The Douglas Fir Group (2016) sought to articulate a transdisciplinary agenda for SLA but said little about multilingualism specifically. Moreover, many multilinguals are under siege in a worrisome world where threats to human difference have risen to the mainstream in the aftermath of Brexit and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. I argue that…

This systematic review synthesizes the literature (involving 62 empirical studies) regarding the effectiveness of cognitive linguistics-inspired language pedagogies (CL-ILPs) on second language (L2) learning. It begins with an overview of the main theoretical tenets of cognitive linguistics followed by a description of the data selection, coding,…

This study investigated to what extent and how novice second-language (L2) Spanish learners use the cognitive linguistics-informed concept of boundedness to support their development of aspect--namely, the Spanish preterite and imperfect. The concept was presented within the framework of concept-based instruction (CBI) as part of a regular,…

This coda article offers unified theoretical accounts of the major findings of the empirical studies in this special issue of "Optimizing Second Language Practice in the Classroom: Perspectives from Cognitive Psychology." We present a theoretical framework from cognitive psychology (desirable difficulty framework) and link it to the…

Addressing themes from the Douglas Fir Group's (2016) transdisciplinary framework, this paper bridges boundaries between cognitive and social disciplines by showing how social contextual factors can affect the psycholinguistic development of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) in learner language. Sociolinguistic and sociocultural frameworks…

Cognition is not just 'in the head'; it extends well beyond the skull and the skin. Non-Cartesian Cognitive Science views cognition as being embodied, environmentally embedded, enacted, encultured, and socially distributed. The Douglas Fir Group (2016) likewise recognizes languages as emergent, social, integrated phenomena. Language is the…

In cognitivist Second Language Acquisition (SLA), attention and noticing are described as psycholinguistic processes that (may) have a role in language learning. The operationalization of such constructs, however, poses methodological challenges, since neither online nor off-line measures are coextensive with these cognitive processes that occur…

We examined the role of modality in learning second language (L2) grammar and forming implicit (unconscious) and explicit (conscious) knowledge. To this end, we isolated the effects of the physical medium of input (i.e., aural or visual) from those of the presentation method (i.e., word-by-word or simultaneous). We also explored the role of test…

These concluding reflections seek to put the articles of this special issue in a broader context. The article begins by looking at the ideas of cognitive linguistics and linguistic relativity that are invoked. It then considers the questions that arise about the relationship between two or more languages in the same mind, the differences between…

This article investigates bilingual versus monolingual construal of manner of motion in speech and gesture across three languages--Mandarin, Japanese, and English--argued to be typologically distinct in speech and co-speech gesture (Brown & Chen, 2013; McNeill, 2001; Slobin, 2004b; Talmy, 1991). Narrative descriptions of motion were elicited…

The aim of the current study is to investigate motion event cognition in second language learners in a higher education context. Based on recent findings that speakers of grammatical aspect languages like English attend less to the endpoint (goal) of events than do speakers of nonaspect languages like Swedish in a nonverbal categorization task…

Cross-linguistic research on motion events has shown that Spanish speakers and English speakers have different patterns of thinking for speaking about motion, both linguistically and gesturally (for a review, see Stam, 2010b). Spanish speakers express path linguistically with verbs, and their path gestures tend to occur with path verbs, whereas…

The aim of the present study is twofold. One, we will show that Talmy's (1985, 1991, 2000) motion typology that groups Russian and English together as satellite-framed languages may be justified on linguistic grounds but is inadequate from a psycholinguistic point of view. Two, we will argue that the shortcomings of the typology may account…

Adopting a functional perspective that views grammar as a rich resource for making contextualized meanings in a culture- and language-specific way, the article reconsiders the role of explicit grammar instruction in developing communicative abilities of second language learners. It draws on two distinct but complementary research frameworks,…

The overall aim of this article is to argue that the functioning of every language system is based on a potential multilingual competence. The empirical basis for this is now broad enough to gain a comprehensive view on the overall competence of a multilingual individual. Moreover, increasing theoretical reflection has conferred an increasingly…