Explaining why some linguistic features and constructions are easy or difficult to acquire in a second language has become a prominent current concern in generative second language acquisition (SLA) research. Based on a comparison of findings on the L2 acquisition of functional morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, the Bottleneck Hypothesis argues that functional morphemes and their fea...

It is axiomatic that most children, unlike adults, learn to speak and understand a second language (L2) in a native-like manner1 (Munro, Flege, & MacKay, 1996). One of the most salient factors influencing the outcome of child and adult L2 learning is the effect of the leamer's native language (Ll) on the ability to learn L2 consonants and vowels (or "sounds" for short). Adult L2 learners' speec...

In the field of second language (L2) production, phonetic investigations of L2 fricatives are rare due to the complexity of establishing similarities and differences between L1 and L2 fricatives. The study of English /s/ production by L2 Thai learners has not received much attention, as researchers on L2 English have typically believed that learners would produce this sound with ease due to the...

This study examined the relation between long-term music training and child development based on 250 Chinese elementary school students' academic development of first language (L1), second language (L2), and mathematics. We found that musician children outperformed non-musician children only on musical achievement and second language development. Additionally, although music training appeared t...

Title of dissertation: SIMILARITY IN L2 PHONOLOGY Shannon L. Barrios, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Dissertation directed by: Professor William J. Idsardi Department of Linguistics Adult second language (L2) learners often experience difficulty producing and perceiving non-native phonological contrasts. Even highly proficient bilinguals, who have been exposed to an L2 for long periods of time, str...

This paper aims at providing a comprehensive review of previous research on second language (L2) writing. Major issues and the relevant findings from five areas of inquiry into L2 writing are presented, namely, L2 writers’ characteristics, the L2 writing process, L2 writing feedback, L2 writing instruction, and L2 writers’ texts. It is found that L2 writing is quite a complex process which invo...

In earlier work on second language acquisition by adults, Klein & Perdue (1997) have shown that L2-learners tend to create their own language system. They do this, not only by trying to follow the grammatical rules of the L2, but also by imposing on their new language system a number of constraints. If the learners do not violate these constraints, chances are that their utterances will be corr...

In the acquisition of a second language, numerous factors interact simultaneously, including the patterns of the first language (L1), the patterns of the target language (L2), universals of language acquisition, and the amount and type of exposure to the L2. English is learned as a second language in India, where the first languages of the English learners differ widely in the phonotactics of c...

Willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language (L2) is believed to have a direct and sustained influence on learners’ actual usage frequency of the targeted language. To help overcome the lack of suitable environments to increase L2 learners’ WTC, our approach is to implement a WTC model based conversational agent. In this paper, we focus on the dialogue management aspects of our approac...

l2 research has shown that instruction in l2 pragmatics is necessary. the current study evaluated the impact of explicit instruction on efl learner's awareness and production of three speech acts of request, apology, and complaint. it also probed whether learners’ language proficiency plays any role in incorporating pragmatic instruction into the l2 classroom. iranian undergraduate students maj...