Study Of Language Acquisition Research Articles

Psycholinguistics: How Language Shapes Cognition

Psycholinguistics, the bridge between language and cognition, has evolved through a rich history of theories and debates, shaping our comprehension of the human mind. But what role does language play in cognition? Language is far beyond just mere communication, as it molds cognition, perception, memory, and problem-solving skills. At its core, the study of language acquisition stands as a foundation for the study of psycholinguistics, spanning diverse theoretical landscapes from behaviorist theories to nativist perspectives. This paper aims to offer insights from a myriad of disciplines, offering a holistic understanding of how language is intertwined with cognitive development. Drawing upon the fields of psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology, it unveils the profound impact language has in shaping the trajectory of cognitive development. This interdisciplinary approach illuminates the mechanisms by which language influences cognitive processes, underscoring the symbiotic relationship between language and the development of the human mind. It indicates the importance of interdisciplinary research in understanding the marriage between language and cognition, ultimately revealing the magic behind the human mind.

A Bibliometric Study of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning from 2013 to 2023: Research Themes and Trends

The widespread use of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) in learning and teaching foreign languages has attracted significant interest. Following the substantial impact of COVID-19 on language education, the focus on MALL among researchers has increased to a new level. This paper reviewed the MALL-related Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) articles from 2013 to 2023, sourced from the Web of Science (WOS). Out of 535 identified articles, 241 were analyzed systematically to generate knowledge maps using CiteSpace. Based on the bibliometric study, this research identified and discussed the popular themes and research trends in MALL. Three major themes emerged through keyword co-occurrence analysis: 1) a primary focus on the English language; 2) technology integration in language learning; and 3) a learner-centered focus. The results also revealed four research trends: 1) development and application of mobile learning technologies; 2) in-depth study of language acquisition and skills development; 3) innovative research on learner characteristics and teaching methods; and 4) a shift in research methods. This research contributes to the existing literature by consolidating current knowledge and offering guidance for future investigations or developments in MALL.

The Roles of Neural Networks in Language Acquisition

ABSTRACTHow can modern neural networks like language models be useful to the field of language acquisition, and more broadly cognitive science, if they are not a priori designed to be cognitive models? As developments towards natural language understanding and generation have improved leaps and bounds, with models like GPT‐4, the question of how they can inform our understanding of human language acquisition has re‐emerged. As such, it is critical to examine how in practice linking hypotheses between models and human learners can be safely established. To address these questions, we propose a model taxonomy, including four modelling approaches, each having differing goals, from exploratory hypothesis generation to hypothesis differentiation and testing. We show how the goals of these approaches align with the overarching goals of science and linguistics by connecting our taxonomy to the realist versus instrumentalist approaches in philosophy of science. We survey recent work having adopted each of our modelling approaches and address the importance of computational modelling in language acquisition studies.

Built to Adapt: Mechanisms of Cognitive Flexibility in the Human Brain

Adaptability is a distinguishing feature of the human species: We thrive as hunter-gatherers, farmers, and urbanites. What properties of our brains make us highly adaptable? We review neuroscience studies of sensory loss, language acquisition, and cultural skills (reading, mathematics, programming). The evidence supports a flexible specialization account. On the one hand, adaptation is enabled by evolutionarily prepared flexible learning systems, both domain-specific social learning systems (e.g., language) and domain-general systems (frontoparietal reasoning). On the other hand, the functional flexibility of our neural wetware enables us to acquire cognitive capacities not selected for by evolution. Heightened plasticity during a protracted period of development enhances cognitive flexibility. Early in life, local cortical circuits are capable of acquiring a wide range of cognitive capacities. Exuberant cross-network connectivity makes it possible to combine old neural parts in new ways, enabling cognitive flexibility such as language acquisition across modalities (spoken, signed, braille) and cultural skills (math, programming). Together, these features of the human brain make it uniquely adaptable.

