once severely rejected, first language (l1) use is no more considered to be inherently detrimental in foreign language pedagogy. recent research within sociocultural framework has come up with numerous facilitative roles for l1 use (anton and dicamilla, 1999; swain and lapkin, 2000; storch and wigglesworth, 2003). also, studies from humanistic perspectives that deal with the teachers’ and learn...

This paper reports on part of the first phase of a longitudinal project investigating the development of academic language in English as the Language of Teaching and Learning (LoLT) by Foundation phase learners in two different educational contexts. In the first context, the learners were all English additional language (EAL) learners taught by EAL teachers. In the second context EAL and Englis...

This study of the pragmatics of cross-cultural text messages throws light on the evolution of new hybrid forms of literacy and on the complex ways that culture is expressed and mediated in second language/ second culture contexts. An investigation was carried out into the pragmatics of apology in first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) short messaging service text messages of adult Malay s...

Once severely rejected, first language (L1) use is no more considered to be inherently detrimental in foreign language pedagogy. Recent research within sociocultural framework has come up with numerous facilitative roles for L1 use (Anton and DiCamilla, 1999; Swain and Lapkin, 2000; Storch and Wigglesworth, 2003). Also, studies from humanistic perspectives that deal with the teachers’ and learn...

Previous studies on bilingualism have focused on the more salient effects of the first language (L1) on the second language (L2). This study looks at the effects of the L2 on the L1 by comparing two language dominance groups in their production of non-referential verb phrases. Data from the two language dominance groups are compared, yielding an examination of the kinds of transfer effects that...

In an experimental study of language switching and selection, bilinguals named numerals in either their first or second language unpredictably. Response latencies (RTs) on switch trials (where the response language changed from the previous trial) were slower than on nonswitch trials. As predicted, the language-switching cost was consistently larger when switching to the dominant L1 from the we...

This study investigates the relationship among working memory (WM), first language (L1), second language (L2), and mathematics; with an aim to understand whether achievement in mathematics and L1 is related to performance in later L2 learning; and if so, whether WM components (i.e. phonological loop and central executive) play a role in this relationship between mathematics and language. A seco...

We present a new cross-lingual task for SemEval concerning the translation of L1 fragments in an L2 context. The task is at the boundary of Cross-Lingual Word Sense Disambiguation and Machine Translation. It finds its application in the field of computer-assisted translation, particularly in the context of second language learning. Translating L1 fragments in an L2 context allows language learn...

Research suggests that the size of the second language (L2) vowel inventory relative to the native (L1) inventory may affect the discrimination and acquisition of L2 vowels. Models of non-native and L2 vowel perception stipulate that naïve listeners' non-native and L2 perceptual patterns may be predicted by the relationship in vowel inventory size between the L1 and the L2. Specifically, having...

There is substantial debate over the mental representation of regular past tense forms in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) processing. Specifically, the controversy revolves around the nature of morphologically complex forms such as the past tense –ed in English and how morphological structures of such forms are represented in the mental lexicon. This study focuses on the resul...