This study explores how neural network models can simulate word production in second language (L2) learners. A neural network was trained to simulate L2 word production using a variety of word properties related to connectionist networks (hypernymy, polysemy, concreteness, and meaningfulness). The study demonstrates that a neural network can produce words to a similar degree as L2 learners. The...

The present study examines the coordination of lexical and paralinguistic F0 in second language (henceforth L2) production. We tested how L2 learners manage to handle F0 when F0 in their first language (henceforth L1) carries a paralinguistic function, but a lexical one in their L2 and vice versa. Participants (fifteen L1 Japanese speakers and fifteen L1 German speakers, proficient also in thei...

L2 learners’ multiple intelligences (MI) profile plays a central role in theirperformance on different aspects of language learning, one of which is the use oflanguage learning strategies (LLSs). Gaining insights into the relationship betweenMI and LLSs makes L2 teachers better understand their learners’ strengths andweaknesses in the use of such strategies and lets them guide the learners bett...

This study compared the effects of two annotation modalities on the reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate level EFL learners. The two experimental groups under study received treatment on 10 academic L2 reading passages under one of two conditions: One group received treatment on key words in the reading passages through a multimedia environment providing textual annotations. The second...

This study examines developmental change in the production of epenthetic vowels by Japanese learners of English in relation to acquisition of L2 English speech rhythm. Seventy-two Japanese learners of English in the J-AESOP corpus were divided into lowerand higher-level learners according to their proficiency score and the frequency of vowel epenthesis. Three learners were excluded because no v...

This thesis investigates the production and perception of optional liaison consonants by Anglophone learners of French. While second/foreign language (L2) phonology has long been recognized as an area of learner difficulty, there have been few studies on the acquisition of liaison by L2 learners of French. The two studies contained in this thesis hope to expand our understanding of liaison as i...