The speech of second language learners is often influenced by phonetic patterns of their first language. This can make them difficult to understand, but sometimes for listeners of the same first language to a lesser extent than for native listeners. The present study investigates listeners’ awareness of the accent by asking whether accented speech is not only more intelligible but also more acceptable to nonnative than native listeners. English native speakers and German learners rated the goodness of words spoken by other German learners. Production quality was determined by measuring acoustic differences between minimal pairs with “easy” versus “difficult” sounds. Higher proficient learners were more sensitive to differences in production quality and between easy and difficult sounds, patterning with native listeners. Lower proficient learners did not perceive such differences. Perceiving accented productions as good instances of L2 words may hinder development because the need for improvement may not be obvious.

This study tests native Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers of second language (L2) Spanish in the domain of phonologically null object pronouns. This is a worthwhile first language (L1)-L2 pairing given that these languages are historically and typologically related and both seemingly allow for object drop. Nevertheless, the underlying syntax of phonologically null object pronouns is distinct in each language, resulting in differences in their respective syntactic reflexes. We pursue whether or not it is more difficult to acquire new syntactic structure for a L2 property that, on the surface, is shared by the L1. In other words, we explore whether advanced BP learners of L2 Spanish will be successful in the acquisition of Spanish object drop to the same degree as English learners and European Portuguese learners who were previously shown by Bruhn de Garavito and Guijarro-Fuentes (2001) to be quite successful. By means of a scalar grammaticality judgment task with context, we examine competence of the Spanish restrictions on the distribution of dropped objects that differ from BP in various syntactic positions (e.g., simple clauses vs. strong islands) while alternating the Spanish-specific semantic variable of definiteness as determined by the context. The data show that the semantic alternations are acquired as well as the new syntax; however, such acquisition does not guarantee preemption of the L1 syntactic option, which may result in target-deviant variability. We discuss the data in light of what they bring to bear on questions pertinent to formal SLA theory.

This study compared younger and older adult monolingual English speakers and bilingual (English/Spanish) speakers on aspects of language learning aptitude, specifically, measures of auditory perception and memory span, in English and Spanish. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed no age difference in auditory memory span in English; however, both older and younger bilinguals performed better than monolinguals on these tasks. Younger subjects performed better than older subjects on measures of auditory perception in English. Older and younger monolinguals performed similarly on a measure of auditory memory span in Spanish, whereas younger monolinguals demonstrated more accuracy on Spanish perception tasks. The Spanish proficiency of the younger bilinguals far exceeded that of the older bilinguals, and their performance was better on measures of auditory memory and perception in Spanish even when differences in proficiency were statistically controlled. However, a comparison of subgroups of older and younger bilinguals showing a similar level of Spanish proficiency revealed that the performance of the older bilinguals approached fairly closely the performance of the younger subjects on the Spanish auditory memory and perception tasks.

Artificial linguistic systems (ALSs) offer many potential benefits for second language acquisition (SLA) research. Nonetheless, their use in experiments with posttest-only designs can give rise to internal validity problems depending on the baseline that is employed to establish evidence of learning. Researchers in this area often compare experimental groups’ performance against (a) statistical chance, (b) untrained control groups’ performance, and/or (c) trained control groups’ performance. However, each of these methods can involve unwarranted tacit assumptions, limitations, and challenges from a variety of sources (e.g., preexisting perceptual biases, participants’ fabrication of rules, knowledge gained during the test), any of which might produce systematic response patterns that overlap with the linguistic target even in the absence of learning during training. After illustrating these challenges, we offer some brief recommendations regarding how triangulation and more sophisticated statistical approaches may help researchers to draw more appropriate conclusions going forward.

This study examines how dominance and proficiency relate to Spanish heritage speaker vowel productions. Participants’ normalized vowel measurements were compared to nonheritage native speakers of Spanish and English using the Pillai score, an output of Multivariate Analysis of Variances (MANOVAs) that allows comparisons across distributions of two or more dependent variables. With Pillai scores as the dependent variable, we created two multiple regression models for each language, one with factors related to dominance, one with factors related to proficiency. We use commonality analysis (variance partitioning) to determine the unique and shared contribution of each variable to the regression models. The results showed different patterns of unique and shared variance across English and Spanish for the factors related to dominance and also for proficiency. Given this, we maintain that it is important to preserve dominance and proficiency as separate but related constructs when considering heritage speaker linguistic data.

