This paper aims at a comprehensive review of the growing body of research in L2 pragmatic acquisition, including both theoretical discussions and empirical studies to date. To this end, the paper deals with a number of issues which are grouped into four broad categories: the essential constituents of pragmatic competence, models of pragmatic development, major processes of pragmatic competence,...

This study investigated how native language background interacts with speaking style adaptations in determining levels of speech intelligibility. The aim was to explore whether native and high proficiency non-native listeners benefit similarly from native and non-native clear speech adjustments. The sentence-in-noise perception results revealed that fluent non-native listeners gained a large cl...

PURPOSE Research has shown that hand gestures affect comprehension and production of speech at semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic levels for both native language and second language (L2). This study investigated a relatively less explored question: Do hand gestures influence auditory learning of an L2 at the segmental phonology level? METHOD To examine auditory learning of phonemic vowel leng...

Aiming at effective perceptual training of second language learning, we carried out training experiments on Japanese geminate consonants. Native Korean learners were trained to identify geminate and singleton stop of Japanese. Since Korean language has no phonemic contrast between long and short consonants, learners have tried to learn their differences based on their categorical perception thr...

With over a decade of fruitful Universal Grammar (UG)-based research in second language acquisition (SLA), White (in press) suggests that "...perhaps the time has come to stop asking the broad question: is UG available to second language (L2) learners or not? ... but it is now the turn of a somewhat more detailed focus on the precise nature of the linguistic competence of language learners". Th...

Introduction and Aim: Repetition and imitation are among the oldest second language (L2) teaching approaches and are frequently used in the context of L2 learning and language therapy, despite some heavy criticism. Current neuroimaging techniques allow the neural mechanisms underlying repetition and imitation to be examined. This fMRI study examines the influence of verbal repetition and imitat...

Poster presentation Syllable duration and comprehensibility: The case of Finnish-speaking upper secondary school students’ L2 Swedish Henna Heinonen, University of Jyväskylä Prosodic features have been considered to have the biggest importance for comprehensibility in second language speech (e.g. Field 2005). For comprehensibility of L2 Swedish, stress and rhythm have been specified to be the m...

Fluency in a second language (L2) involves a quintessentially cognitive processing system that operates quickly and effectively. The perceived importance of researching fluency through a psycholinguistic lens has motivated the related L2 research to resort to current cognitive speaking-specific models. This study, drawing on Levelt’s (1999a) psycholinguistic model, probed the deficiency sources...

In this paper the prosodic structure of American Sign Language (ASL) narratives will be analyzed in three groups: two groups of native (L1) signers and one group of highly proficient, second language (L2) signers. The results of this study show that the performance in the native hearing, bilingual group is due to both to their ASL language experience, and, under certain conditions, to their exp...

Recent studies have suggested that proficient bilinguals show morphological decomposition in the L2, but the question remains as to whether this process is modulated by the cognateness of the morphemic constituents of L2 words and by L2 proficiency. To answer this question was the main goal of the present research. For that purpose, a masked priming lexical decision task was conducted manipulat...