Studies in Second Language Acquisition最新文献

This methodological synthesis surveys study and instrument quality in L2 pronunciation research by scrutinizing methodological practices in designing and employing scales and rubrics that measure accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility. A comprehensive coding scheme was developed, and searches were conducted in several databases. A total of 380 articles (409 samples) that employed 576 target instruments and appeared in peer-reviewed journals from 1977 to 2023 were synthesized. Results demonstrated, among other findings, strengths in reporting several listener and speaker characteristics. Areas in need of improvement include (a) more thorough evaluation and reporting of interrater reliability and instrument validity and (b) greater adherence to methodological transparency and open science practices. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for researchers and researcher trainers; by raising awareness of methodological and ethical challenges in psychometric research on L2 speech perception; and by providing recommendations for advancing the quality of instruments in this domain.

As the field of heritage language acquisition expands, there is a need for proficiency to compare speakers across groups and studies. Elicited imitation tasks (EITs) are efficient cost-effective tasks with a long tradition in proficiency assessment of second language (L2) learners, first language children, and adults. However, little research has investigated their use with heritage speakers (HSs), despite their oral nature, which makes them appropriate for speakers with variable literacy skills. This study is a partial replication of Solon, Park, Dehghan-Chaleshtori, Carver & Long (2022), who administered an EIT originally developed for advanced L2 learners on a group of HSs. In this study, we administered the same EIT with minor modifications to 70 HSs and 132 L2 learners of Spanish with different levels of proficiency and ran a Rasch analysis to evaluate the functioning of the task with the two groups. To obtain concurrent validity evidence, scores on the EIT were compared with participants’ performance in an oral narration; evaluated for complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF); and compared with a standardized oral proficiency test, the Versant Spanish Test. Results of Rasch analyses showed that the EIT was effective at distinguishing different levels of ability for both groups, and analyses showed moderate to strong correlations between CAF measures and the EIT and very strong correlations between the EIT and the Versant Spanish Test. These results provide evidence that the EIT is an efficient and adequate proficiency test for HSs and L2 learners of Spanish; its use in research settings is recommended.

This paper reports an expansion of the English as a second language (L2) component of the Multilingual Eye Movement Corpus (MECO L2), an international database of eye movements during text reading. While the previous Wave 1 of the MECO project (Kuperman et al., 2023) contained English as a L2 reading data from readers with 12 different first language (L1) backgrounds, the newly collected dataset adds eye-tracking data on English text reading from 13 distinct L1 backgrounds (N = 660) as well as participants’ scores on component skills of English proficiency and information about their demographics and language background and use. The paper reports reliability estimates, descriptive statistics, and correlational analyses as means to validate the expansion dataset. Consistent with prior literature and the MECO Wave 1, trends in the MECO Wave 2 data include a weak correlation between reading comprehension and oculomotor measures of reading fluency and a greater L1-L2 contrast in reading fluency than reading comprehension. Jointly with Wave 1, the MECO project includes English reading data from more than 1,200 readers representing a diversity of native writing systems (logographic, abjad, abugida, and alphabetic) and 19 distinct L1 backgrounds. We provide multiple pointers to new venues of how L2 reading researchers can mine this rich publicly available dataset.

This paper responds to Al-Hoorie, Hiver, and In’nami’s (2024) critique of the second language (L2) Motivational Self System (L2MSS) by advocating for an immediate cessation of its use in the absence of substantial revision and validation. We revisit foundational studies in the tradition, exposing critical methodological flaws that we feel undermine empirical support for the model. Further, we examine systemic factors that contributed to the largely uncritical acceptance of the model. Drawing on our own experiences, we reflect on how these dynamics have obstructed the adoption of more robust motivational theories available in psychology and education. We further caution that without a stronger emphasis on validating measurement instruments, similar distractions may continue to hinder progress in the field.

Growing evidence suggests that ratings of second language (L2) speech may be influenced by perceptions of speakers’ affective states, yet the size and direction of these effects remain underexplored. To investigate these effects, 83 raters evaluated 30 speech samples using 7-point scales of four language features and ten affective states. The speech samples were 2-min videorecordings from a high-stakes speaking test. An exploratory factor analysis reduced the affect scores to three factors: assuredness, involvement, and positivity. Regression models indicated that affect variables predicted spoken language feature ratings, explaining 18–27% of the variance in scores. Assuredness and involvement corresponded with all language features, while positivity only predicted comprehensibility scores. These findings suggest that listeners’ perceptions of speakers’ affective states intertwine with their spoken language ratings to form a visual component of second-language communication. The study has implications for models of L2 speech, language pedagogy, and assessment practice.

This study explored how second language (L2) speakers’ use of multiword sequences in speech predicted perceived fluency ratings while controlling for their utterance fluency. A total of 102 Japanese speakers of English delivered an argumentative speech, which was analyzed for bigram and trigram measures (frequency, proportion, and mutual information) and utterance fluency measures capturing three subdimensions: speed, breakdown, and repair fluency (Tavakoli & Skehan, 2005). Perceived fluency was assessed by 10 experienced L2 raters. Mixed-effects regression analyses revealed that after establishing the parsimonious model solely by UF predictors (marginal R2 = .61), a frequency-based n-gram predictor––bigram proportion––slightly but significantly explained the remaining variance of fluency rating scores (0.8%). The results indicated that multiword sequences in speech had a small but systematic impact on perceived fluency, even controlling for the effects of utterance fluency. This finding contributes to the discussion concerning the role of multiword sequences in fluent speech production.