L2 English Research Articles

Comparative analysis of interactional metadiscursive resources in academic writing by L2 and L1 English writers

Interactional Metadicursive Resources (IMRs) are established as the most common rhetorical features that assist writers in achieving interaction with the discourse community. The purpose of this study was to compare the use of IMRs in research articles (RAs) authored by Yemeni L2 writers and L1 English writers, while also examining the extent to which both groups employ these resources to achieve persuasive purposes. Based on Hyland’s (2019) model, AntConc was used as an analytical tool in a corpus-based methodology to analyze the use of IMRs in their context of use, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Moreover, Swales’ models were adapted to identify rhetorical moves in the different sections of RAs. The findings indicate that L1 writers tended to use IMRs more frequently and effectively to pursue ethos and pathos. However, Yemeni L2 writers tended to use IMRs sparingly, lacking familiarity with their persuasive role. L1 writers tended to express epistemic and affective stances and used these resources throughout their research, while Yemeni L2 writers tended to focus more on propositional content, using limited IMRs in their writing. Furthermore, unlike L1 English writers, who tended to negotiate their claims in the RA introduction and engage their audience in the RA conclusion, Yemeni L2 writers almost exclusively strengthened their line of argument when initiating and concluding their research. The study concludes by discussing the pedagogical implications of the effective use of IMRs in L2 academic writing.

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.

The role of embodied cognition in action language comprehension in L1 and L2

In this study we carried out a behavioral experiment comparing action language comprehension in L1 (Italian) and L2 (English). Participants were Italian native speakers who had acquired the second language late (after the age of 10). They performed semantic judgments on L1 and L2 literal, idiomatic and metaphorical action sentences after viewing a video of a hand performing an action that was related or unrelated to the verb used in the sentence. Results showed that responses to literal and metaphorical L1 sentences were faster when the action depicted was related to the verb used rather than when the action depicted was unrelated to the verb used. No differences were found for the idiomatic condition. In L2 we found that all responses to the three conditions were facilitated when the action depicted was related to the verb used. Moreover, we found that the difference between the unrelated and the related modalities was greater in L2 than in L1 for the literal and the idiomatic condition but not for the metaphorical condition. These findings are consistent with the embodied cognition hypothesis of language comprehension.

Undesirable Difficulty of Interleaved Practice: The Importance of Initial Blocked Practice for Declarative Knowledge Development in Low‐Achieving Adolescents

AbstractThis study explored the effects of practice schedule on the processing of new second language (L2) vocabulary and resulting knowledge. Participants were 107 low‐achieving adolescents attending a vocational high school in Korea. They were randomly assigned to one of three practice groups and completed a L2 English–L1 Korean paired‐associates learning task. The blocking group practiced one word at a time before switching to different words (e.g., A/A/A/B/B/B/C/C/C); the interleaving group practiced multiple words in sequence (e.g., A/B/C/A/B/C/A/B/C); and the hybrid group had both blocked and interleaved practice. Results revealed that (a) interleaved practice alone posed undesirable difficulty for low achievers, (b) blocked practice in the early learning phase facilitated the development of new declarative knowledge, and (c) hybrid practice produced more robust long‐term retention than blocking and interleaving. The findings are discussed in relation to real‐time processing accuracy, reaction time, coefficient of variation, and meaning recognition test outcomes. Additionally, I explore possible applications of these findings in developing optimal algorithm‐based software for vocabulary learning.

The Use of Prosodic Cues in Resolving Ambiguity of Relative Clause Attachment — Prosodic Disambiguation of Chinese EFL Learners

Studies of prosodic disambiguation in second language production can help to explain the development of a learner’s L2 prosody. Previous studies on prosodic disambiguation have found that Chinese EFL learners are capable of using prosodic cues for both boundary marking and focus encoding, but somewhat differently from native English speakers. No clear understanding has yet been obtained about their use of word prominence and prosodic boundary in their speaking production for RC attachment disambiguation. Thus, by using a read-aloud task at sentence level, the present study investigates whether Chinese EFL learners can produce prosodic boundaries and word prominence to disambiguate RC attachment ambiguous sentences in a way similar to native English speakers when informed of the ambiguities in advance. Also, the study gropes into the relationship between English proficiency level and L2 English prosodic disambiguation. The findings in this study will argue for prosodic disambiguation training in foreign language teaching.

A perceptual similarity space for speech based on self-supervised speech representations.