Investigating spoken classroom interactions in linguistically heterogeneous learning groups – An interdisciplinary approach to process video-based data in second language acquisition classrooms

Speaking the local language is central for successful integration into society. The teacher's language in second language (L2) classrooms serves as a crucial tool in language learning. Heterogeneity of learners’ language proficiency levels challenges teachers to adapt their language and accompanied instructional behavior. We offer an approach to study language acquisition processes and how teachers adapt their instructional language. This article presents our language-independent guidelines for processing video-based data of classroom interactions and demonstrate their reliability in a German as Second Language (GSL) classroom. These guidelines enable transcriptions of spoken language in noisy environments and detailed annotations of non-verbal classroom behavior. We outline research avenues at the intersection of empirical education research and linguistics that become feasible through these resources focusing on studying (non-)verbal adaptation strategies of teachers for learners at different proficiency levels. Our work directly fosters the interdisciplinary study of teacher-learner interactions, teacher competencies, and language acquisition.

Process of Phenomenology as Qualitative Research Method in English

Research methodology is a pronounced science that contributes to the study of research in many fields. The literature on research methodology shows how it serves in several ways as it is multi-dimensional and theoretical alongside the features of experimental literature. Based on different philosophies, it involves two significant methods of choice, qualitative and quantitative, with a range of research strategies from simple to complex. Fundamentally, the strategies of the qualitative method are of much use in the study of English literature and to some extent in the studies of English language and Applied linguistics since the latter also deal with empirical study. The current research method, phenomenology, is one of the critical approaches of the qualitative method, and it is all about philosophical experiences. The study of phenomenology in English is necessary as it has been a widely used method in the fields of medical science, philosophy, computers, and business but not still more in English and Second language acquisition studies; therefore, the main motive behind the study is to investigate how congenial the phenomenology research method is to exploit it in English language and literature studies. Concerning the abovementioned facts, the present study will include the conceptualization, periodical developments, classification, and the milestones associated with phenomenological research studies to analyze and extract as a research method in English. The study also endeavors to identify philosophy and language as two important parameters and emphasizes that they are equally necessary to use phenomenology as a research method in English.

The process of language acquisition: an experimental approach from a minimalist perspective

We present the approach to the study of language acquisition and processing developed in LAPAL (Laboratório de Psicolinguística e Aquisição da Linguagem – PUC-Rio) in the last decades, which incorporates a minimalist conception of language in a procedural model of grammar identification, and in the online computation of sentences. We refer to experimental results regarding infants’ sensibility to elements of functional categories, the early acquisition of gender and number, the early parsing of recursive structures, the role of recursion in cognitive development, and the processing cost of recursive structures and long-distance dependencies. Methodological issues concerning the assessment of children’s ability to process costly structures are considered, which contribute to the identification of the nature of children’s difficulties in comprehension tasks. Particular attention is paid to the application of this approach to the tracking of DLD (Developmental Language Disorder).

Causes of Interlanguage Fossilization and the Coping Strategies

Interlanguage fossilization is an important topic in the study of second language acquisition, which involves changes and solidifications in the language acquisition process that learners develop while learning a second language. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of interlanguage fossilization, its causes and its implications in language teaching and education. This paper firstly introduces the concepts of interlanguage language and fossilization, and then focuses on the causes of this phenomenon, including both intra-individual and external environmental factors. Then, the paper puts the impact of the interlanguage fossilization phenomenon in language teaching and education, and how to prevent or slow down the occurrence of it through effective teaching strategies into discussion. Through an in-depth study of interlanguage fossilization, the language acquisition process of learners could be better understood, thus contributing more effectively to the development of language teaching and education.

