L2 Proficiency Level Research Articles

Emotional vocabulary in immigrants’ L2 written discourse: is linguistic distance a proxy for L2 emotionality?

ABSTRACT Emotional vocabulary is an important element in daily conversations, and knowledge and teaching of this vocabulary in a second language (L2) should be a primary goal in migration contexts. This study aimed to identify the emotional words used in the written productions of 288 adult immigrants from different countries of origin who were beginner-level learners of Spanish and to analyse the affective dimensions of valence and arousal of these words. The study also investigated whether the linguistic distance between the first language (L1) of these immigrants and their L2 (Spanish) – as assessed with the normalised and divided Levenshtein distance – constituted a proxy for emotionality in L2 written discourse. Multiple regression models and mediation analysis revealed that the effect of linguistic distance on the number of high-arousal words was mediated by L2 proficiency level, and that L2 proficiency level had a positive influence on the number of emotional (positive/negative) words. The results also revealed that these immigrants used a greater number of positive words in their L2 written productions.

Factors affecting voice onset time in English stops

Abstract This study investigates the voice onset time (VOT) of L2 English stops produced by native speakers of Chinese at different L2 proficiency levels. Four factors were examined: English proficiency, gender, place of articulation, and vowel context. High and low achievers of English were recruited as the experimental groups and native speakers of English as the control group. Each group consisted of 16 participants, 8 males and 8 females. Each participant took part in a read-aloud task, in which the target words were presented in an embedded sentence. The results showed that the effects of L2 proficiency were significant in that high achievers outperformed low achievers who were affected by L1 negative transfer more seriously when producing native-like English stops. Additionally, when producing English stops, velar stops had significantly greater VOT values than either bilabial or alveolar ones. However, no significant gender differences were found. Male and female participants produced similar VOT values in English stops. Last, the vowel context was also a significant factor. The VOT lengths differed according to the context of a following vowels. More specifically, the VOT of a stop is significantly longer when followed by a tense vowel.

L2 Proficiency Level Influences Loanword Adaptation: Variable Adaptation of English Co-occurrence of Low Vowel and Nasal Into Mandarin

As the most commonly established and attested language contact phenomenon, loanwords, also known as lexical borrowings, may undergo transformations when borrowed from the source language (SL) to the borrowing language (BL). Previous studies have separately illustrated the role of perception and phonology in the borrowing process. However, the speech perception or phonology contributes more to the adaptation pattern in some cases than others. Few studies attempt to explain this phenomenon. To fill in the gap, the present study hypothesizes that differences in borrowers’ L2 proficiency level of the SL are the potential source. To examine this hypothesis, an online adaptation experiment was designed and conducted. The experiment examines how Mandarin Chinese native speakers adapt the English non-words ended in the combination of low vowel and nasal coda. The results suggest that BL monolinguals and less proficient L2 learners of the SL tend to use a phonetic mapping strategy guided by the backness of vowels, while advanced learners of the SL are more likely to adopt a phonological mapping strategy based on coda nasal place. This paper concludes by proposing that borrowers’ L2 proficiency level has an effect on the certain randomized variations in the process of loanword adaptation.

The impact of a feedback intervention on university students’ second language writing feedback literacy

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the effect of a combined feedback activity (peer feedback, computer-generated feedback and teacher feedback) on students’ second language (L2) writing feedback literacy. One hundred and eighty-two Chinese university students participated in this research. Findings revealed that the intervention significantly improved students’ literacy in Appreciating Feedback, Acknowledging Different Feedback Sources and Managing Affect, but not Making Judgements and Taking Action. L2 proficiency levels affected the literacy development. Low-proficiency students’ feedback literacy did not change significantly. Middle-proficiency students improved significantly in Appreciating Feedback, Acknowledging Different Feedback Sources, Managing Affect, and Taking Action. High-proficiency students only improved significantly in Appreciating Feedback. Findings further reveal different degrees of difficulty for students to improve feedback literacy along its five dimensions. This study bears implications for developing students’ feedback literacy in L2 writing and in other disciplinary areas, particularly regarding how teachers could use multiple feedback sources and address students’ varied proficiency levels.