Speech recognition by both humans and machines frequently fails in non-optimal yet common situations. For example, word recognition error rates for second-language (L2) speech can be high, especially under conditions involving background noise. At the same time, both human and machine speech recognition sometimes shows remarkable robustness against signal- and noise-related degradation. Which acoustic features of speech explain this substantial variation in intelligibility? Current approaches align speech to text to extract a small set of pre-defined spectro-temporal properties from specific sounds in particular words. However, variation in these properties leaves much cross-talker variation in intelligibility unexplained. We examine an alternative approach utilizing a perceptual similarity space acquired using self-supervised learning. This approach encodes distinctions between speech samples without requiring pre-defined acoustic features or speech-to-text alignment. We show that L2 English speech samples are less tightly clustered in the space than L1 samples reflecting variability in English proficiency among L2 talkers. Critically, distances in this similarity space are perceptually meaningful: L1 English listeners have lower recognition accuracy for L2 speakers whose speech is more distant in the space from L1 speech. These results indicate that perceptual similarity may form the basis for an entirely new speech and language analysis approach.

Word searches and fluency during problem-solving tasks: a mixed-methods study of L1 Finnish and L2 English interaction

Word searches (WSs) have been widely studied in L1 and L2 interaction but have rarely been combined with fluency research. The present study bridges the gap between these research fields by examining WSs and their connections to fluency in L1 and L2 dialogue data. From a larger project, 50 participants’ dialogues (25 L1 Finnish, 25 L2 English) were analyzed for WSs. The mixed-methods analyses focused on potential differences and connections in WS use across the L1 and L2 dialogues and the connections between WSs and fluency among selected participants. The results demonstrated differences especially in the use of solitary WSs across L1 and L2 and some connections between L1 and L2 WSs among individual participants, despite group-level connections not being statistically significant. The qualitative analyses illustrated the potential fluency-enhancing functions of collaborative WSs. The study has implications for L2 speech fluency research and L2 teaching.

Listener perceptions of L1 speech in L2 and L3 fluency assessment contexts: a qualitative approach

Studies on listeners’ perceptions of speech fluency have typically focused on numeric L2 fluency assessments and rarely addressed individual differences in L1 speech fluency qualitatively. The objective of the present study was to examine how listeners attend to speakers’ L1 speech when assessing the speakers’ L2 and L3 fluency. In the study, 37 listeners were presented with freely produced L1 Finnish, L2 English (Experiment I), and L3 Swedish (Experiment II) speech by Finnish-speaking and Finnish–Swedish bilingual speakers (N=30). The listeners first listened to the speakers’ L1 Finnish speech before assessing their target language fluency and then commented on how hearing the L1 speech samples affected their ratings. A qualitative analysis focusing on the listeners’ comments revealed that listeners attend to both temporal and non-fluency related features in L1 speech when assessing target language fluency, but there were clear individual differences across listeners’ intuitive approaches to L1 speech.

What influences the comprehensibility of L2 writers' opinion texts by L2 readers? Interactions between textual characteristics and readers’ profiles

This study explored how L2 readers perceive the comprehensibility (i.e., ease of understanding) of L2 opinion texts in terms of reader profiles and text characteristics. We investigated how 100 Japanese learners of L2 English evaluated the comprehensibility of 16 variants of two opinion essays, which differed in lexico-grammatical accuracy, coherence, and rhetorical organization (inductive vs. deductive structure). To delve into the evaluators' backgrounds, exploratory factor analysis was conducted with a view to streamlining background variables. These variables were then compared through a t-test of two groups of readers identified by cluster analysis based on their degree of leniency or strictness. We further identified the influence of specific linguistic features on their evaluations by conducting linear mixed-effects analyses. Our findings reveal that: (1) Some L2 readers were significantly stricter than the L1 readers, whereas others were more lenient; (2) The lenient readers typically began learning English earlier, used it more extensively outside academic settings, and engaged more frequently in online communication compared to their stricter counterparts; and (3) Though disrupted sequences of ideas (coherence errors) were universally detrimental to comprehensibility, lexico-grammatical errors significantly impacted only the strict readers, not the lenient ones.

