Language Learning最新文献

The present study investigates whether congruency facilitation and figurative interference—two counteractive effects—persist in L2 collocational processing when both congruency and figurativeness are present. A primed lexical decision task was administered to 44 L1-Chinese L2-English learners and 40 L1-English speakers to assess response times for figurative congruent collocations, along with their matched literal congruent and figurative incongruent collocations. Results showed that while collocational priming was absent, both congruency facilitation and figurative interference emerged, with their effects modulated by L2 proficiency. Specifically, in low-proficiency learners, congruency facilitation appeared to outweigh figurative interference, whereas in high-proficiency learners, figurative interference became more pronounced as L1-based facilitation was suppressed. These findings suggest that L2 learners initially rely on their activated L1 semantic network but gradually shift toward developing L2 collocational representations as proficiency increases, though these representations may remain weak and insufficient to facilitate collocate access.

This study explores how word frequency affects verb-mediated prediction in L1 and L2 speakers, using a visual-world eye-tracking task. By manipulating frequency of nouns within subjects (higher; lower) and type of verbs used as predictive cues (semantically restrictive; neutral) in sentences (e.g., The {doctor/surgeon} {opened/moved} the box), we investigated the impact of frequency of early-processed words on prediction, hypothesizing that higher-frequency words might free up cognitive resources, thus facilitating lexical retrieval, integration with a subsequent predictive cue, and ultimately prediction. Results showed that both L1 and L2 speakers predicted the target object upon hearing restrictive verbs. However, the L2 group showed such a predictive behavior only when the sentences contained higher-frequency subjects, whereas the L1 group did so in both conditions but faster with higher-frequency subjects. These results suggest L2 learners’ sound ability to generate predictions, and underscore the importance of word frequency in facilitating both L1 and L2 prediction.

Analyses in vocabulary research should avoid the language-as-a-fixed-effect fallacy, whereby no statistical evidence is provided to support claimed generalizations beyond the words tested in the sample. Although mixed-effects models are widely adopted in social sciences to avoid this fallacy, second language vocabulary researchers primarily conduct potentially problematic fixed-effects analyses. In the present study, two published vocabulary studies relying on fixed-effects modeling were re-analyzed with generalized linear mixed-effects models (GLMMs). Consistent with prior research comparing these approaches, effect sizes in the GLMMs were reduced by 36% to nearly 80%. Crucially, one study's claims were not fully substantiated with GLMM re-analysis. The findings suggest that second language vocabulary researchers should strongly consider mixed-effect models to avoid the language-as-a-fixed-effect fallacy. Furthermore, replications of earlier studies that employed fixed-effects only analyses should be conducted to verify that their effect sizes were not overstated.

Instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) inquiry emphasizes the ways in which systematic manipulation of learning conditions may facilitate second language (L2) acquisition. ISLA research has tended to prioritize grammar and vocabulary over pronunciation. However, an increase in classroom-based pronunciation research has begun to address this oversight. Within ISLA inquiry, themes of interest include (a) the extent to which instruction effectively promotes pronunciation development, (b) the types of instruction that may be more effective than others, and (c) the elements of pronunciation that may be more amenable to instruction than others. In the current paper, we first provide a state-of-the-art review of existing L2 pronunciation-based ISLA research. We next highlight avenues of future research we believe will benefit our understanding of the interaction between instructional approaches and L2 pronunciation development. Finally, in support of calls for increased research-pedagogy dialogue, we provide a set of research-informed teaching tips for L2 pronunciation instructors to consider.

A one-page Accessible Summary of this article in nontechnical language is freely available in the Supporting Information online and at https://oasis-database.org.

This response to the commentaries on our conceptual review article on structural complexity and learning difficulty in second language acquisition (SLA) clarifies the scope and objectives of our framework, the challenges of defining and measuring complexity and difficulty, and the broader relevance of our proposal for both empirical research and theory building in SLA, including its relationships to frameworks such as complexity–accuracy–fluency (CAF).

