Task-based pronunciation teaching studies have shown that the cognitive complexity of a task affects different aspects of second language (L2) speech, such as vowel accuracy and comprehensibility. However, its impact on L2 speech rhythm is still under-researched, especially in spontaneous pronunciation-unfocused tasks. In this study, we first investigated how task complexity influences L2 speech rhythm, and we then explored how L2 speech rhythm metrics might predict global pronunciation proficiency (comprehensibility and accentedness). Eighty-two Spanish/Catalan bilingual learners of English and a control group of eight native speakers (NSs) completed a simple and a complex version of an adapted monologic decision-making task. Oral production data were analysed using well-established rhythm metrics (%V, VarcoV, nPVI-V, and VarcoC), novel distance measures (Euclidean and Mahalanobis distance scores) and ratings from 13 English NSs. Results showed differential task complexity effects on L2 speech rhythm depending on the rhythm metrics and distance measures considered. Additionally, the %V rhythm metric and the Mahalanobis distance measure accounted for a modest amount of variance in both comprehensibility and accentedness scores, with Mahalanobis distances having a more reliable predicting power. The outcomes of this study point to the importance of further examining the role of task complexity in L2 speech rhythm in spontaneous speech and to what extent L2 speech rhythm is related to global measures of L2 pronunciation proficiency. These findings also highlight the need for identifying which rhythm metrics are more suitable to depict L2 speech elicited through different methods, particularly spontaneous speech.

This article draws attention to the obstacles created by imprecise definitions and misleading dichotomies. In this case the focus is on second language and multilingualism research literature. Despite the obvious benefits of reformulating otherwise complex ideas and approaches in simpler terms in order to distill their essential meaning, misunderstandings and misrepresentations can too easily arise. These can then proliferate within and beyond these research fields and hinder productive debates between proponents of different theoretical approaches. A selection of classic examples relating to issues of language cognition are discussed in this article. They include definitions of terms like cognitive, nativist, innatist, interactionist, usage-based, and dynamic. Simple contrasts introduced to improve readability and to introduce a longer discussion can become highly misleading where the context fails to include clarification. Incorrect inferences may otherwise be drawn by less well-informed readers. In other cases, dichotomies can be just wrong. We discuss the choice and phrasing of various terms and distinctions and argue that more care is needed by all involved. Discussions can still be carried out in a combative style if discussants so wish but not to the point of introducing conceptual confusion in debates that should serve to advance understanding in second language acquisition research.

The cognitive entrenchment of frequent sequences comes as ‘chunking’ (holistic storage) and as ‘procedure strengthening’ (predicting elements in a sequence). A growing body of research shows effects of entrenchment of multi-word sequences in the native language, which is learned and shaped continuously and intuitively. But how do they affect second language (L2) speakers, whose language acquisition is more analytic but who nonetheless also learn through usage? The present study tests advanced English learners’ receptive processing of multi-word sequences with a word-monitoring experiment. Recognition of to in the construction V to Vinf was tested for full and reduced forms ([tʊ] vs. [ɾə]), conditioned by the general frequency of the V- to sequence and the transitional probability (TP) of to given the verb (V > to). The results are compared with those previously obtained from native speakers. Results show that recognition profits from surface frequency, but not from TP. Reduced forms delay recognition, but this is mitigated in high-frequency sequences. Unlike native speakers, advanced learners do not exhibit a chunking effect of high-frequency reduced forms, and no facilitating effect of TP. We attribute these findings to learners’ lesser experience with spontaneous speech and phonetic reduction. They recognize reduced forms less easily, show weaker entrenchment of holistic representations, and do not draw on the full range of probabilistic cues available to native speakers.

