariance were used to examine questions pertaining to the effect of gender on the TAL, controlling for the possible effects of the students' verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, length of residence in the United States, and age of arrival in the United States. In all cases, gender remains significantly related to the results of the TAL when controlling for the other variable: for verbal SAT scores, F(1,181) = 5.86, p < .05; for length of residence, F(1,187) = 9.64, p < .01; and for age of arrival in the United States, F(1,185) = 10.22, p < .005. Neither the present study nor the gender literature reviewed suggests that gender itself causes differences in the TAL scores. In analyzing the results, we consider possible explanations for the males' better TAL scores related to reading habits, interactional styles, educational backgrounds, and cultures.

Studies have shown that less fluent non-native readers cannot make full use of semantic-level cues. Non-natives direct proportionately more attention than natives to syntactic and graphophonic information. This study asked whether a similar difference would be found between native and non-native listeners. Three groups were tested: native English-speakers and advanced and intermediate non-natives. After hearing a text, subjects were given a 55-item cloze test. It was hypothesized that with a subject's increased proficiency in the language, processing would show progressively greater attention to semantic than to syntactic or phonological cues. The cloze test was scored using a diagnostic scoring procedure developed by Clarke and Burdell (1977). Results confirmed the hypothesis. Semantically acceptable responses increased progressively for intermediate, advanced, and native groups, while responses based on syntactic structure decreased.