The Effect of Recycling Vocabulary on Foreign Language Learning

The recycling method is frequently given a tiny proportion, if not neglected, in the practice of foreign language settings, although the multiple exposure strategy to language was given substantial priority in the theory and study of second language acquisition. This experimental study used a pre-and-post-testing design and a post-teaching intervention to examine the impact of vocabulary recycling on the learning of English as a foreign language. To assess the impact of the vocabulary recycling strategy, the researchers compared the experimental group of 33 high school student's vocabulary production on writing assessments before and after the intervention to the control group of 33 students with equal levels of homogeneity. The statistical differences in the post-test between the groups demonstrated that a vocabulary-revisiting strategy is compulsory for enhancing young learners' productive abilities, particularly writing. The derived conclusions suggest significant implications for pedagogical practices and pave the way for future research in this arena.

Italian Slavistics and Second Language Acquisition Studies

Italian Slavistics and Second Language Acquisition Studies

A Review of Research on Second Language Acquisition from a Positive Psychology Perspective

This paper reviews the research on second language acquisition from the perspective of positive psychology. First, it introduces the background and purpose of the study and discusses the significance of the application of positive psychology in the field of language acquisition. Then, the basic theories of positive psychology, including the core concepts and principles of positive psychology, are summarized. Subsequently, the theory of second language acquisition is defined and outlined, including the definition, characteristics, and related developmental theories of second language acquisition. On this basis, the study of second language acquisition from the perspective of positive psychology is discussed in detail. By combing and synthesizing the literature, this paper summarizes the current situation and trend of second language acquisition research under the perspective of positive psychology and puts forward some future research directions and suggestions.

Universal Grammar and Universal Grammar’s Influence and Related Theories Concerning Second Language Acquisition

Universal Grammar, represented by Chomsky, believes that the human brain is born with a Language Acquisition Device. Under the stimulation of the language environment, the language function of the human brain dedicated to language learning will be activated and begin to acquire a language. Universal grammar is the core idea of Chomsky's generative linguistics theory, which is composed of a limited number of syntactic principles representing the common features of human language. It is precisely because the human brain naturally generates this universal grammar that human beings can acquire their own mother tongue when language input is poor or even lacks "negative corpus" (that is, the indication of language errors or faults). Chomsky once proposed a simple language acquisition model, namely "language input —Language Acquisition Device —language acquisition", which means that language input generates grammar through Language Acquisition Device, thus acquiring language. It is worth noting that Chomsky's theory is not specifically designed for the study of Second Language Acquisition, and he himself has not given any guidance in this field, but it provides theoretical support for the theory of Second Language Acquisition (Yang Chunyuan, 2020). Hence, learning the whole semester’s course of Second Language Acquisition, having seen universal grammar as a important content in my textbook, this paper tries to integrate these related theories and make a conclusion and comment or paraphrasing（not all the bibliographies are quoted directly in this paper, paraphrased or arranged instead）based on various bibliographies.

The use of Instagram to improve students' EFL Writing

Good communication makes it easier for us to connect with the community and other individuals with various backgrounds. Language is also a catalyst for us to understand ourselves and others, and is the key that opens the window of our world’s view. Every aspect on human life is very dependent on the proficiency of language skills. The goal of this paper was to see how the use of Instagram improved the students’ EFL writing ability. The method used to conduct this paper was Systematic Literature Review. There are 10 articles from various journals that are analyzed and synthetized to extract the data from. Based on the authors finding, the use of Instagram brought forth positive improvement on the students’ writing ability, as well as their motivation in language acquisition study.

Cross-linguistically consistent semantic and syntactic annotation of child-directed speech

