Advanced L2 Learners Research Articles

Embodied cognition and L2 sentence comprehension: an eye-tracking study of motor representations.

Evidence from neuroscience and behavioral research has indicated that language meaning is grounded in our motor-perceptual experiences of the world. However, the question of whether motor embodiment occurs at the sentence level in L2 (second language) comprehension has been raised. Furthermore, existing studies on motor embodiment in L2 have primarily focused on the lexical and phrasal levels, often providing conflicting and indeterminate results. Therefore, to address this gap, the present eye-tracking study aimed to explore the embodied mental representations formed during the reading comprehension of L2 action sentences. Specifically, it sought to identify the types of motor representations formed during L2 action sentence comprehension and the extent to which these representations are motor embodied. A total of 56 advanced L2 learners participated in a Sentence-Picture Verification Task, during which their response times (RTs) and eye movements were recorded. Each sentence-picture pair depicted an action that either matched or mismatched the action implied by the sentence. Data analysis focused on areas of interest around the body effectors. RTs in the mismatch condition indicated an impeding effect. Furthermore, fixations on the body effector executing an action were longer in the mismatch condition, especially in late eye-movement measures.

Investigating the Impact of Dialogic and Trialogic Interactive Factors on Chinese Advanced L2 learners’ Vocabulary Use in Spoken Contexts

The main objective of this study is to investigate how interactive factors affect the vocabulary usage of second language learners in their spoken language. Participants were 24 L1 Chinese undergraduate students of L2 English at an advanced level. L2 learners’ vocabulary use was assessed via tokens, lexical diversity, and frequency-based lexical sophistication. Participants provided speech data in response to seven persuasive speaking tasks across three speaking modes: two monologic, two dialogic, and three trialogic. This study showed that the interactive factor has a varied effect on L2 learners’ vocabulary usage. It positively influences the use of advanced vocabulary but does not affect the total number of words produced or the diversity of words used. Second, of all three speaking modes, the dialogic speaking mode is the best speaking condition to trigger L2 learners’ use of advanced words. Third, the vocabulary employed in dialogues and trialogues can vary due to the inherent disparities between the two modes of speech. Therefore, we propose the use of the dialogic interactive factor and trialogic interactive factor instead of the term “interactive factor” to encompass two specific conditions in which there was a noticeable difference in the performance of L2 learners.

Working memory and L2 gender agreement processing in structural distance conditions

Previous studies examining the role of executive function in L2 processing show that working memory (WM) facilitates the processing of agreement in local domains in adult second language (L2) learners. Furthermore, other studies explored whether L2 learners can establish the agreement operation across phrases (i.e., structural distance) and whether WM intervenes in the said linguistic computation. However, these studies have often included both syntactic and linear distance in their stimuli, making it impossible to discern whether WM effects emerge from physical or syntactic reasons. The present study assesses how verbal WM updating and L2 proficiency modulate syntactic processing. Beginner and advanced adult English L2 learners of Spanish and Spanish monolinguals completed a verbal WM updating task, and a self-paced reading task containing Spanish sentences with gender agreement and disagreement within and across phrases. Results show that Spanish monolinguals exhibited sensitivity to gender agreement violations in local domains and in structural distance conditions, while beginner L2 learners were not sensitive to violations in either condition. Advanced learners, on the other hand, detected violations in local domains, and their verbal WM updating spans were associated with sensitivity to violations across phrases. Taken together, the findings suggest that (a) morphosyntactically complex structures consume cognitive resources in great number, and (b) L2 processing is qualitatively similar albeit quantitatively different from native processing, thus providing evidence that late bilinguals may process the L2 in a native-like manner.

