Whilst teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) rightly focuses on meaningful and purposeful transactional language use, interpersonal language is often downplayed or given cursory treatment even though it is an equally essential and perhaps even more fulfilling dimension of target language interaction. Interpersonal language as…

Verbal Fluency (VF) task total scores are widely used in language attrition studies, but they do not provide insight into the processes underlying optimal performance. We analyse the efficacy of clustering (subcategories within a category) and switching (shifting between these subcategories) strategies in phonemic (PVF) and semantic (SVF) tasks.…

Indigenous peoples of Taiwan, the most disadvantaged of the minority groups, account for only about 2.4% of the total population. Within the Minnan dominant society of Taiwan, the Indigenous minority groups are confronted by critical language loss often attributed to cultural and structural assimilation factors. This study aims to investigate…

Speech disfluencies can guide the ways in which listeners interpret spoken language. Here, we examined whether three-year-olds, five-year-olds, and adults use filled pauses to anticipate that a speaker is likely to refer to a novel object. Across three experiments, participants were presented with pairs of novel and familiar objects and heard a…

We used fluency tasks to investigate lexical organisation in Deaf adults who use British sign language (BSL). The number of responses produced to semantic categories did not differ from reports in spoken languages. However, there was considerable variability in the number of responses across phonological categories, and some signers had difficulty…

Researching the longitudinal development of second language (L2) learners is essential to understanding influences on their success. This 7-year study of oral skills in adult immigrant learners of English as a second language evaluated comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness in first-language (L1) Mandarin and Slavic language speakers. The…

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the relationships between working memory (WM) and three commonly used learning strategies or conditions in the nature of proficiency among adult L2 Russian learners. Based on the aptitude-learning condition interaction framework articulated by Robinson (2002b), the study identifies two types of…

In this essay, I argue for viewing mental representation and skill as distinct components of language acquisition. My claim is that language is not a monolithic entity--not a new concept, but one that is often overlooked by instructors and some scholars. I examine language as being (minimally) composed of mental representation and skill.…

Nearly all Hispanic adults born in the United States of immigrant parents report they are fluent in English. By contrast, only a small minority of their parents describe themselves as skilled English speakers. This finding of a dramatic increase in English-language ability from one generation of Hispanics to the next emerges from a new analysis of…

Explores the relative contributions of global vocabulary and specific attribute knowledge to the metaphorical comprehension of fluent and less fluent adult users of English. Results indicate that, for both groups, specific attribute knowledge was a better predictor of metaphorical interpretation than global vocabulary knowledge. (Author/CB)

The study had among its objectives (1) the determination of rural-urban differences in the use of Spanish and English by household heads and Spanish American children of these households, and (2) the relationships between language used by Spanish American household heads and selected socioeconomic factors. It was found that use of Spanish…

The language competence of adults in Great Britain was examined in a national study involving interviews between April 28 and May 9, 1999, with a representative sample of 3,967 adults over the age of 16 years. Of those surveyed, 58% spoke only their mother tongue, 29% spoke one additional language, and 10% spoke two additional languages. Fifteen…