Encountering trouble producing a word in the midst of a turn at talk is an everyday experience for foreign language learners. By employing conversation analysis (CA) as a central tool for analysis, the current study explores how students undertake a range of word searches while they organize a pair work session designed for the purpose of language…

Responding in a manner that does not align with an action or affiliate with a stance implicated in just prior talk is potentially sensitive work. Conversation Analysis (CA) has shown that participants orient to the sensitive nature of sequences of talk used to project responses that do not align, or, are dispreferred (Pomerantz, Agreeing and…

The main goal of this paper is to shift the focus on "learning" away from the traditional locus of inquiry in SLA--the L2 classroom--in order to extend the SLA empirical database, and by so doing extend and broaden our understanding of what it means to learn and use (in mutually reinforcing and enlightening ways) an additional, or second,…

Usage-based models claim that first language learning is based on the frequency-based analysis of memorised phrases. It is not clear though, whether adult second language learning works in the same way. It has been claimed that non-native language lacks idiomatic formulas, suggesting that learners neglect phrases, focusing instead on orthographic…

Acquiring an adequate vocabulary is a cognitive challenge for foreign language learners. Varied exposures to newly acquired words as they occur in meaningful contexts may facilitate the process of vocabulary learning. In this study we investigated the effects of such a multiple-strategy-based vocabulary teaching approach. We conducted an…

This study investigates the acquisition of post-verbal (temporal) adverbials and post-verbal negation in L2 Dutch. It is based on previous findings for L2 French that post-verbal negation poses less of a problem for L2 learners than post-verbal adverbial placement (Hawkins, Towell, Bazergui, Second Language Research 9: 189-233, 1993; Herschensohn,…

Although research in the area of listening processes and strategies is increasing, it still remains the least understood and least researched of the four skills (Vandergrift, 2007). Based on research in listening comprehension, task design and strategies, this article uses a mixed methods approach to shed light on the development of four…

While knowledge of what constitutes fluent speech has developed over the past several decades, it is still unclear how language teachers can facilitate its acquisition by second language learners. Fluency is generally accepted as being a function of temporal variables of speech such as rate of speaking and the number of words or syllables uttered…

This conversation analytic study reveals how learners themselves, as speakers and listeners, demonstrate their own orientation to language code and actions on a moment by moment basis during collaborative tasks in English as a foreign language classrooms. The excerpts presented in this article were drawn from 23 hours of audio- and video-recorded…

This study investigated visuo-orthographic knowledge in deaf readers of French compared to age-matched hearing subjects. More specifically, we were interested in knowledge related to the legal position of double consonants and to the fact that double consonants are much more frequent than double vowels in written French. We used a word-likeness…

Demotivation is a relatively new issue in the field of second language (L2) motivation. In this study, we review previous studies that investigated demotivation of learners of English in order to identify common demotivating factors and report a survey study which explored demotivating factors for Japanese high school students. A 35-item…

Collocation is an aspect of language generally considered arbitrary by nature and problematic to L2 learners who need collocational competence for effective communication. This study attempts, from the perspective of L2 learners, to have a deeper understanding of collocational use and some of the problems involved, by adopting a task based…

This study is a snapshot of a community of practice in operation. It reports a school-based professional development activity as a learning community with specific attention on one particular member, a "broker", who, by mediating the process of negation, helped bridge a huge knowledge gap regarding subject matter and school context between the…

In this paper, we report on the process of developing and validating a questionnaire to explore second language learners' preferences for two types of form-focused instruction (FFI): isolated and integrated FFI. Three types of evidence regarding the validity of the questionnaire were collected: content, reliability and construct. Content validity…

This study investigated the effects of textual enhancement formats (number and choice of typographical cues) on the intake of plural markers in English as a second language among grade eight native French-speaking students. An experimental reading task integrating different formats of textual enhancement into a text was created. A split-plot…