Learning In Second Language Acquisition Research Articles

Developmental changes in brain activation during novel grammar learning in 8-25-year-olds

While it is well established that grammar learning success varies with age, the cause of this developmental change is largely unknown. This study examined functional MRI activation across a broad developmental sample of 165 Dutch-speaking individuals (8–25 years) as they were implicitly learning a new grammatical system. This approach allowed us to assess the direct effects of age on grammar learning ability while exploring its neural correlates. In contrast to the alleged advantage of children language learners over adults, we found that adults outperformed children. Moreover, our behavioral data showed a sharp discontinuity in the relationship between age and grammar learning performance: there was a strong positive linear correlation between 8 and 15.4 years of age, after which age had no further effect. Neurally, our data indicate two important findings: (i) during grammar learning, adults and children activate similar brain regions, suggesting continuity in the neural networks that support initial grammar learning; and (ii) activation level is age-dependent, with children showing less activation than older participants. We suggest that these age-dependent processes may constrain developmental effects in grammar learning. The present study provides new insights into the neural basis of age-related differences in grammar learning in second language acquisition.

Critical Literature Review on Teaching Chinese as a World Language in the Context of Globalization

Using perspectives on language and language learning in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), including the traditional cognitive orientation, sociocultural theory orientation, and critical theoretical orientation as theoretical frameworks, this study critically analyzes 78 papers published from 2014 to 2020 in Chinese as a Second Language—The Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA (CSL), a leading journal that is devoted exclusively to the study of Chinese language, culture, and pedagogy. This study investigates how the teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture has been conceptualized and enacted in the field of SLA and explores factors that contributed to frustration, dissatisfaction, or criticisms in this field (e.g., Lantolf and Genung, 2002; Li and Duff, 2008, 2018; Thorne, 2005). Additionally, this study raises awareness of the value of sociocultural and critical perspectives on language teaching and learning (e.g., Douglas Fir Group, 2016; Fairclough, 1992; Halliday and Hasan, 1985; New London Group, 1996; Vygotsky, 1978), suggesting more critical and sociocultural-oriented research to support learning Chinese as a world language in the context of globalization.

The Research on Critical Period Hypothesis in Pronunciation Learning in Second Language Acquisition

The Research on Critical Period Hypothesis in Pronunciation Learning in Second Language Acquisition

Fourth Semester Students’ Perspective of Classroom and Distance Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic in Learning Second Language Acquisition

This research aimed to evaluate the fourth semester students’ perspective of Distance Learning (DL) compared to Classroom Learning (CL) in learning Second Language Acquisition (SLA) in English Department Program of Universitas Pendidikan Mandalika in academic year 2022/2023. This research was a qualitative research. The subjects of this research were fourth semester students that consisted 67 students who were learnt SLA through DL and CL. An online questionnaire was sent to all of the subjects. After the data have been collected, the researchers  then analyzed the data by theory of Huberman (1994), the Qualitative Data Analysis was done with three steps; Data reduction, Data Display and Conclusion. Based on the analysis data, it was found that the DL students experienced some problems during learning the theory of SLA, the result of questionnaire showed that SLA learning process through DL was not run efficiently than CL. Moreover, the result of questionnaire of CL students showed that CL process gave motivation for self-directed learning and communication with lecturers and their fellow students was easier with CL.

Implicit Learning in Second Language Acquisition: Insights from Neuroscientific Data

It is an ultimate goal for second language learners to attain a high-level of proficiency and produce L2 accurately as well as fluently. Yet, according to second language learning enormity particularly in a later stage, a considerable number of learners may experience excruciating difficulties. Suffice it to mention that some learners may not even succeed in developing language rudiments. To ascertain the learners’ potential, second language acquisition theories have, for long, attempted to account for the difficulties faced by second language learners who tend to think and produce language in a rule-governed way. Inherent to such theories, explicit versus implicit learning approaches attempted to uncover the associated factors affecting second language learning. Accordingly, this has amassed a growing body of research over the issue of implicit learning which has been investigated in various disciplines including SLA and pedagogy, psycholinguistics, and cognitive and neuroscience. This paper places focus on implicit learning highlighting its importance in second language learning as well as its benefits which extend to language automaticity. The paper presents studies probing the effectiveness of implicit learning on various levels; after which neuroscientific data is presented to account for the advantages and development of implicit learning explicating the memory systems underpinning the learning process as well as the neural processes lying at the core therein. Finally, implications are provided.

Enacting voices

Abstract The present study supports the idea of heteroglossia and its contributions to language learning in second language acquisition (SLA) theory and bilingualism. Bakhtin’s (1934/1981) theory of heteroglossia differs from variety and register in that when acquiring a language, one internalizes the voices of others. Viewing interlanguage through a heteroglossic lens, it is possible that these voices in heteroglossia may have an effect on second language (L2) users’ language production. By blending sociolinguistic and sociocultural frameworks, this study analyzed the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of two French-English bilinguals’ narratives. Findings demonstrate a clear shift in all three measures of the CAF framework when participants enacted the voice of a perceived interlocutor or perceived self, versus when they recounted a narrative. These findings support the notion that an individual may have variable linguistic systems, and raise other important theoretical and practical implications for SLA research and L2 instruction.