The current study investigated the extent to which naive listeners could incidentally acquire non-native phonemic contrasts and the degree to which the frequency of exposure to the target phonemes affects their learning. A total of 100 English speakers were assigned to the following conditions: (1) 0-occurrence; (2) 2-occurrence; (3) 10-occurrence; (4) 20-occurrence; or (5) 30-occurrence. The participants watched a video that provided instruction on counting numbers in Korean while incidentally exposing them to various repetitions of the target phonemes. All participants completed a pretest, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest, each comprising an AX discrimination task. The effects of incidental exposure were found only in the 10-occurrence condition, in both the immediate posttest and the delayed posttest. While the current study demonstrates the overall efficacy of incidental exposure on the perception of non-native speech, it also highlights the important role that selective attention plays in language learning.

This study contributes to the limited research on gender agreement processing of complex syntactic structures in the auditory modality. By examining learners at varying stages of second language (L2) development, we aim to identify the linguistic factors that facilitate this process. First language English – second language Spanish learners listened to temporarily ambiguous Spanish sentences containing relative clauses. In each case, the ambiguity could be resolved through gender agreement between an adjective and one of two competing nouns with gender mismatches. We assessed participant accuracy through aural comprehension questions. Our findings indicate that determiners and proficiency impact learners’ accuracy in the task. Specifically, they highlight the role of determiners in gender agreement processing in the absence of duplications as well as the impact of proficiency on the processing of noun endings with marked feminine gender. Additionally, we identify a pattern of increased accuracy in gender agreement processing in high attachment cases. We argue that this pattern challenges first language (L1) transfer assumptions and provides evidence of a ‘good enough’ processing strategy. This strategy relies on syntactic hierarchy and emerges as a response to complex task demands.

In the past decades, complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) has been used as an important framework for studying second language development. CDST is a metatheory of change and focuses on processes. Even though it has been broadly accepted as an inspiring dimension of research in psychology, sociology and second language development, some scholars have raised questions about the methodologies used, the interpretation of the data, and the nature of its claims. Specifically, Pallotti questioned whether CDST generates testable hypotheses, and criticized its position towards reductionism and generalizability, based on philosophical argumentations. The present article evaluates the issues addressed, reviews the work that has already been done, and looks ahead at future CDST applications to research in second language development, by exploring recent methodological developments in the field.

Despite the abundance of research on the relationship between second language (L2) learners’ production and perception of target-language contrasts, the nature and details of this connection remain unclear. The aim of this study was to extend our understanding of the relationship by investigating whether learners who can produce L2 vowels with the same acoustic properties as those used by native speakers of the target language also perceive the vowels more accurately. To this end, we examined the production and perception of two English vowel contrasts (tense /i/ vs. lax /ɪ/, mid /ε/ vs. low /æ/) in 29 native-speakers of American English and 33 L2 learners of English from three native-language backgrounds: Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. We found that the L2 learners who produced distinctions between the target vowels using the same acoustic properties as do native speakers of English had significantly better perception scores for these vowels compared to the learners who distinguished the vowels using a pattern of acoustic properties that is not used by native speakers. This was also true when their patterns were compared to the learners who did not make any acoustic distinctions at all. The findings provide compelling evidence that L2 learners’ production patterns are linked to their perception skills.

Recent investigations have highlighted that the linguistic characteristics of the contexts in which bilinguals are immersed might account for processing differences both at the lexical and cognitive levels. The present study examined the extent to which verbal and non-verbal cognitive performance in bilinguals varied as a function of two different contexts of language use: separate or integrated. The separate context was characterized by participants’ use of Spanish and English in specific situations and with different interlocutors, whereas the integrated context was characterized by the frequent use of both languages in the same situations and with the same interlocutors. Participants were two groups of young Mexican-born sequential Spanish-L1–English-L2 bilinguals ( n = 50, 34 females), who reported either the separate or integrated use of both languages. We found a positive correlation between overall linguistic exposure and the number of words produced in English in a Category Fluency task for bilinguals in the integrated context. Our results also showed that more frequent code-switching positively correlated with the magnitude of the interference effect as measured with a Flanker task, but only for participants in the separate context. These results suggest that the separate or more integrated use of the more dominant language (L1) and the less dominant one (L2) can impact bilinguals’ performance differently in verbal and non-verbal cognitive tasks.