The Effects of Age, Dosage, and Poverty on Second Language Learning through SparkLingTM in Infant Education Centers in Madrid, Spain

The first 1000 days represent a unique window of opportunity for second language learning. In two recent studies we demonstrated that Spanish infants’ use of second-language (L2) English productive vocabulary and early utterances rapidly increased through the play-based, interactive and highly social SparkLingTM Intervention, which consists of an evidence-based method and curriculum stemming from decades of research on infant language development. Analyzing an expanded and more diverse sample of Spanish infants (n = 414; age 9–33 months) who received the SparkLingTM Intervention, this study examines the variability in L2 production, which was assessed via first-person LENA audio recordings. Infants’ age significantly and positively correlated with L2 production, demonstrating an advantage for older infants in the sample. While overall socioeconomic status (SES) was not related to L2 production, very young infants (under two years) who lived in high poverty homes showed faster increases in English production compared to peers who lived in moderate poverty homes. Infants’ attendance in the program (“dosage”) was also predictive of their L2 production outcomes. Infants across SES have the capacity to begin acquiring two languages in early education classrooms with SparkLingTM through one-hour/day sessions in social environments that engages them through frequent high-quality language input.

What drives learner errors in written L2 production?

Accuracy in written L2 production can be influenced by many factors, including: (a) the relative similarity of the target structure to equivalent structure in the learner’s L1, and (b) the complexity of the target structure itself. The question of which of these two factors plays a stronger role is fundamental to theories of L2 acquisition. This written learner corpus study uses the English genitive alternation – s-genitives (‘the country's future’) and of-genitives (‘the future of the country’) – to attempt to shed light on this issue. L1 Spanish speakers lag behind L1 Japanese speakers in terms of accuracy rates when the target structure is an s-genitive. This L1 influence appears secondary to structural complexity effects; learners in both groups consistently use the simpler of-genitive with far higher accuracy. Both L1 and complexity effects are stronger in plural possessor contexts, with the plural feature apparently exacerbating learner difficulties with the s-genitive.

L1 Interference in Interlanguage Pragmatics A Study on Requesting in Russian L2 and Italian L2

Within the field of Second Language Acquisition, a growing interest has been devoted to interlanguage pragmatics, in particular how L2 speakers use the linguistic means by which a given language conveys politeness. Being the speech act of ‘request’ one of the most frequent and salient Face Threatening Acts, the current study investigates whether and to what extent L2 learners of Russian and Italian transfer their L1 pragmatic strategies into their L2 when required to perform a request. Qualitative and quantitative analysis has been conducted on data collected among (i) N=9 Russian L1 learners of Italian L2 via role plays and (ii) N=38 Italian L1 learners of Russian L2 via discourse completion tasks. In particular, we will compare L1 and L2 production of head acts, modification, and orientedness.

Assessing Lexical Psychological Properties in Second Language Production: A Dynamic Semantic Similarity Approach

Previous studies of the lexical psycholinguistic properties (LPPs) in second language (L2) production have assessed the degree of an LPP dimension of an L2 corpus by computing the mean ratings of unique content words in the corpus for that dimension, without considering the possibility that learners at different proficiency levels may perceive the degree of that dimension of the same words differently. This study extended a dynamic semantic similarity algorithm to estimate the degree of five different LPP dimensions of several sub-corpora of the Education First-Cambridge Open Language Database representing L2 English learners at different proficiency levels. Our findings provide initial evidence for the validity of the algorithm for assessing the LPPs in L2 production and contribute useful insights into between-proficiency relationships and cross-proficiency differences in the LPPs in L2 production as well as the relationships among different LPP dimensions.

Prior processing, foreign language classroom anxiety, and L2 fluency

This study examines the role of prior processing (understood as L2 use earlier in discourse) in moderating the contributions of foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) and proficiency to L2 utterance fluency. Two groups with comparable FLCA and proficiency scores performed the same narrative task. One group completed it in the absence of any other L2 task, and one group completed it immediately after responding to a similar but not identical prompt. The participants’ speech was analyzed using breakdown, speed, and repair fluency measures. Results showed that prior processing can reduce FLCA’s interference during L2 production. Unexpectedly, prior processing did not produce significant fluency gains associated with lexical retrieval and syntactic encoding. Instead, the patterns of variation revealed that more attention was paid to message conceptualization. This finding implies that prior processing can moderate FLCA’s role in L2 production because it alters the way attentional resources are allocated in subsequent performance.