Reconceptualising Learning in Transdisciplinary Languages Education

Understanding and working with the complexity of second language learning and use in an intercultural orientation necessitates a re-examination of the different theories of learning that inform the different schools of second language acquisition (SLA). This re-examination takes place in a context where explicitly conceptualizing the nature of learning in SLA has not been sufficiently foregrounded. It also necessitates understanding how language itself, as the substance or object of learning a second language, is conceptualized. Neither the theorization of learning, nor of language on its own is sufficient to provide an adequate account of second language learning for contemporary times. In particular, this paper argues that views of language and learning derived solely from the field of (applied) linguistics are not sufficient to address the complex language learning needs of contemporary times and that a more interdisciplinary approach to language and learning is required. It is this interdisciplinary understanding that provides the basis for views of both language and learning that we consider to be necessary within an intercultural orientation. In particular, the paper will emphasize the interpretative nature of learning and the ways that such a view contributes to our understanding of learning in language education. From this perspective, the process of learning to communicate in a second language can be characterized as involving both a ‘moving between’ linguistic and cultural systems and an acknowledgement of the role of mutual interpretation in exchanging meanings through the acts of both communicating and learning.

Incidental Vocabulary Learning in Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review

This literature review aims to analyze previous studies that address the incidental learning of vocabulary in second language acquisition. The articles included in this literature review look into the understanding of vocabulary learning through incidental means, the relationship of reading and incidental vocabulary learning, and the strategies and tasks that promote the incidental learning of vocabulary. The findings show that L2 learners develop much of their vocabulary by incidental means through exposure to words in informative contexts. Moreover, this exposure is promoted by reading, and enhanced through multimodal glosses. Further research may focus on listening for higher lexical retention rates, the circumstances that allow incidental learning of multi-word phrases and collocations, and the use of technology-based methods for incidental vocabulary acquisition.

Lexical learning in second language acquisition: optionality in the numeration

Lardiere suggests that second language acquisition (SLA) researchers should pay more attention to the distribution of a given feature in source and target languages, using the distribution of [plural] in English, Chinese and Korean to illustrate. I argue that the distribution of [definite] in English shows a similar complexity, and that this has largely been ignored in existing second language studies. I propose that it is distributional complexity of this kind that underlies the gradual development and variability observed in second language (L2) performance. A four-stage model is outlined, attributing gradual development/variability (partly) to optionality in the numeration.

The effect of phonological knowledge on word learning in second language acquisition

Past research in first language (L1) acquisition suggests that phonological knowledge (individual sounds and sound sequences) influences word learning. In second language (L2) word learning, phonological knowledge is dependent on the mapping of L2 sounds to L1. This study explores how the L2-L1 phonological mapping affects L2 word learning for native speakers of Japanese learning English. The learners phonological knowledge was explored through a perceptual discrimination task (same-different task) and a production probe containing English real words and nonwords. L2 word learning was explored through exposure to novel words and comprehension and production testing. The results of the same-different task showed that r-l and θ-s contrasts were the most difficult to perceive, supporting findings from past research. For the production probe, w, t, and s were produced more accurately than r, l, and θ in both real words and nonwords. For L2 word learning, nonwords with w, t, and s were learned more rapidly than nonwords with r, l, and θ in production, but not comprehension. Taken together, phonological knowledge appears to constrain L2 word learning for language expression, but not comprehension. This mirrors the findings for L1 acquisition.

Language is learned

AbstractEpstein et al. attribute second language learning to the forces of transfer and language universals. They show that transfer is minimally involved in certain types of learning and therefore conclude that universals are involved. However, they forget to consider the important role of learning in second language acquisition.

The Role of Conscious Learning in Second Language Acquisition

The Role of Conscious Learning in Second Language Acquisition

Mimicry of Non-distinctive Phonetic Differences Between Language Varieties

A delayed mimicry paradigm was used to assess speakers′ awareness of non-distinctive phonetic differences which in part distinguish languages. The notion of “phonological filtering” implies that second language learners may not be able to perceive phonetic differences between their native language and a foreign language unless the phonetic differences are linguistically relevant in the native language. If cross-language phonetic differences are in fact perceived poorly, it is unlikely that phonetic modification will occur in the course of naturalistic second language acquisition. In this study native English speakers familiar with Spanish-accented English attempted to read sentences with a Spanish accent. Acoustic measurements showed that two phonetic characteristics of English—the long VOT values associated with /p, t, k/ and final-syllable lengthening—were altered in the direction of Spanish and Spanish-accented English. These results provide tentative evidence that non-distinctive phonetic differences between languages are detectable by language learners and thus donotpresent an insuperable barrier to phonetic learning in second language acquisition.