Learning how to mean in a second language: uses of system networks in L2 education

Abstract While approaches informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) have been widely applied to the field of language education since the 1960s, the idea of the system embodying the meaning potential of language in context, represented as a system network, could be used to make a much more significant contribution to second language (L2) or foreign language education, where despite pioneering efforts the uptake of SFL has been less than in L1 education. In this paper, we will take stock of the ways system networks have been used in studies concerned with L2 education and at the same time we will highlight new opportunities to empower new studies and applications based on system networks as a way of engaging with the central notion of learning how to mean in a second/foreign language. We argue that system networks can make a very significant contribution to L2 education if they are given more attention and their deployment is highlighted. The uses considered in this paper include the following: Tracking language development systemically; diagnosing problems in L2 student texts; supporting sequencing in the curriculum of the learning of the L2 meaning potential; designing exercises based on options in system networks; guiding L2 learners by means of system networks as cartographic tools; contrasting L1 and L2 resources based on multilingual system networks; and supporting advanced L2 learners expanding their L2 uses by adding translation skills drawing on multilingual system networks. We will touch on these uses, highlighting those that have perhaps given the least attention in L2 education drawing on SFL, but which look very promising as we move ahead in the next couple of decades.

Vocabulary Learning by Advanced L2 Learners: Challenges and Strategies

Vocabulary Learning by Advanced L2 Learners: Challenges and Strategies

Zooming into the L2 Speech Fluency Markers of Anxious and Non-Anxious Advanced L2 Learners – an Extreme Case Sampling Report

The study examines selected temporal markers of L2 utterance fluency in the speech of advanced L2 learners who exhibit high (HLA) and low (LLA) language anxiety levels. Out of the pool of 59 participants, six HLA and six LLA individuals were selected for an in-depth analysis on the basis of their scores on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (the FLCAS) (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). Speech samples from a monologue task were examined for selected L2 utterance fluency measures: filled (FP) and silent pause (SP) frequency, mean length of silent pause (MLSP), articulation rate (AR), speech rate (SR), and mean length of run (MLR). The results provided insights into the L2 speech fluency profiles of anxious and non-anxious individuals. The analysis disclosed relatively higher frequency and disparate application of FPs, slower speed of speech, and more varied profiles in MLR in the HLA group as compared to the LLA group. The findings yield pedagogical and methodological implications.

Assessment of sentence sophistication in L2 spoken production: Expansion of verbs and argument structure constructions

Despite the vast body of literature concerning automatic analyses of L2 production, there is limited research on L2 spoken production. Furthermore, investigations into L2 sentence production abilities have predominantly been centered around sentence length. To provide more sophisticated descriptions of L2 syntactic sophistication, this study examines the validity of using the expansion of verbs and constructions as an index of L2 oral production abilities, drawing upon the principles of usage-based approaches to language development. Employing natural language processing tools, we analyzed 790 speech samples produced by L2 English learners using frequency-based and construction-focused indices to assess their predictive validity in relation to the learners’ speaking proficiency. Our findings revealed that advanced L2 learners tend to exhibit an increased use of diverse construction types and a wider range of verb types within each construction. Notably, among the individual construction types observed, the transitive and there-expletive constructions exerted the most substantial influence on the variance in speaking proficiency. These findings suggest a close relationship between the development of verbs and constructions in the spoken domain and factors related to language usage. The results provide an opportunity to evaluate L2 sentence production skills in speaking within the theoretical framework of usage-based approaches.

The Arabic Definite Article: A Challenge Facing Advanced L2 Learners

One of the most difficult challenges of learning Arabic as a foreign language is mastering the definite article system. Research in the area of Arabic L2 acquisition shows that the Arabic definite article al- ‘the’ poses serious difficulties for adult learners even at advance levels. This article is among the most frequent words of the Arabic language, and has a crucial role in maintaining text cohesion and coherence. Because of this importance and high frequency, al- ‘the’ has a huge effect on L2 learners’ language competence. The present study examines the written errors in advanced non-native Arabic learners’ use of the definite article in order to identify the most difficult areas for them, explor possible factors contributing to these difficulties, and suggest strategies that could reduce their effect. The data examined cosists of 89 written text extracted from the Arabic Learner Corpus (ALC) v2, compiled by Alfaifi, Atwel, & Hedaya (2014). A general description of the errors is provided after they are identified and classified. The study found both stuructural and semantic areas of difficulty in the learners’ usage of al, these areas were then examined to explore possible factors causing this persistent problem. Based on the analysis, some strategies to overcome these difficulties were suggested.

Prediction error cost exists in the reading processing of Chinese native speakers and advanced Chinese L2 learners.