What is the next structure? Guessing enhances L2 syntactic learning in a syntactic priming task.

Previous psycholinguistic research has shown that Second Language (L2) speakers could learn from engaging in prediction. Few works have directly examined the relationship between prediction and L2 syntactic learning. Further, relatively limited attention has been paid to the effects of two linguistic factors in this area: structure type and L2 proficiency. Using a mixed experimental design, 147 L2 Arabic speakers with varying L2 proficiency levels completed two syntactic priming experiments, each targeting a different structure: (a) the dative and (b) Temporal Phrases (TP). The experimental conditions required participants to predict what the upcoming sentence's structure would be. The experimental conditions differed in the degree of engagement in prediction error. Results suggested that Arabic L2 speakers at different proficiency levels showed enhanced priming and short-term learning for two syntactic structures (PO, fronted TP) when (a) instructed to guess only (constrained condition) as well as when (b) instructed to guess and compute the prediction error (unconstrained condition), relative to the controls. These results imply a guessing benefit for priming and short-term learning. Participants also experienced different priming effects by structure type, but there was no significant effect for proficiency. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The use of interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) by L2 learners: the impact of age, gender, language learning experience, and L2 proficiency levels

Abstract Interlanguage pragmatics has been the focus of many studies since its inception in the 1980s, with several issues being investigated and a variety of approaches being applied. However, studies on the learning processes and strategies which are specifically responsible for the acquisition of interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) knowledge are rare. Therefore, the current investigation sought to examine the effects of selected individual differences (IDs), including age, gender, language learning experience (LLE), and L2 proficiency, on the use of interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) in a sample of 160 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The data were collected utilizing a six-point IPLS inventory which contained 58 6-point Likert scale items that were divided into six subcategories. Data analysis using independent samples t-tests revealed that young learners used significantly more IPLS compared to their adult counterparts; nonetheless, there were no significant differences in the use of the IPLS between the female and male learners. At the same time, two one-way ANOVAs indicated that LLE and L2 proficiency played a significant role in the use of IPLS, that is, learners with longer LLE and higher proficiency levels used more IPLS. These findings have some pedagogical implications for L2 learners and teachers.

What Does Linguistic Distance Predict When It Comes to L2 Writing of Adult Immigrant Learners of Spanish?

This study examined whether the linguistic distance between the first (L1) and second (L2) language is a significant determinant of L2 writing skills of 292 adult immigrants from 39 different source countries, who were beginner learners of Spanish L2. Gender, age, length of residence in Spain, education level as a proxy for literacy skills in L1, enrolment in Spanish language courses, and overall communicative competence in Spanish were also considered. Using both standard procedures for assessing L2 writing and performance-based psycholinguistic measures of accuracy and text-production fluency, the findings highlight the important role of linguistic proximity in achieving greater accuracy, text-production fluency, and overall L2 writing scores. Other significant predictors were age, enrolment in Spanish courses, and education level for accuracy; and length of residence in Spain and education level for text-production fluency. Although length of residence in Spain was negatively associated with text-production fluency in L2 writing, mediation analyses revealed that the effect of age on text-production fluency was mediated by length of residence in Spain and that L2 proficiency level mediated the link between linguistic distance and text-production fluency. Furthermore, most of the errors that these immigrants made were morphosyntactic and spelling errors, while vocabulary errors were rare.

