Addresses the question of whether there are different characteristics and language performance conditions (involving assumed different levels of cognitive demand) associated with different levels of fluency, complexity, or accuracy in test candidate responses. Participants were pre-university students taking English courses. (Author/VWL)

Examined writers' use of lexical repetition changes in relation to writing topic, cultural background, and development of writing ability. Multiple regression analysis indicates writing ability measures are the most important variables for predicting changes in repetition usage, with less significant effects found for cultural background.…

A cross-sectional study with Dutch first language learners from Grades 2,4, and 6 was conducted to investigate their ability to derive word meaning from written context. Used a multicomponential measure that involved the percentage of correct attributes, inclusion of false attributes, and contextualization. (Author/VWL)

This cross sectional study used verbal protocol analysis to compare the temporal distribution of formulation processes of Spanish English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writers composing first and second language (L1, L2) argumentative texts. Studied three groups at different levels of second language proficiency. Results showed the same total…

English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners in two countries participated in two parallel experiments testing whether retention of vocabulary acquired incidentally is contingent on amount of task-induced involvement. Results are discussed in light of the construct of task-induced involvement. (Author/VWL)

Examined how acoustic variation affects second language (L2) lexical acquisition in consideration of four hypotheses: degraded input, elaborate processing, independent modulation, and robust versus strong connectivity. Beginners of L2 Spanish attempted to learn 24 Spanish words presented in 1 of 3 degrees of acoustic variation. Immediate and…

Investigates the acquisition of temporality in English by Korean speakers over a period of 24 months. Temporality is examined from two perspectives: the expression of past-time events and semantic aspect and verb morphology. Results are discusses. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on changes over time in university level Japanese students' sociocultural perceptions of social status during the year they studied abroad in Canada and the impact of the changes on their pragmatic use of English when offering advice. Compared the development of 97 Japanese exchange students' pragmatic competence with that of 102 peers in…

Suggests another perspective in viewing the effect of style on English-as-a-foreign-language learners' errors. Suggests that for consonant clusters, what varies in accordance with style is the learners' choice of syllable simplification strategies rather than error rates. (Author/VWL)

Reviews research on the effectiveness of recasts in first and second language acquisition, paying particular attention to how recasts have been defined and how their impact has been assessed in observational and experimental studies. Concludes that recasts appear to be most effective in contexts where it is clear to the learner that the recast is…

Provides an historical sketch of form-focused instruction research, defines what is meant by form-focused instruction, and discusses the main research methods that have been used to investigate form-focused instruction in terms of a broad distinction between confirmatory and interpretive research. (Author/VWL)

Evaluated the effect on French language proficiency of an integrated formal, analytic and functional, communicative approach to second language teaching in the immersion classroom. Impetus for the study arises from previous research indicating that immersion children show persistent weaknesses in their grammatical skills despite the fluent,…

Examined the differential role of comprehension and production practice in second language learning. Discusses the results of a study of 82 first-year students of Spanish as a second language that indicated that relative effectiveness of production versus comprehension practice depended on the morphosyntactic complexity of the structure in…

Attempted to address two methodological problems found in current investigations of the role of awareness in second language behavior: defining what constitutes awareness and operationalizing and measuring different levels of awareness and their effects on second language behavior. (Author/VWL)

Employed systematic procedures for research synthesis and meta-analysis to summarize findings from investigations into the effectiveness of second language (L2) instruction published between 1980 and 1998. Data indicated that L2 instruction results in large target-oriented gains, that explicit types of instruction are more effective than implicit…