second language acquisition (sla) always happens when the learners live and have contact with the native speakers of a second language. although this study investigates learning english by ten native children of farsi, the authors try to simulate the second language acquisition environment. the research deals with the initial state and further development in the child second language learning o...

Background/Context: Throughout schooling, English learners (ELs) perform well below their monolingual English-speaking peers on literacy assessments, and Hispanics make up the majority of EL students in the United States. There is a strong consensus about the importance of early English oral language skills for ELs’ literacy development, yet teachers are not adequately prepared to meet the need...

This study used a novel method to explore different schedules of spacing in young EFL learners. In doing so, we taught young EFL learners English–Farsi word pairs using different spacing schedules (massed vs. spaced). In the massed condition, learners studied five-word pairs in session one and five-other word pairs one week later. In the spaced condition, the learners studied 10-word pairs in s...

Previous studies showed that children learning a language with an obligatory singular/plural distinction (Russian and English) learn the meaning of the number word for one earlier than children learning Japanese, a language without obligatory number morphology (Barner, Libenson, Cheung, & Takasaki, 2009; Sarnecka, Kamenskaya, Yamana, Ogura, & Yudovina, 2007). This can be explained by difference...

This study aims to contribute to the knowledge base on the status and development of emergent literacy skills of learners receiving formal education in their second or additional language. The focus is on young English language learners (ELLs), i.e. learners whose home language is not English but who have English as their language of teaching and learning. This article reports on a study that i...

the bulk of research within the interactionist framework seems to be consensually pointing to the beneficial effects of interaction in sla. however, few studies have investigated the role of training in providing and perceiving interactional feedback, especially among young learners. this study probed the effects of training prior to engagement in interaction in case of young learners acquiring...