L2 activation during L1 processing is increased by exposure but decreased by proficiency

Aims: The study investigates the effects of L2 proficiency and L2 exposure on L2-to-L1 cross-language activation (CLA) in L1-dominant bilinguals. In so doing, it tests the predictions made by prominent models of the bilingual lexicon regarding how language experience modulates CLA. Design: The participants (27 L1-dominant L1 English–L2 Afrikaans speakers) completed a visual world eye-tracking task, conducted entirely in English, in which they saw four objects on a screen: a target object, which they were instructed to click on; a competitor object, whose Afrikaans label overlapped phonetically at onset with the English target object label; and two unrelated distractors. Language background data were collected using the Language History Questionnaire 3.0. Analysis: A growth curve analysis was performed to investigate the extent to which the background variables modulated looks to the Afrikaans competitor item versus to the two unrelated distractor items. Findings: Increased L2 exposure was associated with greater CLA, which is consistent with models suggesting that exposure modulates the likelihood and speed with which a linguistic item becomes activated. Moreover, CLA was reduced at higher levels of L2 proficiency, which aligns with accounts of the bilingual lexicon positing that parasitism of the L2 on the L1 is reduced at higher proficiency levels, leading to reduced CLA. Originality: L2 activation during L1 processing and the variables that modulate it are not well documented, particularly among L1 speakers with limited proficiency in and exposure to the L2. Significance: The findings contribute to the evaluation of competing accounts of bilingual lexical organization.

Effect of task type on the use of discourse markers in L2 Portuguese by L1 Chinese learners

In an attempt to analyze the effect of different oral tasks on the use of discourse markers (DMs) in second language (L2) Portuguese by first language (L1) Chinese speakers at different L2 proficiency levels, the current study is oriented by two research questions: (1) in what way does L2 proficiency of L1 Chinese speakers influence the use of DMs in Portuguese across tasks in terms of the frequency and variety of different DM classes? (2) how does oral task type affect the use of DMs by L1 Chinese speakers of L2 Portuguese in terms of the frequency and variety of different DM classes? Data for the present study were collected by using two oral tasks, conversation task and narrative task, conducted by 12 Chinese speakers of Portuguese at a lower and higher L2 proficiency levels. Results showed that the Chinese speakers tended to use the DMs in L2 Portuguese at a higher rate and wider variety when they were asked to perform the conversation task and the use of some DM categories seems not to stay correlated with the L2 proficiency levels across tasks.

일본어 및 중국어권 한국어 학습자 유창성 초분절 요소 습득 비교 연구

The study aims at examining the role of L1 background language and L2 proficiency level in acquiring the L2 fluency. For the purpose, we investigate acoustical changes of 5 suprasegmental cues by using parameters of the proficiency levels of Japanese and Chinese learners of Korean. Before the experiments, we predict that L2 learners with advanced levels of Korean and L1 background language approximated to the suprasegmental structure of Korean are more likely to acquire L2 Korean fluency. One hundred fifty two subjects with six groups ((Japanese, Mandarin Chinese) * (elementary, intermediate, advanced)) take part in the experiment with native Korean speakers as a control group. The results show that both parameters of the L1 background language and L2 proficiency levels have influence equally on the acquisition of the L2 Korean suprasegmentals. However, the extent is different. For example, the L1 effect decreased over the L2 proficiency levels; the advanced levels of both L1 groups acquired L2 Korean prosody in a similar extent. Also some acoustical cues trigger an uneven influence on Korean natives’ ratings for L2 Korean suprasegmentals; speech rate seems to be the most important cue, whereas the spectrum cues do not.

ERROR ANALYSIS IN WRITTEN PRODUCTION: GRAMMATICAL ERRORS AND THEIR SOURCES IN INDONESIAN LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

Writing skill has been considered the most challenging part of foreign language learning. This situation may be because writing skill is not innate and requires the cognitive skills of learners. While writing, learners must be able to perform different activities simultaneously (Flynn & Stainthorp, 2006). The area of learners’ errors has been heavily researched because many would like to find the causes of writing problems and help learners in improving their writing skills. Hence, the present study aims to analyze the types of learners’ errors generated by L2 learners and trace the sources of the errors. The findings of the present study indicate grammatical errors were most frequently committed by L2 learners in their writing skills. This may be due to the fact that their L1 interfered in the process of L2 production and that their knowledge of L2 grammar was limited as well as incomplete. The author suggests having a bigger sample for further studies with the same or different L2 proficiency levels in order to investigate whether they have an effect on errors produced by learners. In addition, elaboration on each error category and its sources should be provided to further contribute to the pedagogical impact of the study.