An examination of phrase-frames in L2 english academic writing: Exploring relationships with writing quality

Corpus research has increasingly highlighted the importance of formulaic language (e.g., lexical bundles, n-grams) in various genres and registers. However, less attention has been paid to the value of discontinuous formulaic sequences. The present study extends research of this kind by targeting the use of phrase-frames (multi-word sequences with an internal variable slot [e.g., the * of the]) in relation to proficiency differences in L2 English academic essays produced by L1 Japanese university students. All texts were written in response to a common prompt, composed under similar conditions, and graded by trained raters. These essays were then assigned to high or low proficiency groupings based on the rating they received. Phrase frames of 4- and 5-words were extracted and analyzed for type count, token count, variability, and predictability differences. Major findings included higher proficiency writers making more frequent use of 4- and 5-word phrase frames (types and tokens), as well as using less variable, more predictable frames. Methodological and pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.

L3 English in the German secondary school context: longitudinal development of bilingual heritage speakers’ multilingual repertoire

ABSTRACT A multilingual experience can be considered a significant asset. However, since the earliest studies in the field, research has reported mixed results regarding potential advantages such as increased cognitive ability and metalinguistic awareness. Moreover, studies investigating the influence of bilingualism/multilingualism on the acquisition of additional languages produced partially conflicting findings. This longitudinal study (three measurement time points within 1.5 years) investigates the impact of social, cognitive, and linguistic variables on English proficiency. We rely on data gathered from 374 unbalanced bilinguals (Russian-/Turkish-German), dominant in German, and 600 monolingual (German) students attending grades seven to ten in Germany. We use multiple linear regression models predicting English proficiency to track longitudinal changes. The results show that German reading proficiency and visual-spatial cognitive ability positively impact L2/L3 English C-test scores. In addition, the impact of heritage language proficiency is not statistically significant and language background did not bring about clear differences between the monolingual and bilingual cohorts per se. We conclude that there are differences between the Turkish-German students and their peers, but not between the monolinguals and Russian-German students. We discuss these findings in light of current teaching approaches prevailing in Germany's foreign language classrooms and perceptions of heritage languages in society.

The different effects of a sensorimotor grounding on AoA between bilingual concepts.

Psycholinguistic studies have argued for the age of acquisition (AoA) of words as a marker of concept learning, showing that the semantic features of concepts themselves influence the age at which their labels are learned. However, empirical evidence suggests that semantic features such as imageability and linguistic phenomena such as frequency do not adequately predict AoA. The present study takes the developmental approach of embodied cognition and investigates the effects of sensorimotor experiences on the ease of acquisition of the concept acquired in bilinguals. Specifically, we investigated (1) whether the sensorimotor experience can explain AoA beyond frequency; (2) and whether these patterns are consistent across L1 Chinese and L2 English. We conducted sensorimotor rating measures in both Chinese and English on 207 items in which Chinese-English bilingual adults were requested to evaluate the extent to which they experienced concepts by employing six perceptual senses and five effectors for actions located in various regions of the body. Meanwhile, data on AoA and frequency were collected. The present study showed the sensorimotor experience was closely linked with AoAs in both languages. However, the correlation analysis revealed a trend of higher correlations between AoAs for the same concepts and L1 Chinese, relative to L2 English for the present Chinese-English bilinguals. Importantly, the hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that after controlling for frequency, sensorimotor experience explained additional variance in L1 AoA. However, L2 sensorimotor experience did not explain the variance in L2 AoA. Sensorimotor experience explained more share of variance in L1 AoA but frequency accounted for more variance in L2 AoA. The findings suggest that concept acquisition should consider the grounding in appropriate sensorimotor experience beyond linguistic phenomena like frequency.

Language transfer in L2 academic writings: a dependency grammar approach.

Dependency distance (DD) is an important factor in language processing and can affect the ease with which a sentence is understood. Previous studies have investigated the role of DD in L2 writing, but little is known about how the native language influences DD in L2 academic writing. This study is probably the first one that investigates, though a large dataset of over 400 million words, whether the native language of L2 writers influences the DD in their academic writings. Using a dataset of over 2.2 million abstracts of articles downloaded from Scopus in the fields of Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences, the study analyzes the DD patterns, parsed by the latest version of the syntactic parser Stanford Corenlp 4.5.5, in the academic writing of L2 learners from different language backgrounds. It is found that native languages influence the DD of English L2 academic writings. When the mean dependency distance (MDD) of native languages is much longer than that of native English, the MDD of their English L2 academic writings will be much longer than that of English native academic writings. The findings of this study will deepen our insights into the influence of native language transfer on L2 academic writing, potentially shaping pedagogical strategies in L2 academic writing education.

