English learners of French whose first language (L1) does not mark the perfective/imperfective distinction have shown verb semantic influence and an overall preference for perfective over imperfective in their use of second language (L2) tense-aspect markers. This study investigated whether learners whose L1 marks the perfective/imperfective…

This study addresses the response of social science and engineering science faculty to a naturally occurring sample of second language writing. Using a matched-guise protocol, faculty participants were led to believe that the one-page essay was produced by an international student whose first language was either Chinese or Spanish. The faculty…

This article investigates the vocabulary of textbooks and relates it to education policy, assessment methods and teaching methods. It considers the range of vocabulary covered by key stages 3 and 4 German foreign language textbooks for secondary schools from the beginning of the 1990s to 2006 and shows that there is an overall decrease in the…

Discusses study which looked at the variance from target language norms in second-language behavior which arises in semantic information in individual words. Results suggest that study of grammar as a knowledge of basic lexical classifications requires little attention because work class identifications learned in L1 are smoothly transferred to…

Discusses the distinction between formal and contextual guessing of vocabulary in second-language learning. It is argued that formal guessing is more helpful and reliable than contextual guessing. (Author/VWL)

The sheer quantity of words known (breadth) is strongly predictive of reading comprehension, yet little is understood about how quality of word knowledge (depth) affects comprehension. A group of 35 bilingual and monolingual 5th-grade students worked on developing depth of knowledge of 8 words, culminating in an activity in which the students…

Recent research in psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that co-speech gestures are semantically integrated with speech during language comprehension and development. The present study explored whether gestures also play a role in language learning in adults. In Experiment 1, we exposed adults to a brief training session presenting novel…

This article presents findings from a year-long study of how intermediate second language (L2) learners of German (English first language) used case markings, word order, and semantic information when comprehending individual German sentences. The results showed that the learners relied on word order and semantic information, but did not…

It is argued that mastery of verbal aspect in Russian calls for the development in the student of a novel pattern of linguistic perception for actions and occurrences. (Author/RM)

Reference to the native tongue is considered necessary in FL teaching. Differences and congruence of meaning in the two languages are examined with respect to their help or hindrance in language learning. Using examples, the problems of inferring the meaning of the foreign word are examined. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Attempts to redefine the meaning of the two Spanish verbs "saber" and "conocer" and explores some possible extralinguistic factors affecting their usage. Shows that "conocer" represents knowledge which is firsthand and that this type of knowledge is a building block for the more thorough, systematic knowledge represented by "saber." (SED)

Explores factors affecting the ease or difficulty with which new words are learned in a second language, focusing on such intralexical factors as pronuncability, length, parts of speech, inflexional complexity, derivational complexity, semantic features, abstractedness, specificity, idomaticity, register restrictions, and multiple meaning. (52…

THIS STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO INVESTIGATE THE SPECIFIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPE OF BILINGUALISM (COMPOUND OR COORDINATE) AND THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AND LISTENING SKILLS OF NATIVE SPEAKERS OF SPANISH. THIRTY-SIX STUDENTS FROM VARIOUS PARTS OF LATIN AMERICA WHO WERE COMPLETING A TEN-WEEK COLLEGE PREPARATORY "ENGLISH ORIENTATION" COURSE AT LOUISIANA…

This article adopts an input perspective in examining a poverty-of-the stimulus (POS) learning situation in second language acquisition (SLA). Analysis of grammaticality judgement data from 81 English-speaking and 85 Chinese-speaking learners of Japanese isolates triggering input that informed English learners of subtle semantic properties of the…

The acquisition of new skills over a life span is a remarkable human ability. This ability, however, is constrained by age of acquisition (AoA); that is, the age at which learning occurs significantly affects the outcome. This is most clearly reflected in domains such as language, music, and athletics. This article provides a perspective on the…