Characteristics of Second Language Reading Processing

Several studies mostly focus on a specific area of research, the current paper’s aim is to bring together the various research in a single volume, indicating their particularities as well as demonstrate their inter-relations. Phonological, lexical and syntactic processing Second Language Processing (SLP) are discussed as SLP is a cognitive form of acquisition, and is debated o be bottom-up processes, up-down processes, or a combination of both resulting in integrated interactive processes. SLP faces more complicated issues and involves more factors in comparison with L1 processing as L2 reading comprehension observes the effect of higher-order processes and chances of crosslinguistic transfer in relation to the reader’s L2 linguistic knowledge, L2 proficiency levels, or other language-general reading processes. Furthermore, the major reading process models are mentioned in categories of word identification, syntactic parsing and discourse processing, as well as text and reader related variables are reviewed. Finally, some of the main pedagogical associations with teaching reading comprehension are examined.

EXPRESS: Struggling with L2 alphabet: the role of proficiency in orthographic learning.

The present study examined the process of L2 orthographic learning in bilinguals with distant L1-L2 orthographies. Chinese-English bilinguals with various English proficiency levels were trained with novel L2 words during a reading task. In contrast to higher proficient learners, those with lower L2 proficiency exhibited increased effects of length, frequency and lexicality across exposures and at-chance recognition of trained words. Importantly, an additional post-training task assessing the lexical integration of trained words evidenced the engagement in different L1-L2 reading strategies across different levels of L2 proficiency, hence suggesting the L1 holistic processing at the base of the effortful establishment of L2 orthographic representations shown by lower-proficient learners. Overall, these findings indicate the role of L2 proficiency in the influence that cross-linguistic variation exerts on L2 orthographic learning and highlight the need for English education programs to tackle specific grapheme-to-phoneme skills in non-alphabetic target communities.

The role of WM in second language reading comprehension: Does L2 proficiency level matter?

Following exploring the important role of working memory capacity (WMC) in first language acquisition (e.g., Daneman & Carpenter, 1980; King & Just, 1991; Miyake, Just & Carpenter, 1994; Waters & Caplan, 1996), research on examining the role of WM in L2 learning has emerged as an area of concern for L2 researchers. This study examined the role of WMC in the development of L2 reading at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. Since findings on the relationship between WMC and L2 reading have not been consistent, possibly because the influence of WMC on L2 reading may vary at different levels of proficiency, the current study seeks further to examine proficiency as a moderating variable in the relationship between WMC and L2 reading. This was to see whether the influence of WMC changed at different levels of proficiency. A total of 140 L1 Persian EFL learners completed a WMC task as well as measures of reading proficiency. The results of the study showed a significant relationship between WMC and L2 reading only among learners of lower proficiency. This suggests that WM plays a diminishing role in discriminating performance on second language reading measures at higher levels of proficiency.

Investigating the Factors Influencing the Comprehension of Idiom Variation in a Second Language

In the age of information and technology, idiom variation driven by linguistic creativity occurs more frequently than ever before. This poses a great challenge for L2 learners. The present study conducted a set of tests to investigate the effects of familiarity, L2 proficiency level, variation type, and L1 figurative competence on Chinese EFL learners’ comprehension of English idiom variants. The results revealed significant main effects of familiarity and L2 proficiency level on learners’ performance. Figurative-level variation was the most difficult to understand, followed by idioms with literal-scene modification and simple constructional adaptations. The influence of L1 figurative competence needs to be determined in combination with L2 skills. Pedagogically, the findings call attention to the factors that cause comprehension difficulty to deal with the flexible use of L2 figurative language.

Is There an Early Morphological Decomposition during L2 Lexical Access? A Meta-Analysis on the Morphological Priming Effect.