Harmonious learning: songs in English for ESP

Abstract The ubiquitous nature and diffusion of songs sung in English has meant that a great number of EFL and ESP students are listening to English and acquiring some notions about the language almost subconsciously. Such songs have also been incorporated into English as an L2 practice for, probably, almost as long as English has been taught as a foreign language. However, sometimes they are used as filler exercises or only as an exercise to keep the students happy. Slowly, songs have been gaining more acceptance as a valid didactic tool to be used in various moments of the general English L2 lesson and for various functions (Tegg 2018). This article reports on a project to use songs in English for Specific purposes lessons at an Italian university with students of two Master degree courses (Social Work and Social Policy; Sociology and Social Research). During the English modules, songs from various artists were specifically chosen and language-learning exercises devised around them to be used in almost every lesson for different learning objectives: these included introducing a new subject, presenting and revising grammar, learning individual words or short phrases including idiomatic expressions, as lead-ins to discussions. At the end of the course, the students completed a questionnaire aimed at eliciting their opinions about the use of songs in ESP lessons. The results indicate that the use of popular songs is an effective tool in an ESP lesson and that their inclusion can help motivate students as well as help them learn.

L2 repair fluency through the lenses of L1 repair fluency, cognitive fluency, and language anxiety

Abstract Repairs (including false starts, repetitions, and different types of self-corrections) have been examined in second language (L2) speech fluency research as one dimension of (dis)fluent speech. However, in contrast to other dimensions of L2 speech fluency (speed and breakdown), repair fluency is not equally well understood: the results are mixed, and more research investigating the factors behind L2 repair fluency is needed. While some previous studies suggest links between first language (L1) and L2 repair fluency, to what extent L2 repairs are connected with cognitive and affective factors is less understood. To achieve a comprehensive view of the factors behind L2 repair fluency, we combine perspectives of L1 repair fluency, attention control, and language anxiety (LA) that have individually been shown to potentially affect L2 repairs but have rarely been examined together. We analyzed data from L1 Finnish and L2 English monologue speech tasks, a Stroop task in L1 and L2, and surveys for general and task-specific LA from 59 advanced users of English to investigate how L1 repair fluency, cognitive fluency, and LA are related to L2 repair fluency. Correlational analyses revealed that task-specific LA and certain Stroop measures were connected with L2 repair measures, while correlations between L1 and L2 repair fluency measures were weak. An analysis of repair profiles of participants displaying the highest levels of L2 repair fluency revealed that, overall, repairs are more common in the L2 than in the L1, but patterns regarding preferences for repair types vary across individuals. The study has methodological implications for psycholinguistic and SLA research into L2 repair fluency and broader implications for L2 classrooms and assessment.

Impact of Japanese L1 Rhythm on English L2 Speech.

The study aimed to examine whether L1 speech rhythm affects L2 speech by assessing how the speech rhythm of Japanese L2 English speakers differed from native speakers. We chose Japanese and English because they differ markedly in the phonological properties that likely contribute to speech rhythm. Speech rhythm was measured by the variability of vowel and consonant intervals using rate-normalized rhythm metrics (VarcoV and VarcoC; nPVI-V and nPVI-C) and %V. The study utilized recordings of spoken sentences in English by 10 native Australian English speakers; and in English and also in Japanese by 10 native Japanese speakers (who had limited experience in speaking English). Experiment 1 compared the rhythm of L1 English (by measuring 1,750 vowels and 3,093 consonants from 20 sentences) and L1 Japanese (1,923 vowels and 2,097 consonants from 10 sentences). The results showed that for all measures, Japanese had reduced durational variability in both consonant and vowel intervals compared with English. In Experiment 2, we examined the rhythm characteristics of L1 and L2 English using 40 sentences (including the 20 in Experiment 1). The results showed that vowel and consonant intervals were less variable in L2 (Japanese English) than in L1 (Australian English) speech, mirroring the results of Experiment 1. Overall, the results are consistent with the proposal that L1 (Japanese) speech rhythm influenced L2 (English) speech.

