There is a growing theoretical, empirical, and methodological debate in the SLA field as to whether unawareness plays a role during attention to or processing of new incoming second language (L2) data. Indeed, studies that have methodologically addressed the construct of unawareness in their research designs offer both empirical support (e.g.,…

The role of awareness or consciousness in learning has been a relatively contentious issue in non-SLA fields (e.g., cognitive psychology). With the publications of Williams (2004, 2005), a similar debate appears to be brewing in the field of SLA. Contrary to Leow (2000), who reported that unawareness did not appear to play an important role in…

The present study addresses the reactivity of two types of verbal protocols in SLA research. It expands on the work of Leow and Morgan-Short (2004), who found nonmetalinguistic verbalization during a second-language reading task to be nonreactive for beginning learners' text comprehension, intake, and production of the targeted morphological form.…

Recently, several studies in SLA (e.g., for discourse, Alanen, 1995; Leow, 2001b; Rott, 1999; for problem-solving tasks, Leow, 1998a, 1998b, 2000, 2001a; Rosa & Leow, in press a, in press b; Rosa & O'Neill, 1999) have addressed the operationalization and measurement of attention (and awareness) in their research methodology. Studies have employed…

Reacts to a response by Simard and Wong (2001) to Tomlin and Villa's (1994) discussion of a model that postulates a fine-grained analysis of attention for second language acquisition and the prediction that awareness at the level of detection is not crucial for further processing of second or foreign language data. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the effects of awareness, or lack thereof, on 32 adult second or foreign language learners' subsequent intake and written production of targeted Spanish morphological forms. Think-aloud protocol data were used to measure awareness or lack of it, and morphological learning was assessed by the learners' performances on two postexposure…

The effects of simplification, type of linguistic item, and second-language experience on learners' intake of linguistic items contained in written input were studied. Results suggest that simplification does not have a facilitating effect on learners' intake. Sample passages are appended. (56 references) (Author/LB)

Replicates R. P. Leow's 1993 study on the effects of simplification, type of linguistic item, and second/foreign language experience on learners' intake of linguistic items contained in written output. Results on the type of linguistic item underscore the need for research to consider seriously the role of modality while addressing cognitive…