This article examines alternating verbs (such as quemar(se) “to burn”) in second language (L2) Spanish by considering the learnability problem from a sequence learning perspective (N. Ellis, 1996, 2002). In Spanish, verbs of the alternating class are obligatorily marked with the clitic se in their intransitive form. Errors of omission among English-speaking learners, who transfer zero-derived morphology from their native language, have been previously documented (Montrul, 2000). This study also examines a different kind of error—overgeneralization of se to transitive event scenes—that is hypothesized to result from chunking se with particular lexical items. The results of a picture description task reveal that learners frequently make this type of overgeneralization error, but that they are able to recover from it at more advanced levels of proficiency. These findings suggest that the acquisition of L2 morphosyntax is shaped by learners' familiarity with individual lexical items and the sequences in which they tend to appear.This study forms part of my dissertation research and was presented at AAAL in Portland, Oregon, in May 2004. I acknowledge the generous support of the University of California, Davis and the Humanities Research Grant that allowed me to conduct this research. I wish to thank Robert Blake for his guidance during the data collection phase of the project, Susan Gass and Charlene Polio for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article, and Lourdes Sánchez González for helping me collect the native-speaker data. The comments and suggestions of three anonymous SSLA reviewers were also tremendously useful. All remaining errors are my own. %Address correspondence to Eve Zyzik, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Michigan State University, 334 Old Horticulture Building, East Lansing, MI 48824; e-mail: zyzik@msu.edu.

Within sociocultural theory, and particularly from a Vygotskian perspective, private speech refers to speech-for-the-self, as opposed to social speech. Private speech is a crucial window on how language mediates and regulates thought processes (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). In the case of second language (L2) learning, the use of private speech, whether in the first language (L1) or L2, facilitates engagement with the L2 in relation to personal learning needs (e.g., studying for an exam, the task in the current study). Another, more recent area of investigation within L2 learning and sociocultural theory focuses on how forms of gesture mediate and regulate thought as well. This study examines how these forms of mediation operate in a dialogic capacity. Seven adult Korean-English bilingual students at a North American university were video- and audio-recorded during 3 h of solitary exam preparation in a private room. In microdiscourse analyses, participants are shown to use gestures together with private speech as a form of dialogic interaction with the self in cognitive activities for self-regulation.

This paper focuses on the acquisition of new word formation devices in the target language as an indication of near-native competence at the advanced level of second language acquisition. The study reported here is based on data collected via written questionnaires consisting of three parts: (a) a production task requiring respondents to suggest innovations for nouns that have not been named in the existing lexicon; (b) an evaluation task requiring respondents to select the most appropriate innovation; (c) an interpretation task requiring respondents to interpret innovative blends. The questionnaires were administered to native speakers of Hebrew (the target language) and to two groups of learners, one advanced and the other intermediate. The findings show that the advanced group has reached a level of target language competence that enables them to produce and evaluate innovations in ways that approximate native speakers' responses, whereas the intermediate students deviate considerably from target level competence. The acquisition of word formation devices in the target language is presented as a gradual acquisition process.

The present meta-analysis aimed to improve on Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) by incorporating it into a broader framework that predicts incidental vocabulary learning. Studies testing the ILH were systematically collected and 42 studies meeting our inclusion criteria were analyzed. The model-selection approach was used to determine the optimal statistical model (i.e., a set of predictor variables) that best predicts learning gains. Following previous findings, we investigated whether the prediction of the ILH improved by (a) examining the influence of each level of individual ILH components (need, search, and evaluation), (b) adopting optimal operationalization of the ILH components and test format grouping, and (c) including other empirically motivated variables. Results showed that the resulting models explained a greater variance in learning gains. Based on the models, we created incidental vocabulary learning formulas. Using these formulas, one can calculate the effectiveness index of activities to predict their relative effectiveness more accurately on incidental vocabulary learning.

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.

Why are crosslinguistic generalizations like the noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH) relevant to our understanding of language acquisition? The answer to this question relies on our view of language universals. In generative linguistics, it is commonly assumed that language universals are based on innate linguistic knowledge. In this approach, languages share some of their basic grammatical properties because the core of human grammar is innate (Crain & Pietroski, 2001). However, this view of linguistic nativism is incompatible with what we know about the neurological foundations of the human mind: Although language has genetic prerequisites, it is biologically implausible that these prerequisites consist of prespecified categories and constraints (Quartz & Sejnowski, 1997).

The study of language loss—or language attrition—was recognized as a field in 1980, when the University of Pennsylvania hosted the first conference ever on the theme. Most of the contributions to this conference stressed the need for systematic empirical investigation of the phenomenon of language attrition, which everybody seems to know about, but which very few scientists had actually looked into.

