How can syntactic and learnability analyses inform each other, and thus deepen our understanding of syntax and its acquisition? This dissertation illuminates this question through three case studies in Korean syntax. I examine cases in which two structures that display distinct syntactic properties share extremely similar surface forms, thus…

Knowledge of collocations facilitates second language (L2) learning by enhancing accuracy and fluency. However, acquiring L2 collocations is often challenging for learners. One factor contributing to this difficulty is incongruency between first and second languages (e.g., "draw distinctions" in English corresponds to do…

This study investigated whether structural priming, as a reflection of error-driven learning mechanisms, could facilitate second language (L2) learning of the dative alternation in Mandarin. We sought evidence of learning from both priming and acceptability judgment data. Participants were 25 native speakers and 41 classroom learners (CLs). After…

Conventional metaphors are a fundamental component of everyday communication, yet they are often overlooked in post-secondary German-language programs. This study examines the extent to which vocabulary breadth influences 19 L2 German learners' comprehension of conventional German metaphors, particularly those that exhibit cross-linguistic…

This study aimed to explore 1) Thai learners' selections of single-word and multi-word units in English language production, and 2) the reasons for their selections of single-word and multi-word units. The participants in this study comprised 202 undergraduate students. Three research instruments were used in this study: a comprehension test, a…

Young learners are known to extend verb regularity further than it actually is. When it happens, this children's overregularization phenomenon can be a result of several reasons: a failed linguistic development due to confusion between rules and memory, a lack of feedback from adults, and problems with cognitive development. The present study…

This study tested whether encouraging prediction enhances prediction in second language (L2) speakers. L2 English speakers listened to English sentences like "The woman … will read/buy one of the newspapers" while viewing the target (a newspaper) and distractor objects (a rose, a bowl, and a mango) on a screen and clicked on the target…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore how The Sims could be used to assist L1 English speakers in learning L2 Russian verbs of motion through completing in-game tasks in pairs while speaking Russian. English and Russian verbs of motion encode manner and path differently, and L2 Russian motion verbs use a variety of…

Chinese vocabulary is characterized by compound words composed of monosyllabic morphemes. Compounds sharing a common lexeme often exhibit polysemous meanings, forming a cognitive semantic network. Systematic instruction on these high-frequency compounds can help learners access their meanings and underlying structure, making learning more…

This study investigated how questioning strategies impact language learner performance. Specifically, it explored how questioning strategies influence (i) verb production and subject-verb agreement in the target language, and (ii) learner confidence in completing tasks without translation software. Sixty-eight novice language learners enrolled in…

Learning multiword expressions (MWEs) typically involves exposure to language input, such as through reading and listening. However, this way of learning can be rather slow. Therefore, finding strategies to enhance learning from input is crucial for language acquisition. In this study, 80 Iranian learners of English as a foreign language read…

This study investigates a second language (L2) speaker's use and learning of the Icelandic auxiliary verb "aetla" (pronounced /aihtla/) in the wild. This analytic focus is motivated by the L2 speaker's (Anna) own orientation to "aetla" as a learnable. We track Anna's use of "aetla" in naturally occurring social…

Attention is believed to help facilitate learning. Godfroid and Uggen found that attention to irregular verb morphology motivated the learning of novel second language (L2) German forms. The current study explored the generalizability of these findings to geminate and sound verbs in Arabic, a typologically different language with a novel writing…

The question of whether L2 learners can use discourse cues online during pronoun resolution remains debated in the field. We examine one factor that has been argued to impact pronoun resolution in native speakers, implicit causality (IC) bias, a property related to certain verbs in which one of verb's arguments are considered to be the cause of an…

This study investigates whether cross-linguistic differences affect how adult second language (L2) learners use different types of verb subcategorization information for prediction in real-time sentence comprehension. Using visual world eye-tracking, we tested if first language (L1) German and L1 Turkish intermediate-to-advanced learners of L2…