In this article we compare five groups of learners acquiring Dutch gender as marked on determiners and adjectival inflection. Groups of L1 (first language) children and L1-SLI (first-language specific-language-impairment) children are compared to three Turkish-Dutch L2 (second language) groups: adult L2, child L2 and child L2-SLI. Overall, our…

This quasi-experimental study explores the effects of three types of instruction (form-based, meaning-based, and form- plus meaning-based) on the learning of Japanese relative clauses (RCs) and postsecondary Japanese as a foreign language learners' ability to generalize different types of relativization, examined in comparison to the predictions…

Research on the effect of bilingualism on third language acquisition was initially set in the framework of the study of potential differences between monolinguals acquiring a second language and bilinguals learning a third language. However, many authors have already started to concentrate on third language acquisition itself, and have…

Although Firth and Wagner (1997) did not explicitly discuss the issue of identity in second language acquisition (SLA) research, their article was symptomatic of a general trend to open up SLA to social theory and sociological and sociolinguistic research, which in turn led some researchers to explore links between second language (L2) learning…

Reports on an experiment that seems to indicate that hypnosis can improve foreign language pronunciation. (Author/AM)

The research base for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is disturbingly small, with serious obstacles that limit much of the research's relevance to the practitioner. Practitioners and researchers must expand this research base to fully explore the many uses of CALL in the field. (CB))

When elementary, junior high, and college students were given German pronunciation instruction for two weeks and tested, the two older groups performed significantly better. (Editor/SP)

Using a delayed mimicry paradigm to assess speakers' awareness of nondistinctive phonetic differences which, in part, distinguish languages, the study provides tentative evidence that such differences are detectable by language learners and do not present an impossible barrier to phonetic learning in second-language acquisition. (EKN)

Cites research that the typical second language classroom experience of literature is indeed a task rather than a pleasure. Asks whether pleasure and learner-centeredness cannot be developed further than is usually the case to maximize the potential of literature for second language learners. (Author/VWL)

Discusses frequency effects in language acquisition. Provides an example of how frequency may relate to grammatical judgments of nonnative speakers acquisition of multiple wh-questions. (Author/VWL)

Responds to Ellis (2002), which focuses on frequency in language processing, language use, and language acquisition. Suggests his findings are consistent with those of second language acquisition researchers working with a variationist framework. Provides a brief overview of this research area and describes a psycholinguistic model of language…

Reviews four recent books of current research in vocabulary acquisition: "Exploring the Second Language Mental Lexicon," (D. Singleton); "Assessing Vocabulary," (J. Read); "Vocabulary in Language Teaching" (N. Schmitt); "Learning Vocabulary in Another Language" (L.S.P. Nation). (Author/VWL)

Discusses the work of Stephen Krashen, examining his insights and discussing the views of his critics. (Author/VWL)

Discusses "emergenitism," a view of cognition stressing interaction between organism and environment and denying existence of predetermined, domain-specific faculties or capacities. It is an alternative to special nativist theories of the mind, such as theories of universal grammar. rejects arguments raised against "special nativism" and looks at…

Contends that Lightbown (2000) manifests a misconception of the relationship between applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and language teaching. Suggests that it does so by failing to see he direct causal link between the field and the pre-1985 developments in language teaching, and by failing to address the unrecognized failure of…