Is the Suppliance of L2 Inflectional Morphology Subject to Covert Contrasts? An Analysis of the Production of L2 English Third Person Singular Agreement by L1 Bengali Speakers

The cause(s) of missing inflectional morphology in obligatory contexts by adult speakers of second language (L2) English is subject to ongoing discussion. Whatever the specific theory, however, the apparent asymmetrical production of the morpheme ‘-s’ in the marking of number on plural nouns versus that on third person singular agreement has to be accounted for. This study adopts the theoretical approach put forward by the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis, whereby the prosodic representation of inflectional morphology in the first language (L1) can, to some extent, account for differences in the suppliance of inflectional morphology in L2 English within and across L1s. It is in this context that the production of third person singular agreement, and, for contrastive purposes, number on plural nouns, by L1 Bengali speakers of L2 English, is considered in relation to available prosodic representation in the L1, as well as against phonological processes attested in L1 acquisition. More specifically, covert contrasts. An inspection of spectrograms from instances of the omission of inflection by L1 Bengali speakers of L2 English at Beginner to Intermediate proficiency levels does not, however, indicate that learners are covertly supplying agreement on the third person singular (or plural number on nouns). This finding does not necessarily rule out the occurrence of covert contrasts in L2 production of inflectional morphology; alternative techniques may detect a systematic difference between bare verbs and non-audible (to the listener) inflection.

Comparing perception of L1 and L2 English by human listeners and machines: Effect of interlocutor adaptationsa).

Speakers tailor their speech to different types of interlocutors. For example, speech directed to voice technology has different acoustic-phonetic characteristics than speech directed to a human. The present study investigates the perceptual consequences of human- and device-directed registers in English. We compare two groups of speakers: participants whose first language is English (L1) and bilingual L1 Mandarin-L2 English talkers. Participants produced short sentences in several conditions: an initial production and a repeat production after a human or device guise indicated either understanding or misunderstanding. In experiment 1, a separate group of L1 English listeners heard these sentences and transcribed the target words. In experiment 2, the same productions were transcribed by an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. Results show that transcription accuracy was highest for L1 talkers for both human and ASR transcribers. Furthermore, there were no overall differences in transcription accuracy between human- and device-directed speech. Finally, while human listeners showed an intelligibility benefit for coda repair productions, the ASR transcriber did not benefit from these enhancements. Findings are discussed in terms of models of register adaptation, phonetic variation, and human-computer interaction.

To what extent do L2 learners produce genre-appropriate language? A comparative analysis of lexical bundles in argumentative essays and speeches

L2 English learners are often reported to incorporate features of spoken language into their academic writing, blurring the lines between written and spoken genres. However, previous corpus-based studies have predominantly focused on L2 writing, leaving L2 speaking relatively unexplored. It is thus unclear whether learners lack genre awareness – as previously claimed – or if they indeed attempt to differentiate their language across genres, but lack ability to do so. This study explores lexical bundles in academic L2 English in parallel corpora of written and spoken data produced by the same learners, with the same prompts pertaining to argumentation. The findings show that learners employ phrasal/referential bundles, typical of academic prose, significantly more in their essays than in their speeches, where clausal and stance-expressing bundles are more prevalent. Notably, the students were found to employ identical bundles differently in argumentative essays and argumentative speeches produced in response to the same prompts. This finding implies that learners may have a better understanding of how to use formulaic language in both spoken and written genres than previously believed, suggesting that they are aware of genre distinctions, although other factors related to mode (e.g., the cognitive demands of speaking vs. writing) are likely to be involved as well. Furthermore, in comparison with previous findings on L1 bundles, these findings hint at the possibility of argumentative genre conventions unique to L2 learners, in which, broadly, L2 argumentative speech resembles an L1 conversational genre, while L2 argumentative essays seem to navigate a middle path between conversational and academic prose conventions.

Do bilingual adults gesture when they are disfluent?: Understanding gesture-speech interaction across first and second languages

ABSTRACT People are more disfluent in their second language (L2) than their first language (L1). Gesturing facilitates cognitive processes, including speech production. This study investigates speech disfluency and representational gesture production across Turkish-English bilinguals’ L1 (Turkish) and L2 (English) through a narrative retelling task (N = 27). Results showed that people were more disfluent and used more representational gestures in English. Controlling for L2 proficiency, people were still more disfluent in English. The more people were proficient in L2, the more they used gestures in that language. Similarly, disfluency-gesture co-occurrences were more common in English. L2 proficiency was positively correlated with the likelihood of a disfluency being accompanied by a gesture. These findings suggest that gestures may not necessarily compensate for weak language skills. Rather, people might gesture during disfluent moments if they can detect their errors, suggesting a close link between representational gestures and language competency in benefiting from gestures when disfluent.