According to the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM), articulatory similarity/dissimilarity between sounds of the second language (L2) and the native language (L1) governs L2 learnability in adulthood and predicts L2 sound perception by naïve listeners. We performed behavioral and neurophysiological experiments on two groups of university students at the first and fifth years of the English lan...

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and a longitudinal language learning approach were applied to investigate the relationship between the achieved second language (L2) proficiency during L2 learning and the reorganization of structural connectivity between core language areas. Language proficiency tests and DTI scans were obtained from German students before and after they completed an intensive 6-...

In this paper we present new research in translation assistance. We describe a system capable of translating native language (L1) fragments to foreign language (L2) fragments in an L2 context. Practical applications of this research can be framed in the context of second language learning. The type of translation assistance system under investigation here encourages language learners to write i...

Research on spoken language bilinguals has shown that there is a significant relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and literacy outcomes. The mechanism of SES as a predictor of literacy success has two competing explanations. One assumes a direct impact of SES on literacy through expanded opportunities to read and better maternal mediation of literacy activities; the other assumes an ...

We review empirical findings from children with primary or "specific" language impairment (PLI) and children who learn a single language from birth (L1) and a second language (L2) beginning in childhood. The PLI profile is presented in terms of both language and nonlinguistic features. The discussion of L2 learners emphasizes variable patterns of growth and skill distribution in L1 and L2 which...

anguage assessment literacy (LAL), mainly defined as knowledge and skills of language assessment, in the last two decades, has started to receive the attention it deserves. As one of the significant findings, based on a plethora of research, many second language (L2) teachers have been indicated to be professionally incompetent in terms of LAL. To investigate the status of LAL among Ira...

Multilingual patients pose a unique challenge when planning epilepsy surgery near language cortex because the cortical representations of each language may be distinct. These distinctions may not be evident with routine electrocortical stimulation mapping (ESM). Electrocorticography (ECoG) has recently been used to detect task-related spectral perturbations associated with functional brain acti...

Drawing on Norton Peirce's (1995) theory of investment and Darvin and Norton's (2015) expanded the model of investment, the present study aims to research investment in second language (L2) learning among Iranian English language learners. The participants included 852 male and female English language learners belonging to different age groups and English language proficiency levels. A ...

This paper discusses the question of the effect of experience in the use of a second language (L2) as a factor in the acquisition of L2 phonology. In a recent study of the acquisition of the Swedish quantity contrast a considerable inter-subject variability in the ability to produce and perceive this aspect of the L2 could be observed. The possibility that this variability could be due to varia...