We employed structural priming to test whether targeted exposure to unambiguous form–meaning mappings led to learning of noncanonical word orders, specifically in object relative clauses, among 165 low-to-intermediate-level L1 German L2 learners of English. We further investigated the scope of structural priming by assessing whether priming with related grammatical structures that had been acquired earlier, namely English questions or German relative clauses, similarly led to learning of L2 English object relative clauses. Based on the assumption that relative clauses and questions are related at the level of sentence processing, we tested whether priming went hand in hand with processing changes, as assessed in visual-world eye tracking. Results showed that learning generalized from L2 questions to L2 relative clauses via cumulative and longer-term priming. In contrast, there was no priming from L1 relative clauses. Longer-term L2 priming co-occurred with changes in initial sentence processing, suggesting that prediction errors may drive learning via priming.

Prior research suggests that second language (L2) proficiency is key in students’ study progress, but this research has mainly been carried out at universities. It is thus unclear how this relation varies across different educational levels. Moreover, previous studies are often not informative about the causality of this relation, making it difficult to base intervention policies on these studies. To address these shortcomings, we analyze a large historical registry dataset of examinees of the L2 Dutch state exam between 2011 and 2023 (n = 12,664). First, we map out the statistical dependency between language proficiency and examinees’ study success. Next, using graphical approaches to causal inference, we estimate the effect of a hypothetical intervention: Would an increase in language proficiency affect study success rates? We replicate the relation between language proficiency and study success in university students, but it does not generalize to students in applied universities or vocational programs.

The current study investigated from a usage-based perspective how phrasal frequency and collocational strength of verb–preposition collocations influence preposition placement in wh-relative clauses. Native English speakers and Chinese learners of English as a second language of the intermediate and advanced English proficiencies completed a sentence completion task and an acceptability judgment task. The results showed that native and nonnative speakers had an overall preference for preposition stranding. Native speakers had a stronger acceptance of preposition pied-piping than nonnative speakers; advanced learners had a stronger acceptance of pied-piping than intermediate learners. The collocational strengths of verb–preposition combinations had a significant effect on the productive use and acceptability of preposition placement for both native speakers and advanced learners. Intermediate learners’ preposition placement was more affected by phrasal frequency. Overall, the findings confirm that the distributional properties of verb–preposition collocations influence speakers’ preference for the type of wh-clause structure, which provides strong support to the usage-based account of grammar analysis and grammar acquisition.

This study investigates how distributional cues are integrated into the mental representation of the as-predicative construction by English native and nonnative speakers, drawing on associative learning theory. We examined speakers’ constructional retrieval when given a verbal cue (Experiment 1) and their verb retrieval when given a constructional cue (Experiment 2). Speakers concurrently integrated both cues in their construction retrieval but not in their verb retrieval. Between-group differences were also found, alongside distinct effects of verb frequency and voice. A question is therefore raised about the integration of distributional cues in forward versus backward retrieval of linguistic information, though we maintain that constructional categories partially emerge as a result of distributional information hinging on ΔP theory. We highlight the need for more comprehensive research, particularly in relation to crosslinguistic differences and the role of second language proficiency, and we offer an alternative statistical perspective by adopting a Bayesian approach to logistic and negative binomial mixed-effects modeling.

Seeing written forms of novel words during learning can help memorize vocabulary, but it may alter pronunciation, especially when orthography is opaque like in English. This study investigated whether a color-code helps participants learn novel words with unpredictable pronunciation. Sixty Spanish speakers learned 16 English-like pseudowords in one of three training conditions. Audio group learned training items with the auditory word form only. Two other groups learned items with auditory and written forms, with a color-code (ColorCode group) or with random colors (RandColor group). Elicited speech samples from each group were assessed for recall and pronunciation accuracy. ColorCode group outperformed other groups on pronunciation in posttest tasks including reading training items in black text, and reading color-coded untrained items. Color-code benefits even strengthened one week later. These findings indicate that a color-code can support pronunciation learning in languages with opaque orthography and should be more systematically implemented in learning resources.