Language Learning最新文献

Additional language (L2/Ln) research largely focuses on learners whose first languages are spoken and who are learning additional spoken languages. In the past few decades, sign languages have become increasingly popular for hearing students in schools. These students must not only learn the vocabulary and grammar of sign languages but also manage a different modality (that is, the channels of production and reception of language) than their first language. This raises questions about the role of both language and modality in the L2/Ln learning of sign languages for non-signers. In other cases, deaf and hearing signers of a sign language learn a different sign language, raising questions about L2/Ln learning in the signed modality. This Special Issue consists of empirical contributions and a conceptual review article that examine how language and modality shape the learning of sign languages as additional languages. Theoretical issues concerning learning a sign language as another language are discussed.

Foreign language classrooms have historically used classroom lecture-based approaches for instruction. However, the flipped pedagogical approach was recently introduced into foreign language and other classrooms. Studies of the flipped classroom approach in spoken L2 classrooms have generally found a positive impact on student learning outcomes, perceptions and satisfaction compared with the traditional classroom approach. Cripps et al. (2021) found no difference in student learning outcomes and satisfaction between L2 American Sign Language traditional and flipped classrooms each taught by two different instructors. This study is a partial replication of Cripps et al. (2021) with both classes taught by the same instructor, using the traditional classroom data from the original study and comparing it to new data from the same instructor teaching in the flipped approach. Results show no major differences, suggesting that the flipped classroom approach is as viable as the traditional classroom approach regardless of the instructor.

Second language acquisition (SLA) research offers valuable insight on how languages are learned and how they coexist and influence each other. Sign language learners offer unique perspectives on SLA, allowing researchers to test theories that are otherwise constrained by access to only one modality. Current literature on sign language learning focuses primarily on bimodal bilinguals, mostly hearing adults learning their first sign language (M2L2 learners). However, other groups of L2 signers exist, including deaf learners who have previously acquired a sign language and are learning a new one (M1L2 learners). M1L2 acquisition offers unique insights into complex interactions including multilingualism, modality, and timing of acquisition. We argue that M1L2 signers are a key comparison group for investigations of various L2 and so-called modality effects and also represent a crucial test case for re-examining the traditional constructs of “native speaker/signer” and the effects of initial language delay or deprivation on subsequent language acquisition.

Statistical learning is a learning mechanism that does not directly depend on knowledge of a language but predicts language and literacy outcomes for children and adults. Research linking statistical learning and literacy has not addressed a common educational context in primary schools worldwide: children who first learn to read in their second language (L2). Several studies have linked statistical learning with childhood literacy in Australia, China, Europe, and the United States, and we preregistered an adaptation for Côte d'Ivoire, where students are educated in French and speak a local language at home. We recruited 117 sixth-graders from primary schools in several villages and tested for correlations greater than .30 between statistical learning and literacy with 80–90% power. We found no evidence for these correlations between statistical learning and literacy, but visual statistical learning was correlated with L2 phonological awareness, a crucial emergent-literacy skill. This finding underscores the need to include L2 acquisition contexts in literacy research.