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This study investigates whether there are different first-language-second-language (L1-L2) dependency resolutions by focusing on less-studied crosslinguistic variances in L2 acquisition of Chinese, a null-subject language, by speakers of English, a non-null-subject language. The overt subject pronoun of a Chinese main clause has free orientation and its antecedent can be the subject or object of the preceding causal subordinate clause, depending on pragmatic biases. The null subject of a Chinese main clause, however, is subject-oriented, and this subject orientation is not affected by any pragmatic bias. English does not allow null subjects and, like Chinese, overt subject pronouns in English have free orientation. An acceptability judgement task and an interpretation task were adopted, and the results suggest that only the free orientation of overt subjects, but not the subject orientation of null subjects, is acquirable for English-speaking learners; they are found to be influenced by the pragmatic bias. This provides evidence for the cue-based model (Cunnings, 2017), which states that L1-L2 differences in dependency resolution can be explained in terms of L1-L2 differences in susceptibility to interference and L2ers' over-reliance on discourse-based/pragmatic cues. It is also observed that in L1 Chinese, competition between the target antecedent and distractors occurs during the reading of the sentence, while in L2 Chinese, this occurs after the reading of the sentence. These findings add to our growing understanding of different mechanisms in L1 vs. L2 dependency resolutions.

The benefits of incorporating process information in a large-scale assessment with the complex micro-level evidence from the examinees (i.e., process log data) are well documented in the research across large-scale assessments and learning analytics. This study introduces a deep-learning-based approach to predictive modeling of the examinee's performance in sequential, interactive problem-solving tasks from a large-scale assessment of adults' educational competencies. The current methods disambiguate problem-solving behaviors using network analysis to inform the examinee's performance in a series of problem-solving tasks. The unique contribution of this framework lies in the introduction of an "effort-aware" system. The system considers the information regarding the examinee's task-engagement level to accurately predict their task performance. The study demonstrates the potential to introduce a high-performing deep learning model to learning analytics and examinee performance modeling in a large-scale problem-solving task environment collected from the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC 2012) test in multiple countries, including the United States, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Our findings indicated a close relationship between the examinee's engagement level and their problem-solving skills as well as the importance of modeling them together to have a better measure of students' problem-solving performance.

Despite the extensive research on bilingual development, our understanding of how lexical competition unfolds in the bilingual mind remains limited. Previous studies have predominantly focused on crosslinguistic competition, neglecting the examination of the competition process within each language and the influence of diverse bilingual experiences, such as first language attriters, heritage speakers, or sequential bilinguals. Consequently, there is a critical gap in our knowledge regarding how bilinguals navigate and resolve competition dynamics during spoken word recognition in the context of language attrition. We compare the within-L1 and within-L2 competition mechanisms of Spanish-English attriters (N = 65) with two monolingual control groups (Spanish and English speakers). Participants completed two visual world tasks with manipulation of onset/rhyme overlap. Results indicate a contrast between the competition mechanisms exhibited by the L1 monolingual group and the Spanish attriters during L1 spoken word recognition. Our findings highlight the role of bilingual experiences in modulating L1 competition dynamics, shedding light on the complex relationship between bilingualism and lexical competition.

This paper examines the link between cognitive processes and superior performance in contemporary dance. In the first study, thirty-six participants (professional dancers, nonprofessional dancers, and non-dancers) carried out a task in which they were asked to reproduce a sequence of dance steps while being recorded on a camcorder. Analysis revealed a significant effect of skill and task difficulty on performance. Performance correlated with individual practice, group practice, rehearsing hours, sleep, concentration, enjoyment, dyslexia, and height, but not handedness. In the second study, the same group of participants augmented by 26 participants (a total of 62 participants) completed a questionnaire. There were skill differences on deliberate practice, sleep, concentration, enjoyment of dance tasks, dyslexia, handedness, and gender differences on group practice and height. Overall, the results suggest that both practice and talent play a role in the acquisition of expertise in contemporary dance.

The present study used a novel, well-controlled paradigm to investigate the development of cool, hot-positive, and hot-negative inhibitory control in a sample of children (6- to 11-year-old; N = 38, 21 females), adolescents (12- to 18-year-old; N = 38, 24 females), and adults (19- to 38-year-old; N = 38, 28 females; sample location: United Kingdom). An ex-Gaussian approach was employed on stop signal task data to distinctly examine for the first time how mean and intraindividual variability measures of inhibitory control are modulated at different time spans of development and neutral and socioaffective contexts. Results show a combination of adolescent-emergent, adolescent-specific, and adult-emergent patterns for distinct ex-Gaussian measures of cool, hot-positive, and hot-negative inhibition performance, suggesting a much more complex account of inhibitory control development than previously believed.