A considerable body of experimental data currently exists on the representation and processing of derived words. However, no theoretical account has led to a consensus so far, due in part to inconsistencies in empirical results which show either the presence or the absence of signs of early morphological decomposition during lexical access. In this paper, we present the results of a meta-analysis that sought to examine the robustness of the masked morphological priming effect (MMP) in native and non-native speakers. This effect is indexed by faster responses to targets preceded by morphologically related primes vs. unrelated primes (e.g., fighter-FIGHT < needle-FIGHT), and is perhaps the most widespread effect used to test whether speakers of a given language are sensitive to the morphological components of words at early stages of lexical access. To this end, we selected 10 masked priming lexical decision studies (16 experiments) conducted with native and non-native speakers. Variables such as prime duration and level of L2 proficiency were considered in the analyses to assess their impact on the MMP effect. Results showed significant MMP effects, which were restricted to native speakers. No modulations were found for the prime duration. Results are interpreted in light of prevalent models of complex word processing.

Expansion of verb-argument construction repertoires in L2 English writing

Abstract This paper investigates the use of English verb-argument constructions (VACs) in second language writing in light of usage-based constructionist approaches to language development. It employs a comprehensive list of VACs to analyze every sentence in 390 essays written by L2 learners of three levels, i.e., Low, Mid, and High, and examines the theoretical hypotheses that the repertoires of VACs expand along with L2 proficient profile and that individual VACs, albeit varying in their expansion patterns, compose a structured inventory based on constructional information. Results indicate that L2 learners of higher proficiency used significantly more types of VACs than those of lower proficiency. It is also found that significant expansions of individual VACs appeared at different L2 proficiency levels. For example, the use of [Verb + NP complement] construction significantly increased between Low and Mid, not between Mid and High, whereas the [Verb + Prepositional object] construction significantly expanded throughout the three proficiency levels. Finally, there were strong cluster effects in the expansion of VACs as small sets of VACs showed similar by-text co-occurrence patterns.

Typological characteristics of interlanguage: Across L2 modalities and proficiency levels.

In recent years, quantitative methods have been increasingly used in interlanguage studies, but these studies have mostly focused on the micro level with an emphasis on certain syntactic structures, rather than the macro where interlanguage is perceived as a whole. There remains a paucity of quantitative studies on interlanguage from the typological perspective. With the majority of the studies focused on the written interlanguage, there is also a lack of sufficient research on its spoken modality. Based on a syntactically annotated corpus and using the quantitative linguistic metric of dependency direction, we have investigated the typological changes in the Chinese interlanguage in both written and spoken modalities. The findings are as follows: (1) the typological features of interlanguage vary across modalities at both macro and micro levels; (2) dependency direction is proved to be an inappropriate indicator to measure the general typological characteristics of interlanguage development due to its failure to reflect the changes in the spoken modality; (3) both macro and micro perspectives taken into consideration, typological errors in the interlanguage is more likely to occur in the spoken modality than in the written one, in which learners may be restricted by greater time pressure and cognitive load in utterance. These factors may affect the distribution of dependency direction in the oral modality, and may be the reason why it is not appropriate to use dependency direction as a measure of changes in mediated language typological features in the oral modality. It is expected that our study will bring insight into second language research with more objective and holistic evidence.

Phantom young English language learners: The shadowy presence of second language proficiency in (English medium) early childhood assessment

This paper examines how English language learners (ELLs) remain shadowy figures in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), a national early childhood development assessment, which since 2009 has been completed triennially by classroom teachers in all Australian jurisdictions for every child in their first year of schooling. It shows how ELLs elude clear identification and appropriate English as a Second/Additional language (L2) assessment because of the fundamentally monolingual conceptualisation of this tool. The AEDC provides the only set of education data at the national level for this young age group and has consequently become a “go to” measure for policy initiatives. However, young children in contemporary Australia are linguistically diverse and so semi-recognition of ELLs in an English only assessment tool is very concerning. Neither the definition of ELLs nor the wording of key assessment items gives classroom teachers sufficient guidance on how to respond for ELLs. The resulting AEDC data and associated reports easily drift towards deficit misinterpretations as natural L2 proficiency levels are muddled with global childhood development in communication and cognition. The paper makes recommendations for improving the quality and accuracy of AEDC data outputs for ELLs and for using the data for policy purposes.

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