This study applies the paradigm of self-paced reading to examine the Context Predictability Effect in the processing of Chinese and detect whether there is a prediction error cost. Context constraint strength (constraining and neutral) and word predictability (predictable and unpredictable) were strictly manipulated. The statistical results suggest that: (1) There is a Context Predictability Effect for Chinese native speakers in reading processing, which is consistent with most previous studies; (2) There is also a Context Predictability Effect for advanced Chinese L2 learners; (3) Both Chinese native speakers and Chinese L2 learners have a prediction error cost in reading processing, a finding different from those of much previous research. (4) Chinese L2 learners are significantly slower than Chinese native speakers when they conduct predictive reading processing. This paper is very enlightening in that it identifies the existence of a prediction error cost in Chinese L2 processing by means of behavioral experiments, providing evidence for the hypothesis of Lexical Prediction. In a strongly predictive setting, when encountering a plausible but unpredictable word, the brain must expend extra effort to suppress, revise, or reanalyze the material, and this may account for the prediction error cost.

제2외국어로서 영어와 한국어 폐쇄음 산출과 인지 연구

This study examines how L1 Korean learners of L2 English and L1 English learners of L2 Korean produce L2 stops in terms of voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) and how they perceive L2 stops. The study also examines how the level of L2 proficiency functions as a critical factor in determining the L1-to-L2 influence. Two findings were derived from production experiments. First, the primary acoustic cues of L1 stops are negatively transferred to the production of L2 stops in L2 beginners. Second, advanced L2 learners acquire the primary cues of L2 stops. These results indicate that the acquisition of L2 stops is regulated by the different priority order of VOT and F0 between L1 and L2 stops and learners

Adult Chinese Spanish L2ers' acquisition of phi-agreement and temporal concord: The role of morphosyntactic features and adverb/subject-verb distance.

While phi-agreement and concord are suggested to differ in nature during the first language (L1) acquisition, the acquisition of adverb-verb TC and SV person/number agreement by Chinese Spanish second language (L2) learners has only received limited attention. The current study examined morphosyntactic processing by advanced Chinese Spanish L2 learners (L2ers), whose L1 lacks the explicit morphological marking of tense and phi-agreement. Chinese Spanish L2ers and native Spanish speakers were asked to complete a self-paced grammaticality judgment task, where the grammaticality of adverb-verb TC and SV person/number agreement as well as the adverb/subject-verb distance were manipulated. For both native Spanish speakers and L2ers, SV agreement violations are detected earlier and judged more accurately than adverb-verb TC violations. Furthermore, L2ers process SV number agreement less efficiently than SV person agreement (but as efficiently as adverb-verb TC). And there is no influence of the adverb/subject-verb distance on the processing of verbal inflection. This study suggests that advanced Chinese Spanish L2ers tend to use native-like cognitive mechanisms for phi-agreement and concord computations, though their sensitivity to agreement violations may be further influenced by the morphosyntactic feature involved.

Predictive processing of grammatical gender: Using gender cues to facilitate processing in Spanish

The present study investigated whether Spanish monolinguals and English learners of Spanish use grammatical gender information in articles and nouns to facilitate the processing of upcoming adjectives. Specifically, this study examined the role of noun transparency, the number of gender cues, and L2 proficiency. The results of an eye-tracking task revealed that Spanish monolinguals predicted the gender of upcoming adjectives much sooner than L2 learners. L2 learners used grammatical gender predictively, but their predictions were delayed compared to monolinguals. Advanced L2 learners predicted upcoming adjectives faster than intermediate learners. Notably, transparent nouns and a higher number of gender cues increased target fixations in all groups. Target fixations of advanced learners increased especially with transparent nouns, and target fixations of intermediate learners were higher with more gender cues present. The results showed that L2 learners can integrate L2 morphosyntactic information during rapid speech processing, and that transparently marked nouns and more gender cues aid gender processing.

Effects of L1-L2 congruency, collocation type, and restriction on processing L2 collocations.

