The present study explores the effects of distributed practice by extending this area of research to L2 learning from audiovisual input. A total of 96 L1 Russian elementary to advanced learners of English watched five episodes of captioned TV series under three viewing distribution conditions: longer spacing of viewing once per week; shorter…

This study of second language idiom acquisition investigates the interaction of two factors, the L1 effect and the effect of supportive context in the L2 input, when both are available to learners. An experiment consisting of a pretest, a computer-assisted instructional treatment session and a posttest employed three idiom types that differed in…

Phonological decoding, defined here as converting the written forms of words (or letter strings) into the phonological forms they represent, has been argued to play an important role in various aspects of L2 learning. Previous studies have emphasised the importance of transfer in L2 decoding, interpretable as the automatic triggering of L1-based…

Television is considered an important source of comprehensible input for second language learners of English and there is some evidence that L2 words can be learned incidentally by watching television. Few studies have looked at the role of TV viewing for learning formulaic sequences, despite the ubiquity of formulaic sequences in spoken English,…

This study explored the experiences and language gains of Chinese-background English language learners living in homestays during a short-term study abroad (SA) programme in Australia. Forty-one learners took part in listening dictation pre- and post-tests to assess their acquisition of idiomatic phrasal verbs, and also completed weekly journals…

Very little research has been conducted on the effects of CLIL on L1 competence development. This article compares CLIL and non-CLIL learners' levels of attainment in Spanish Language and Literature in seven public schools in the South of Spain. Learners' verbal intelligence and motivation were previously matched in order to homogenise the sample.…

This paper reports on an intervention study with young Polish beginners (mean age: 8 years, 3 months) learning English at school. It seeks to identify whether exposure to rhythmic input improves knowledge of word order and function words. The "prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis", relevant in developmental psycholinguistics, provided the…

This study investigates Swedish students' ability to produce the discourse of the subject history, in a situation where they had to demonstrate historical knowledge in written explanations, and where both English and Swedish are involved. The students attend a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programme at the upper secondary school…