Unraveling the Effects of Task Sequencing on the Syntactic Complexity, Accuracy, Lexical Complexity, and Fluency of L2 Written Production

Although several studies have explored the effects of task sequencing on second language (L2) production, there is no established set of criteria to sequence tasks for learners in L2 writing classrooms. This study examined the effect of simple ̶ complex task sequencing manipulated along both resource-directing (± number of elements) and resource-dispersing (± planning time) factors on L2 writing compared to individual task performance using Robinson’s (2010) SSARC model of task sequencing. Upper-intermediate L2 learners (N = 90) were randomly divided into two groups: (1) Participants who performed three writing tasks in a simple–complex sequence, and (2) participants who performed either the simple, less complex, or complex task. Findings revealed that simple-complex task sequencing led to increases in syntactic complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency, as compared to individual task performance. Results are discussed in light of the SSARC model, and theoretical and pedagogical implications are provided.

Clicking, but connecting? L2 learning engagement on an ab initio Irish language LMOOC

Language massive open online courses (LMOOCs) represent an exciting prospect for language teachers and instructors around the globe (Bárcena & Martín-Monje, 2014). In this paper, we report on the dynamics of participation and learner behaviour in an ab initio Irish language course. The course, Irish 101, ran during March 2019, and we used a mixed-methods approach to analyse both typical patterns of behaviour among course participants and learner reflections upon their reasons for doing so. Findings suggest that most learners use the course resources in an assessing and exploratory manner and are far less likely to produce, or to examine, second language (L2) output, either written or spoken. Learners were found to be selective and to demonstrate significant metacognitive awareness (Wenden, 1998) in their interactions and learning methods, displaying agency and exploiting affordances beyond the design of the course itself. Implications for LMOOC design, including the need to question whether courses should emphasise L2 production or resource provision, are considered, in addition to a general need for more granular, dynamic research, so as to better understand the types of learners who engage in LMOOCs and to better cater to diverse learning needs.

Interplay between perceived cross-linguistic similarity and L2 production

The present study aims to investigate the relationship between perceived cross-linguistic similarity and second language (L2) production. To this purpose, Egyptian Arabic learners of Greek in Cyprus who took part in a previous cross-linguistic perceptual study, completed a production test with respect to the Cypriot Greek vowels. The findings showed that perceived cross-linguistic similarity was linked with L2 production since along with the consideration of first language (L1)-L2 acoustic differences, it predicted most of the L2 vowel productions. Also, many L2 vowels were considerably longer than the corresponding L1 vowels. This can be interpreted as an L1 transfer since Egyptian Arabic vowels are longer in duration than the Cypriot Greek vowels. An interesting finding was that the production of the L2 vowels had only partial overlap with the productions of the L1 vowels, a finding that provides support for the hypotheses of the Speech Learning Model.

ELT Graduate Students’ Challenges of Writing for Scholarly Publication: Discursive Perspectives

There has been an increasing demand for postgraduate students to publish their scholarly work as one of their graduation requirements. The present study attempted to explore the graduate students’ challenges in writing for scholarly publication seen from the perspectives of discursive challenges. This qualitative research employed case study to disclose the participants’ perceived constraints. The students participated in this study three final-year female students undertaking their master’s degree in English Language Teaching (ELT) in a university in Central Java. Data were garnered from semi-structured interviews. The findings discovered the discursive challenges that the participants faced in writing for scholarly publication including accuracy, genre understanding, interference of L1 to L2 production, and lexical items. It is expected that this study provides new insights for EAP design for higher education context so that the program addresses the needs of the graduate students.

THE SPECIFICITY OF EVENT EXPRESSION IN FIRST LANGUAGE INFLUENCES EXPRESSION OF OBJECT PLACEMENT EVENTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE

Speakers show cross-linguistic differences in expressing placement events involving support (cup on table) and containment (apple in bowl) in first language (L1) contexts. They rely on either more-general (e.g., Spanish for support, Polish for containment) or more-specific (e.g., German, Polish for support; Spanish, German for containment) descriptions. Relatively less is known about the expression of placement events in second language (L2) production contexts. In this study, we examined object-placement event descriptions produced by two groups of L1 Polish speakers—with either German or Spanish as their L2—in comparison to monolingual speakers of German, Spanish, and Polish, using an animated event description task. Bilingual speakers showed greater effect of L1 patterns in moving from a more-general to a more-specific system and L2 patterns in moving from a more-specific to a more-general or between two more-specific systems, suggesting that the specificity of event expression in L1 influences patterns of placement expression in L2.