The present study investigated the effects of L1-L2 congruency, collocation type, and restriction on L2 collocational processing. Advanced Chinese learners of English and native English-speaking controls performed an online acceptability judgment task to investigate how advanced L2 learners processed congruent (sharing the same meaning and structure in L1 language) collocations and English-only (not equivalent in L1 construction) collocations with the same node (right) word and a different collocate (left). The experimental materials included verb-noun (VN), adjective-noun (AN) collocations, free (less fixed), and restricted (more fixed) collocations chosen from BNC. The results revealed that (i) The non-native speakers were sensitive to L1-L2 congruency, but the native speakers were not. (ii) The native speakers were sensitive to collocation restriction, whereas the non-native speakers were not. These results lend initial support to the mapping hypothesis and open choice principle of L2 collocational processing for Chinese English learners.

Navigating Subjunctive Challenges and Pedagogical Strategies for Advanced French L2 Learners

This study investigates the challenges faced by advanced L2 learners of French in mastering the subjunctive mood, with a particular focus on their ability to recognize contexts where the subjunctive is not required. The primary objectives were to identify common error patterns, analyze the impact of verb conjugation on learner performance, and assess the effectiveness of current instructional practices. A sentence completion task was administered to 200 advanced L2 French learners, and the data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods to uncover the frequency and nature of errors in subjunctive usage. The results revealed that learners frequently default to using the subjunctive mood in contexts where it is not required, particularly when dealing with impersonal expressions and irregular verb forms. The error rate was significantly higher in second and third conjugation verbs compared to first conjugation verbs, highlighting the impact of morphological complexity. The findings suggest that current teaching methods, which often emphasize rule-based instruction, may not adequately prepare learners to apply the subjunctive in context-sensitive ways. The study concludes that a shift towards more contextualized and communicative teaching approaches is needed to help learners develop a deeper understanding of the subjunctive mood. These findings have important implications for curriculum design and teacher training in the field of second language acquisition.

Compliment patterns in English: L1 and L2 production in the virtual exchange environment

Virtual exchanges offer affordances for the learning of L2 pragmatics as they allow participants to engage in authentic social interactions with expert L2 speakers. As such they constitute a valuable environment for L2 acquisition, especially in cases where study abroad is not feasible. Although there has been some interest in exploring the influence of virtual exchanges on L2 learners’ use of speech acts, compliment formulation has yet to be extensively explored. The virtual exchange discussed in this study involved L2 learners of English from Poland who interacted for six weeks, via video conferencing, with TESOL teacher trainees at a university in the USA. Before and after the project, the participants completed tasks to elicit their production of compliments. The significance of the study is twofold. Firstly, the L1 speakers’ responses to the task revealed more frequent use of certain syntactic patterns in complimenting behaviours (e.g. the increased use of informal ellipsis) in comparison to previous studies. Secondly, the compliments produced by the advanced L2 learners of English were seen to develop so as to resemble those of their L1 peers, contributing to a growing body of evidence suggesting that virtual exchange is a useful tool for fostering the enhancement of L2 speakers’ pragmatic skills. Interestingly, this development was seen to regard syntactic, but not lexical, features.

The effect of second language experience on lexical encoding of segments and tones

While previous studies generally find that increasing second language (L2) experience contributes to more accurate phonetic perception of L2 sounds, whether it leads to more proficient lexical encoding remains an empirical question. The current study examines lexical encoding of Mandarin segments and tones by English speakers at different proficiency levels. Eleven English speakers naïve to Mandarin, fifteen intermediate and nine advanced L2 learners participated in a word-learning experiment. After learning 16 Mandarin disyllabic words, they judged the matching between sound and meaning pairs, with half of the pairs being complete matches while the other containing segmental or tonal mismatches. The results showed that all groups were more sensitive to segmental than to tonal mismatches. The two learner groups outperformed the Naïve group in detecting segmental mismatches, but the three groups were equally inaccurate in rejecting tonal mismatches. The reaction times revealed, however, that the learners but not the Naïve group attended to tonal variations. These findings suggest that L2 experience has a clearer benefit for L2 segmental encoding than for tonal encoding, probably due to learners’ non-tonal language background. Experience in a tonal L2 enhances learners’ attention to the tones, but does not necessarily improve their accuracy in tonal encoding.