AbstractCorpora of child speech and child-directed speech (CDS) have enabled major contributions to the study of child language acquisition, yet semantic annotation for such corpora is still scarce and lacks a uniform standard. Semantic annotation of CDS is particularly important for understanding the nature of the input children receive and developing computational models of child language acquisition. For example, under the assumption that children are able to infer meaning representations for (at least some of) the utterances they hear, the acquisition task is to learn a grammar that can map novel adult utterances onto their corresponding meaning representations, in the face of noise and distraction by other contextually possible meanings. To study this problem and to develop computational models of it, we need corpora that provide both adult utterances and their meaning representations, ideally using annotation that is consistent across a range of languages in order to facilitate cross-linguistic comparative studies. This paper proposes a methodology for constructing such corpora of CDS paired with sentential logical forms, and uses this method to create two such corpora, in English and Hebrew. The approach enforces a cross-linguistically consistent representation, building on recent advances in dependency representation and semantic parsing. Specifically, the approach involves two steps. First, we annotate the corpora using the Universal Dependencies (UD) scheme for syntactic annotation, which has been developed to apply consistently to a wide variety of domains and typologically diverse languages. Next, we further annotate these data by applying an automatic method for transducing sentential logical forms (LFs) from UD structures. The UD and LF representations have complementary strengths: UD structures are language-neutral and support consistent and reliable annotation by multiple annotators, whereas LFs are neutral as to their syntactic derivation and transparently encode semantic relations. Using this approach, we provide syntactic and semantic annotation for two corpora from CHILDES: Brown’s Adam corpus (English; we annotate $$\approx$$ ≈ 80% of its child-directed utterances), all child-directed utterances from Berman’s Hagar corpus (Hebrew). We verify the quality of the UD annotation using an inter-annotator agreement study, and manually evaluate the transduced meaning representations. We then demonstrate the utility of the compiled corpora through (1) a longitudinal corpus study of the prevalence of different syntactic and semantic phenomena in the CDS, and (2) applying an existing computational model of language acquisition to the two corpora and briefly comparing the results across languages.

农村初中生英语学习愉悦、焦虑及无聊情绪与英语成绩的关系研究

Based on the perspective of positive psychology, this article explores the status quo of students’ English learning enjoyment, anxiety and boredom in a rural middle school by investigating 203 participants in Grade two. From the data analysis, conclusions are drawn as follow: (1) Students experience a higher level of English learning enjoyment but lower levels of anxiety and boredom, while English learning anxiety is higher than boredom. (2) There is a significant gender difference in English learning anxiety, while there is insignificant difference between enjoyment and boredom. (3) There is a negative relationship between English learning enjoyment and anxiety, between English learning enjoyment and boredom and there is a positive relationship between English learning enjoyment and students’ academic achievements, and a negative relationship between English learning anxiety, boredom and students’ academic achievements. This study explores the relationship between foreign language learning emotions and foreign language academic achievements, which could further enrich studies of second language acquisition and the emotions of rural middle school students.

The Correlation between HUIT English Majors’ Short - Term Memory and Listening Comprehension Skills at Different Language Proficiency Levels

The study of short-term memory (STM) is crucial to the study of second language acquisition. STM plays an important role in language acquisition and development since it is an on-line capacity for processing and elaborating new information. A fundamental skill in learning English is listening comprehension. The ability to listen is crucial when learning a foreign language because receiving language input is the key to language learning. More and more academics at home and abroad have started to focus on the relationship between STM and listening comprehension in recent years. STM has been demonstrated to be a crucial component of listening comprehension, making it extremely vital to increase listening comprehension in second languages. STM helps in the immediate processing of incoming auditory information when listening in a second language. This essay investigates the relationship between short-term memory and listening comprehension skills of English - majored students from Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade. The results' implications suggest that improving short-term memory capacity is necessary to get students ready for the listening IELTS examination.

Language competency in autism: a scientometric review.

