In the history of psycholinguistics, there are traditional accounts that have been told about language learning and processing. These accounts revolve around the constraints imposed by the age of language learning and by universal principles that are assumed to be natively given. The contribution of Brian MacWhinney and his collaborators has been…

Spelling remains a fundamental skill to acquire because it is foundational for successful literacy attainment, even with the advancement of technological writing tools. Nevertheless, it is an understudied skill in research, especially among language learners. This literature review aims to shed light on the English spelling skills of Arabic L1…

This systematic review explores the challenges of pronunciation in the ESL curriculum within the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) framework in Bangladesh. Pronunciation, a critical component of language proficiency, often presents significant hurdles for ESL learners. The review highlights key issues such as inadequate teacher training,…

This study demonstrates how native and learner corpora can enhance modal verb treatment in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) textbooks used in mainland China. Data analysis compares modal verbs in the textbook and native corpus by referring to distributional features, semantic functions and co-occurring constructions; and the analysis of the…

This study examined how key factors of FFI (degree of explicitness, L1 similarity, proficiency level, and grammar type) influence the accuracy of production. A total of 22 experimental studies, all of which had Korean participants and productive assessments of speech or writing, were selected for analysis. Results revealed that explicit grammar…

This paper aims to review the theoretical concept of interlingual interference of the mother tongue, Thai to the target language, English and intralingual interference found in EFL student writing in Thai context with the attempt to define the existence of errors according to their sources. This review article also exemplifies some frequent errors…

This article presents a selective review of previous research findings on first language (L1) attrition. The review is intentionally limited in scope as it only discusses studies on morphosyntactic attrition in the L1 grammar of adult bilinguals. To this end--and in order to present the most current line of research in this field--I first report…

Reviews literature on language transfer and language universals. Defines language universals as those linguistic elements which are common to all languages. Discusses language transfer and language universals as interacting phenomena. Concludes that language universals serve as an overall guiding principle in second language acquisition,…

Considers interference problems of Arabic-speaking learners of French and English on four levels: single-word; grammar-rule; intonation; and the study of French and English literature. (CB)

Details six major research findings regarding second-language acquisition, including transitional stages for acquiring syntax; fixed-order emergence of grammatical morphemes; language acquisition progress from unmarked to marked elements; first-language influence; rule-governed learner output; and learner access to input. (27 references) (CB)

A review of the acquisition of second-language phonology focuses on the following areas: (1) the various factors that have been found to influence the acquisition process, and (2) a discussion of topics in the phonological description of the learner language. (46 references) (GLR)

An exploration of a popular model of bilingualism and bilingual behavior, based on Ervin and Osgood's (1954) survey of psycholinguistic theory and research, discusses misinterpretations, limits, and risks; natural and simulated bilingualism and complementary distribution of domains; and subordination and interference, compounding and fusion, and…

Discusses the vowel contrast of the vowel systems of English and Spanish, and concentrates on the difficulties posed by the interference of the English Schwa sound. (GLR)

Several kinds of interference in the transfer of reading skills from the first to the second language are considered, and implications for second language classroom instruction are discussed. (MSE)

Explores the possibility of establishing predictability models for interference as well as ascertaining the degree of competence adult second language learners could achieve before being able to eliminate interference in production of the target language. (CB)