This study investigated how vowel epenthesis, a typical suprasegmental error produced by Japanese learners of English, is realized in their speech production of L2 English. We investigated two aspects: (i) whether loanword epenthesis phonology in Japanese transfers to English speech production, and (ii) how learners’ English proficiency level affects vowel epenthesis. In Japanese loanword phono...

Many explanations have been offered for the widely attested problems L2 learners experience with the English article system. One influential proposal from formal linguistics is the Article Choice Parameter and associated Fluctuation Hypothesis (Ionin, Ko & Wexler, 2004) which states that learners of English fluctuate between correct and incorrect usage by sometimes selecting articles on the bas...

The fastest-growing student population in U.S. schools today is children of immigrants, half of whom do not speak English fluently and are thus labeled English learners. Although the federal government requires school districts to provide services to English learners, it offers states no policies to follow in identifying, assessing, placing, or instructing them. Margarita Calderón, Robert Slavi...

linguistic/cultural differences of learners’ native language with english as a foreign language, gender and english proficiency level are among those numerous variables which affect english learning and its quality in iranian context. the present study was an attempt to illuminate the effects of these variables on performing integrative approach of general english tests (cloze test and recall t...

How the properties of a first language (Mandarin, Korean) influence the comprehension of sentences in a second language (English) was investigated in a series of self-paced reading time studies. Native Mandarinand Korean-speaking learners of English were compared with native English speakers on how they resolved a temporary ambiguity about the relationship between a verb and the noun following ...

This study examines whether language-specific input influences children’s nonlinguistic spatial cognition as they acquire their first language. Recent research on infant cognition has shown that preverbal infants can make a distinction between tight-fit and loose-fit containment relations. This distinction is systematically made in Korean (kkita ‘fit tightly’), but not in English (in). Using a ...

imported instructional english textbooks in iran and the learners’ attitudes towards english. further, the instructors’ awareness of these ideologies was examined through a questionnaire. to find the ideological values, a content analysis of conversations, texts, and  pictorial prompts in spectrum and true to life english textbook series was conducted and the extant ideologies were categorized ...

The view “the earlier the better” (e.g., [10]) may be a myth in a foreign language instructional setting (e.g., [1]). To identify successful late learners, this study compares early and late learners studying English as a foreign language in the situation of classroom minimal exposure to English, focusing on the perception of English consonants ([l, r]) produced by different talkers with and wi...

Motivating Japanese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners is essential in order for them to learn English conversation effectively. We developed an English conversation mobile learning system based on a heuristic model of variables influencing the concept of “willing to communicate” by MacIntyre et al. The system has three features: an application that learners can use anywhere and anyti...

This study examined whether late-learning English-German L2 learners and late-learning German-English L2 learners use prosodic cues to disambiguate temporarily ambiguous L1 and L2 sentences during speech production. Experiments 1a and 1b showed that English-German L2 learners and German-English L2 learners used a pitch rise and pitch accent to disambiguate prepositional phrase-attachment senten...