As survey research in second language acquisition grows in popularity, the adherence to best practices associated with questionnaire quality is critical for a better understanding of factors that influence second language (L2) development. To ensure that a self-report scale targets the construct of interest and does it consistently and accurately, authors of primary research should demonstrate that their instrument possesses acceptable evidence of validity and reliability. To this end, this methodological synthesis focused on the state of scale quality in L2 anxiety and willingness to communicate (WTC) research by examining key methodological issues of quantitative survey research and offering empirically grounded suggestions for future studies. A close examination of 232 peer-reviewed articles that used 385 L2 anxiety and WTC scales demonstrated, among other findings, the lack of evidence for scale content and construct validity. The implications of this study contribute to concurrent attempts at methodological reform in applied linguistics.

L2 sounds present different kinds of challenges to learners at the phonetic, phonological, and lexical levels, but previous studies on L2 tone learning mostly focused on the phonetic and lexical levels. The present study employs an innovative technique to examine the role of prior tonal experience and musical training on forming novel abstract syllable-level tone categories. Eighty Cantonese and English musicians and nonmusicians completed two tasks: (a) AX tone discrimination and (b) incidental learning of artificial tone-segment connections (e.g., words beginning with an aspirated stop always carry a rising tone) with synthesized stimuli modeled on Thai. Although the four participant groups distinguished the target tones similarly well, Cantonese speakers showed abstract and implicit knowledge of the target tone-segment mappings after training but English speakers did not, regardless of their musical experience. This suggests that tone language experience, but not musical experience, is crucial for forming novel abstract syllable-level tone categories.

Evidence for the role of procedural memory in second language (L2) acquisition has emerged in our field. However, little is known about the reliability and validity of the procedural memory measures used in this research. The present study (N = 119) examined the reliability and the convergent and discriminant validity of three assessments that have previously been used to examine procedural memory learning ability in L2 acquisition, the dual-task Weather Prediction Task (DT-WPT), the Alternating Serial Reaction Time Task (ASRT), and the Tower of London (TOL). Measures of declarative memory learning ability were also collected. For reliability, the DT-WPT and TOL tasks met acceptable standards. For validity, an exploratory factor analysis did not provide evidence for convergent validity, but the ASRT and the TOL showed reasonable discriminant validity with declarative memory measures. We argue that the ASRT may provide the purest engagement of procedural memory learning ability, although more reliable dependent measures for this task should be considered. The Serial Reaction Time task also appears promising, although we recommend further consideration of this task as the present analyses were post hoc and based on a smaller sample. We discuss these results regarding the assessment of procedural memory learning ability as well as implications for implicit language aptitude.

Analysis of multilingual acquisition processes in the European School of Brussels reveals how both curricular and extra-curricular factors combine to account for high levels of proficiency in three or four languages. The school operates in seven languages, and all pupils must learn at least three, though the combination is open to choice. Curricular design ties in with the prerequisites for success as posited in Cummins' (1981, 1984) Interaction Hypothesis, Krashen's (1982) Input Hypothesis, and Swain's (1983) Output Hypothesis. These alone do not account for the high levels of achievement attested, because they do not include the extra-curricular factors which provide the essential supplementary conditions for active, productive use of a given language in meaningful two-way negotiation among peers. Schumann's (1979) Acculturation Model allows one to tap this primordial extra-curricular factor, even though it was not designed for an educational context. Four soft techniques were used to test the hypotheses: participant observation, written questionnaires, informal interviews, and open-ended formal interviews based on a 26-item questionnaire (N = 8). Results indicate that only Schumann's model can bring to the fore whether self-initiated meaningful two-way negotiation is used as a supplement to formal instruction in a multilingual environment; they also show how social and psychological distance tie in with curricular structure to enhance the acquisition process.

This study acoustically analyzed the production of single and geminate stops in Japanese by English-speaking children (N = 19) at three different grade levels in a Japanese immersion program. Results show that both their singletons and geminates were significantly longer than those of Japanese monolinguals and the bilinguals' immersion teachers, but all of the immersion groups have acquired the contrast between the two types of stop. This finding supports Flege's (1995) hypothesis that a phonetic category established for second language sounds by a bilingual might differ from that of a monolingual. Additionally, 52 native speakers of Japanese rated the contrast between the two stops produced by all of the bilingual children and a subset of the monolingual children. The accent ratings suggest that the contrast made by the immersion children was not nativelike despite some individual differences in their performance and that there was no statistical difference in accent ratings across the grade levels. The degree of the contrast correlated fairly highly with the closure duration ratio of geminates to singletons.Part of this article was presented at the 2000 AAAL Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia and the 2001 AAAL Conference, St. Louis, MO. I would like to thank Dr. R. Campbell, Dr. M. Celce-Murcia, Dr. S. Guion, Dr. S. Iwasaki, and Dr. S.-A. Jun as well as the anonymous SSLA reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. I am also grateful to the children and their teachers for their participation in this study, without whom it would not have been possible.