Adult knowledge of a language involves correctly balancing lexically-based and more language-general patterns. For example, verb argument structures may sometimes readily generalize to new verbs, yet with particular verbs may resist generalization. From the perspective of acquisition, this creates significant learnability problems, with some researchers claiming a crucial role for verb semantic...

There is ample evidence that native speakers anticipate upcoming information at various levels during sentence comprehension. In contrast, some studies on late second-language (L2) learners support the view that L2 learners do not anticipate information during processing, or at least, not to the same extent as native speakers do. In the current paper, I propose that native and L2 speakers are u...

The present study investigated the effect of orthography on the learning and subsequent processing of pronunciation variants in a second language. Dutch learners of French learned reduced pronunciation variants that result from schwa-zero alternation in French (e.g., reduced /ʃnij/ from chenille 'caterpillar'). Half of the participants additionally learnt the words' spellings, which correspond ...

Increasing the effectiveness of educational processes is one of the greatest challenges for information society. The paper presents the usage of M Tree structure for classification of the learners based on their final marks obtained in their respective courses. The classical building algorithm of M-Trees with an original accustomed clustering procedure was implemented. The data that are managed...

The present study tracked activation pattern differences in response to sign language processing by late hearing second language learners of American Sign Language. Learners were scanned before the start of their language courses. They were scanned again after their first semester of instruction and their second, for a total of 10 months of instruction. The study aimed to characterize modality-...

Listening is regarded as an interactive process involving decoding of information. This study was launched to find out the impact of bottom-up (BU) and top-down (TD) techniques on Iranian lower and upper intermediate learners’ listening comprehension. We selected a total of 120 participants in six intact classes, three lower intermediate and three upper intermediate. The proficiency level of th...

In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, problem solving tends to be highly procedural, and these procedures are typically taught with general instructional text and specific worked examples. Subgoal labels have been used in worked examples to help learners understand the procedure being demonstrated and improve problem solving performance. The effect of subgoal la...

This study sought to explore the possible relationship between reading anxiety and reading proficiency and also between reading anxiety and language learners’ use of reading strategies. The majority of studies on language anxiety have been quantitative to date. This study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was quantitative, and the second consisted of a series of case studies using in...

To contribute to a better understanding of L2 sentence processing, the present study examines how second language (L2) learners parse temporary ambiguous sentences containing relative clauses. Results are reported from both off-line and on-line experiments with three groups of advanced learners of Greek, with Spanish, German or Russian as native language (L1), as well as results from correspond...