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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This study examined individual-level variability in N400 and P600 ERP correlates of native and nonnative language sentence processing of semantic and grammar information. Twenty-six native English-speaking learners of Spanish as a second language were tested. Participants completed sentence reading tasks in English and Spanish during EEG recording. The group-level results for grammar showed P600s in the native and nonnative language. For semantics, there was an N400 only in the native language. Individual-level ERP patterns revealed that, for native language semantics, about two thirds of participants showed N400s, but approximately one-third showed P600s. For native language grammar, approximately one third of participants exhibited N400s instead of P600s. Individual-level ERPs showed similar variability in the nonnative language for semantics and grammar, and N400/P600 variability in Spanish related to Spanish verbal fluency and grammar knowledge. This contributes knowledge of how nonnative and native language neurocognition compare regarding the processing routes that individuals use during comprehension.

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.

The current study examined cognitive effects of two pathways of second language (L2) acquisition longitudinally in Chinese speakers learning English in an L2-dominant environment. Thirty-nine participants who attended an intensive 10-week English course (L2-instruction group) were compared to 38 participants who attended regular university courses taught in English (L2-immersion group). Four repeated assessments were conducted over 10 weeks: precourse (baseline) and postcourse assessments, and two interim assessments every 3 weeks. Both groups matched on background variables (e.g., intelligence) and showed comparable cognitive performance in all measures at the baseline. The longitudinal results showed a similar improvement in both groups for most cognitive measures, such as visual and auditory inhibition. The only significant group difference was observed in the auditory inhibition test, where the L2-instruction group outperformed the L2-immersion group. Taken together, our results suggest a specific effect of language experience and an overall effect of linguistic context on cognitive functions.

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.

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).

Previous research identified that studying texts in a second language (L2) as opposed to the first (L1) results in substantially weaker recall. We hypothesized that use of advance organizers (AOs) might attenuate this L2 recall cost by supporting L2 users in the construction of more solid memory representations. One hundred Dutch-English bilinguals studied two texts in either L1 or L2, and with or without the help of a mind map. The previously reported L2 cost was replicated, with lower recall scores in L2 relative to L1. Whereas L1 and L2 students were equally aided by AO use, the initial cost dissipated when comparing L2 test scores in the AO condition with those of L1 in the non-AO condition. We therefore conclude that employing AOs does not entirely diminish L2 disadvantages but brings L2 students up to the initial level of L1 students.

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.