The study of atypical language acquisition in children with, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is crucial for both practical and theoretical reasons. Understanding the course of language development in ASD can inform potential interventions and treatments while shedding light on the necessary conditions for language development in typically developing children. This scientometric review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the research landscape in this field, identifying trends, patterns, and knowledge gaps. The methods employed in this review comprise a systematic search of three major databases: Scopus (5,026 documents), Web of Science (WoS; 4,570 documents), and Lens (3,235 documents). The analysis includes bibliometric indicators such as knowledge production size by year, country, university, source, subject area, author, and citation. Scientometric indicators consist of burst detection, silhouette, clusters, citation, and co-occurrence of keywords. The analysis reveals clusters focusing on various aspects of language development in ASD, such as motor skills, parental communication strategies, cognitive processes, and genetics. Key clusters include the relationship between fine motor gestures and language usage patterns, the role of expressive language skills and maternal gesture use, and the effectiveness of online parent training modules for improving prelinguistic predictors. Other noteworthy clusters explore the importance of core language skills, the role of natural language input and syntactic complexity, and the genetic underpinnings of language abilities in high-functioning adults with ASD. In conclusion, this scientometric review highlights the top 10 clusters and their respective Silhouette values, providing valuable insights into language acquisition in ASD. These findings have important implications for guiding future research directions and informing the creation of targeted and effective interventions to support language acquisition in this population.

William Dwight Whitney’s study of language acquisition in The Life and Growth of Language (1875): His entry point to his scientific method and theory of language and mind

ABSTRACT William Dwight Whitney (1827–1894) began The Life and Growth of Language: An Outline of Linguistic Science (1875) with an initial chapter fully devoted to language acquisition. He began his study of linguistic science with language acquisition because for him it was the logical starting point for a study of language, and it introduced his scientific method and his theory of language and mind. Throughout the chapter, Whitney exemplified the centring of his scientific method on direct observation. By beginning his study of language with language acquisition, he rejected the prevailing divine origin theory of his time, which contended that language was divinely created, given to humans, and in decline ever since. Rather, Whitney argued that language began with language acquisition, and that it was continually evolving to meet the ever-changing social and personal needs of its speakers. He also used language acquisition to introduce his reader to his theory of language and mind: a theory that would run consistently throughout his book. Whitney’s scientific method and his theory of language and mind positioned linguistics prominently among the emerging sciences of the late nineteenth century and would significantly influence a new course for linguistics in the twentieth century.

On the acquisition of tense and agreement in L2 English by adult speakers of L1 Chinese

Abstract This study investigates whether forms associated with verbal inflection can be acquired in relation to two UG-based L2 acquisition hypotheses: the Full Transfer Full Access (FTFA) Hypothesis (Schwartz, Bonnie & Rex Sprouse. 1994. Word order and nominative case in nonnative language acquisition: A longitudinal study of (L1 Turkish) German interlanguage. In Teun Hoekstra & Bonnie D. Schwartz (eds.), Language acquisition Studies in generative grammar, 317–368. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, Schwartz, Bonnie & Rex Sprouse. 1996. L2 cognitive states and the ‘full transfer/full access’ model. Second Language Research 12. 40–72) and the Interpretability Hypothesis (Tsimpli, Ianthi-maria & Maria Dimitrakopoulou. 2007. The Interpretability hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 23. 215–242). The former captures the insight that convergence on grammars like those of native speakers is possible, whereas the latter argues that a native/non-native divergence results from the inaccessibility of some uninterpretable syntactic features. Ninety adult L1 speakers of Chinese of different English proficiency levels were asked to interpret and produce tense and agreement in various contexts in three tasks. Results suggest that the underlying grammatical representations in the end-state grammar may not be the same as native speakers’. We speculate that the inaccessibility of the uninterpretable [uInfl:] feature of v and the uninterpretable [uInfl:*] feature of be are the potential source of difficulty in acquiring verbal inflection in L2 English.

The Enlightenment of Monitoring Theory on Japanese Language Teaching

Krashen's monitoring theory is the most influential one in the study of second language acquisition, and the core part of it is the language input hypothesis, which provides many valuable teaching implications for foreign language teaching and has been applied to the 21st century. At present, Japanese Teaching in China is facing some challenges. This paper will explore the problems existing in Japanese teaching and put forward some effective strategies to promote the development of Japanese Teaching in China. I hope these suggestions can bring some new thinking and improvement to Japanese teaching.