The first part of this commentary discusses the minimal requirements that any serious theory of language acquisition must meet. It must take into account the particular properties of the human language processor and the (linguistic and nonlinguistic) input, as well as the specific motivation which causes the learner to apply the former to the latter. Neglecting, or even not keeping constant, so...

The frequent formation of complex, hierarchically structured compounds is a striking property of German grammar to non-natives. This article asks how compounding works in second language (L2) German grammar, by exploring data from the error-annotated Falko corpus of native and advanced non-native German writing. Beyond differences in overall frequency and productivity of L2 compounding, I use a...

Second language (L2) attitude and motivation-related studies focusing on differences caused by age have mostly highlighted the temporal dimension of L2 motivation. Age-related motivation also been gainfully employed at comparisons between learners different groups recruited from learning environments. Such not, however, attempted an analysis attitudinal motivational that may exist among within ...

This study examined the relationships between L2 learners' anxiety, self-confidence and oral performance. The participants were 132 Korean college students who enrolled the English conversation classes in 2004. Questionnaires related to anxiety and self-confidence were given to the students and their oral performances were assessed in terms of IATEFL's criteria. Factor analysis indicated that c...

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,...

The acquisition of a foreign phonetic contrast requires the second language (L2) learner to attend to those acoustic dimensions that are informative for the distinction and to manipulate values along those dimensions during production. The discovery of informative dimensions in L2 can be complicated by the contrasts present in the native (L1) language. A well-known example is the difficulty tha...

Learner engagement has been the focus of a growing amount research in recent years both general educational psychology and field second language acquisition (SLA). However, while contributions on learner classrooms have provided valuable insights, is still only at early stages understanding complexity concept creating strong empirical evidence base. This study intended to contribute our current...

This study takes a dynamic approach to investigating engagement, examining fluctuations in cognitive-affective variables at regular time intervals during online collaborative second language (L2) writing tasks. Using conference software and editing software, 16 university students who use English as an L2, completed two problem-solution L2 tasks communication modes: video-chat text-chat. After ...

Abstract There is a great deal of variation in gains found between studies second language (L2) incidental vocabulary learning, as well many factors that affect learning. This meta-analysis investigated the effects exposure to L2 meaning-focused input on learning with an aim clarify proportional occur through Twenty-four primary were retrieved providing 29 different effect sizes and total sampl...

It is commonly agreed that learner target language output and spoken interaction are essential to communicative learning. This video-based classroom observation study of five lower secondary schools in Norway investigated how second (L2) English third (L3) French teachers responded their students when they spoke the class. Using categories functions from research corrective feedback research, L...