Despite the extensive research on negotiation of meaning (NoM) using unfocused tasks, to our knowledge no study portrays what extent NoM contributes learners’ language accuracy, grammar, and vocabulary, in particular, a focused task. Therefore, this set out obtain in-depth information about contribution accuracy when learners were assigned engage task discussion. The participants, treated as th...

Abstract This study combines explicit (pen-and-paper) and sensitive (time-pressured) measures to gauge the impact of three instructional interventions (contextualized input with meaning-focused activities, contextualized word-focused decontextualized exercises) on learning 20 L2 French target verbs. Participants ( N = 313, L1 Dutch) completed a combination (form recognition, meaning recall, gra...

Models of discourse and narration elaborated within the classical compositional framework have been characterized as bottom-up models, according to which discourse analysis proceeds incrementally, from phrase and sentence local meaning to discourse global meaning. In this paper we will argue against these models. Assuming as a case study the issue of discourse coherence, we suggest that the ass...

In this chapter, it is argued that meaning in life is an important variable for human well-being. Literature supporting this contention is reviewed, and complexities regarding defining meaning in life are discussed. Definitions of meaning have focused on several components, two of which appear central and unique to meaning in life, suggesting a conceptual framework of meaning in life comprised ...

Is the left inferior frontal cortex (LIFC) a single functional region, or can it be subdivided into distinct areas that contribute differently to word processing? Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate anterior and posterior LIFC when the meaning and sound of words were being processed. Relative to no stimulation, TMS of the anterior LIFC selectively increased respo...

The lexicon has long been assumed to be the source of all conceptual content expressed by sentences. Syntactic structures have correspondingly been seen only as providing instructions for the assembly of the concepts expressed by words. Under this view, sentences have meaning, but the syntactic structures which sentences instantiate do not. This paper challenges this view: it uses the phenomeno...

Focus on form has received considerable attention as researchers and theorists have enthusiastically embraced an integration of meaning-focused and form-focused instruction in the L2 classroom. Therefore, the present paper is an attempt to delve deeply into elucidating different taxonomies subsumed under the specious polarization of Focus on Form (FoF) and Focus on Forms (FoFs). It then offers ...

The aim of the present investigation is to find out more about the meaning of two Dutch melodic shapes: the default pitch accent or ‘pointed hat’ and the accent-lending fall. Can the meaning difference between these pitch configurations be better described as a difference in information status or as a difference in attitude? Subjects were presented with the two contours on short sentences in sp...

Personal and social resources facilitate the adaptation to critical life events. The present study investigates whether general self-efficacy beliefs and received social support elevate cancer patients' physical, emotional, and social well-being directly, or whether these effects are rather mediated by active or meaning-focused coping. Gastrointestinal, colorectal, and lung cancer patients were...