We report the results of a 2-year longitudinal comparison of grade 3 and grade 4 English-as-a-second-language learners in an experimental, comprehension-based program and those in a regular (i.e., more typical) language learning program. The goal was to examine the extent to which sustained, long-term comprehension practice in both listening and…

Previous studies, including Duffield and Matsuo (2001; 2002; 2009), have demonstrated second language learners' overall sensitivity to a parallelism constraint governing English VP-ellipsis constructions: like native speakers (NS), advanced Dutch, Spanish and Japanese learners of English reliably prefer ellipsis clauses with structurally parallel…

The incidence of nativelikeness in adult second language acquisition is a controversial issue in SLA research. Although some researchers claim that any learner, regardless of age of acquisition, can attain nativelike levels of second language (L2) proficiency, others hold that attainment of nativelike proficiency is, in principle, impossible. The…

This paper presents a detailed examination of learning transfer from a university English as a second language (ESL) writing course to a writing task with characteristics very different from the kind of writing done in this ESL writing course but typical of the kind of writing required in other academic courses (i.e., involving text-responsible…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of Korean case particles in a Korean-English bilingual child with specific language impairment (SLI). The child's production of four types of Korean case particles were compared to those of three typically developing children during probe and storytelling tasks. The Korean-English bilingual…

This paper presents two experiments in the acquisition of the nominal domain in English by Japanese and Spanish second language (L2) learners. The first experiment tests the L2 learners' ability to distinguish between count and mass nouns using a grammaticality judgement task and the second experiment tests learners on different types of definite…

The importance of teachers in the success of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is unquestionable. However, designing a teacher course on TBLT raises many questions concerning "what" and "how" it can be implemented. Can teachers' professional development be promoted through Task-Based Instruction (TBI)? This paper explores…

In recent years, idioms have received overwhelming attention in language pedagogy. Experts in the field have sought ways to optimize learning and teaching of these prefabricated language chunks. It is now maintained that the meaning of idioms which was once deemed as arbitrary is somehow "motivated" by their literal, original usage.…

Pragmatic differentiation in bilinguals is the ability to use two languages appropriately with different speakers. Although some sensitivity emerges by 2 years, the effects of context on these skills and their relation to other developing metacognitive capacities have not been examined. The current study compared the language use of 28 bilingual…

The current study set out to examine the age-related effects on ultimate attainment of second language (L2) phonology and grammar. The goals of the study are threefold: (1) to unravel the complexity of ultimate L2 attainment by surveying multiple contributing factors, (2) to explore the relative strength of the Age of Arrival (AOA) variable and…

Non-native speakers of English often experience problems in pronunciation as they are learning English, many such problems persisting even when the speaker has achieved a high degree of fluency. Research has shown that for a non-native speaker to sound most natural and intelligible in his or her second language, the speaker must acquire proper…

This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigated learner interaction in a type of real time computer-mediated communication (CMC) where the communication is carried out within a user-created virtual world. The study, which involved undergraduate EFL learners based at two universities in Japan, examined from an interactionist perspective…

This study investigates the effects of receptive and productive vocabulary tasks on learning collocation and meaning. Japanese English as a foreign language students learned target words in three glossed sentences and in a cloze task. To determine the effects of the treatments, four tests were used to measure receptive and productive knowledge of…

This study investigates learners' knowledge of word classes (i.e. noun, verb, adjective) in their second language (L2). Although some L2 studies have examined the problem of word class indirectly through a focus on vocabulary and the teaching of derivational morphology (Morin, 2003, 2006; Schmitt & Zimmerman, 2002), little is known about learners'…

Tasks have received increased attention in SLA research for the past decade, as has the role of focus on form. However, few empirical studies have investigated the relationship among tasks, focus-on-form techniques, and second language (L2) learning outcomes. To help address this gap, the present study examined how the task variable +/- contextual…