Oral Reflection Tasks: Advanced Spanish L2 Learner Insights on Emergency Remote Teaching Assessment Practices in a Higher Education Context

This paper reports on a small-scale study that is the first to explore Advanced Spanish L2 learners’ personal awareness of their language and culture learning through e-assessment tasks in an Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) context, mediated by five task-specific, individual spoken reflections. The value of reflection in education, particularly for L2 writing and distance learning, has been explored in different modalities, e.g., individual spoken reflection and group spoken reflection. Building on previous research, this study explores a group of advanced Spanish L2 learners (n = 25) reflecting on five multi-modal e-assessments through individually assessed oral audio-recorded post-assessment reflection tasks (n = 125). A thematic content analysis applied to transcriptions yields findings from a pedagogical perspective on language learning, completing assessments and personal affective responses. The learners’ candid and explicit orientations towards various types of multimodal language-learning e-assessment tasks offer instructors information on learners’ awareness of classroom-based assessment tasks being enablers for individual learning goals.

A lexical semantic approach to the L2 acquisition of Spanish psych verbs

This study builds on prior research on second language (L2) Spanish psych verbs, which has centered on morphosyntactic properties, by examining their syntactic distribution, which relies on lexical semantic knowledge. The fact that certain forms are licensed for some verbs, but not others, is the result of an underlying lexical semantic difference across verb classes, represented here as a difference in formal feature strength. To fully acquire the relevant grammatical distribution, L2 learners must successfully acquire (i) licensing restrictions on argument structure and (ii) underlying lexical semantic representations of individual verbs. Three groups of L2 learners ( n = 66) and a group of native Spanish speakers ( n = 19) completed two judgment tasks (one with aural stimuli and one with written stimuli) which presented object experiencer psych verbs in multiple argument structures. Results show that advanced L2 learners are largely sensitive to the distribution tested here; however, while they have acquired relevant licensing restrictions, they may associate fixed feature settings with verbs that allow variable feature settings. These results are consistent with predictions made by the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis and highlight the role of lexical semantic features in second language acquisition.

An analysis of note-taking strategies: The effect of translanguaging on content comprehension and knowledge retention

Purpose This study investigates the effectiveness of using translanguaging for note-taking on students’ lecture comprehension and retention by measuring their scores on two tests administered two weeks apart. Methods The participants were English L2 Chinese graduate students (n = 101) studying in English-language programs in various English-speaking countries at the time of the study. The study used a quasi-experimental three-arm parallel groups design to compare the relative effects of three alternative approaches to note-taking (Chinese, English, and translanguaging). All participants watched a five-minute English-language video without subtitles and took notes using their assigned strategies. Then participants immediately took a comprehension test. After two weeks, participants took a retention test. Results The results showed that those taking notes in English only outperformed those taking notes using Chinese only on low-level, fact-based questions in the comprehension test. There was no significant difference found among the three language groups (Chinese, English, and translanguaging) in other types of questions (main topic questions and numerical questions) and the overall score. In the retention test, those taking notes in English outperformed those taking notes in Chinese in the overall score and all question types except for number-based questions, with the translanguaging groups also outperforming the Chinese group in fact-based questions. In addition, students’ previous study abroad experience was not found to impact students’ comprehension and retention of the video lecture content. Conclusion It seems that translanguaging does not aid advanced L2 learners in immersion contexts; instead, translanguaging may be more helpful for lower proficiency L2 learners.

Can Word-Word Space Facilitate L2 Chinese Reading: Evidence From the Two Empirical Studies by Advanced L2 Learners of Mandarin Chinese

The purpose of this article aims to analyze the effect of word-word space in written Chinese to advanced non-native speakers when they read and process Mandarin texts. The participants have performed one online reaction time experiment and another one offline pencil-paper test. The results indicate that the structure of word segmentation in written Chinese texts have play an effective role in sentences’ semantic processing, and the length and difficulty of sentences stimuli have also displayed significant function for their Chinese sentences processing. However, the results of offline test show that the combinational amount of segmental words have not affected the texts materials processed by advanced L2 participants. These results suggest that word boundary can facilitate L2 learners of Mandarin Chinese in processing text during their reading. Apart from theoretical implications, this article also proposes a new pedagogical approach to teaching text segmentation in Chinese, which can be useful in instructing Chinese as a second or foreign language.