This article reports on a study exploring the differential effects of immediate and delayed corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of the English past tense. One hundred and forty-five seventh-grade EFL learners were assigned to four groups: Immediate CF, Delayed CF, Task Only, and Control. Each experimental group performed six focused…

This study aims to advance the understanding of sociolinguistic competence among near-native speakers and to further knowledge about the acquisition of variable structures. We conduct a quantitative analysis of variable future-time expression in informal conversations between near-native and native speakers of French. In addition to examining…

Learning to use prepositions in English as a second language (L2) has been widely acknowledged to pose significant difficulties to learners, especially within metaphorical contexts. Difficulties relate to the complex distributional patterns of prepositions in discourse, namely, the variety of collocations requiring their use, as well as…

This study investigated the processing of English articles by second language (L2) speakers whose first language (L1) is Korean. Previous studies in L2 English article use had some issues unresolved such as using offline tasks, conflating definiteness with real-world knowledge, and operationalizing definiteness and relevant constructs in ways that…

In this article, we aim to contribute to the debate about the use of subordination as a measure of language proficiency. We compare two theories of SLA--specifically, processability theory (PT; Pienemann, 1998) and dynamic systems theory (DST; de Bot, Lowie, & Verspoor, 2007)--and, more particularly, how they address the development of…

Proficiency in second language (L2) has traditionally been linked to grammatical competence. However, as opposed to common misconceptions about language learning, to be proficient in a second language does not only entail the ability to produce grammatically correct sentences, but it also entails the ability to use this language appropriately. The…

This research study empirically investigated the impact of study abroad context on L2 learners' pragmatic development compared with study at home group in Iran. For the study abroad group the participants were selected from the Iranian students who registered in a six-month program in language institutes in India (Mysore) and for the study at home…

The present study aims to investigate the general characteristics of topicprominent typological interlanguage development of Chinese learners of English in terms of acquiring subject-prominent English structures from a discourse perspective. Topic structures mainly appear in Chinese discourse in the form of topic chains (Wang, 2002; 2004). The…

A study explored similarities and differences in relative pronoun use by native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. The study was conducted with 40 university students, 20 NSs and 20 NNSs. Specifically, the study examined the frequency of relative pronoun use and the spontaneity of subjects' responses in completing a sentence…

A study in interlanguage pragmatics investigated the effect of three types of rejoinder (positive, negative, absent) on non-native informants' choices of strategies to perform complaints, requests, and apologies. Results show strategy choice differentially affected by rejoinder type, suggesting that findings from studies using different production…

Compared the discourse of 33 college learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) on topics related to their major field of study and on general topics. Results suggest that text construction is facilitated by learners' expertise and investment in the topic of conversation. (contains 40 references) (MDM)

A study extended previous research on second language learners' use of interlanguage knowledge in making grammaticality judgments. The grammatical construction under consideration is the existential-presentational (E-P) sentence. This construction is described, and it is shown how, due to universal constraints of information structure, it is…

A study of the interlanguage of bilinguals and multilinguals compared the oral French proficiency of 20 native Swedish-speaking and 20 Finnish-speaking university students as evidenced in error patterns in oral tests. With the exception of phonological and phonetic errors in pronunciation, errors were classified by word class (article, noun,…

Edinburgh Working Papers is intended to show a yearly cross-section of current work in Edinburgh's Department of Applied Linguistics and to elicit reactions and criticism. Papers in this compilation include the following: "Asymmetric Resetting of the Non-Empty Topic Parameter by Chinese-Speaking Learners of English"; "The…

The selection of papers from the 6th Annual International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning (Urbana, Illinois, April 1992) include: "Discourse Markers Across Language" (Bruce Fraser); "Conjunction and Causality: Pragmatics and the Lexicon" (Yael Ziv); "Situated Discourse: The Sociocultural Context of…