The use of peer-assisted learning/mentoring (PALM) and translanguaging (TRL) as inclusive learning strategies to support students' transition into Higher Education and enhance their wellbeing in the post-Covid era has not been widely explored. Lecturers express their deep concern about the mental health issues and lack of confidence an increasing number of learners have faced lately in the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of the present study, 80 undergraduate multilingual students were involved in PALM tasks during which they could use their first language through translanguaging and English, the target language, for one academic semester. The main goal was to ensure they had equal opportunities to develop their oral fluency while preparing group presentations. Paired T-tests were used to compare students' pre- to post-tests scores. In terms of this mixed-methods case study, the researcher also analyzed students' reflective reports and the anonymous feedback learners provided thematically to explore their attitudes. Findings indicated that these two approaches enabled students to improve their academic performance significantly although learners felt uneasy at the beginning. The combination of these two methods created a psychologically safe space as learners gradually developed a personal relationship with their peers. In response to the need for more information, as regards the use of PALM activities and TRL with multilingual learners, this study intends to contribute student voice since the inclusion of learner opinion has been minimal. Recommendations for the successful implementation of these two instructional approaches in undergraduate courses and suggestions for further research are provided.

This article reports on the second language (L2) perception of contrasts among British English monophthongs. This study has two aims: 1) to explore the discriminability of contrasts in L2 British English monophthongs; and 2) to test the perceptual assimilation model-L2 (PAM-L2) towards the ability to discriminate British English contrasts. The contrasts considered were: /i?/-/[near-close near-front unrounded vowel]/, /ae/-[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/, /[ezh]?/-/[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/, /u?/-/[near-close back rounded vowel]/, /e/-/ae/, /[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/-/[open back rounded vowel]/, /[near-close back rounded vowel] /-/[open-mid back rounded vowel]?/, /[open back unrounded vowel]?/-/[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/, /[esh]?/-/[open-mid back rounded vowel]?/. Fifty-two native speakers of Thai who were learning English as a foreign language in Thailand participated in a forced-choice ABX discrimination task. The participants were divided between two groups -- those high-experienced and those low-experienced. The results evidence how both groups performed well on most contrasts (over 80% correct), except for /[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/-/[open back rounded vowel]/. Although the discriminability of the contrast /[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/-/[open back rounded vowel]/ was lower than with the other contrasts, the discrimination scores among both groups remained in a middle range (over 70%). No effect of L2 experience was found, thus suggesting that the abilities of both groups did not differ. The PAM-L2 was accurate in predicting that neither group of L2 Thai learners would have difficulty in discriminating the considered L2 sound contrasts. These results imply that the results gained from a perceptual assimilation task are useful in predicting the discriminability of L2 sound contrasts, as suggested by the PAM-L2.

It is considerably harder to generalize identity across different pictures of unfamiliar faces, compared with familiar faces. This finding hints strongly at qualitatively distinct processing of unfamiliar face stimuli--for which we have less expertise. Yet, the extent to which face selective versus generic visual processes drive outcomes during this task has yet to be determined. To explore the relative contributions of each, we contrasted performance on a version of the popular Telling Faces Together unfamiliar face matching task, implemented in both upright and inverted orientations. Furthermore, we included different age groups (132 British children ages 6 to 11 years [69.7% White], plus 37 British White adults) to investigate how participants' experience with faces "as a category" influences their selective utilization of specialized processes for unfamiliar faces. Results revealed that unfamiliar face matching is highly orientation-selective. Accuracy was higher for upright compared with inverted faces from 6 years of age, which is consistent with selective utilization of specialized processes for upright versus inverted unfamiliar faces during this task. The effect of stimulus orientation did not interact significantly with age, and there was no graded increase in the magnitude of inversion effects observed across childhood. Still, a numerically larger inversion effect in adults compared to children provides a degree of support for developmental changes in these specialized face abilities with increasing age/experience. Differences in the pattern of errors across age groups are also consistent with a qualitative shift in unfamiliar face processing that occurs some time after 11 years of age.

Research has observed that monitoring one's own learning modifies memory for some materials but not for others. Specifically, making judgments of learning (JOLs) while learning word pairs improves subsequent cued-recall memory performance for related word pairs but not for unrelated word pairs. Theories that have attempted to explain this pattern of results assume that people attend to and process cue-target relatedness during learning more when making JOLs than they spontaneously do when not making JOLs. The present research directly tested this relatedness-processing assumption with unrelated and related word pairs as well as with hitherto unexamined materials: identical word pairs. In three experiments, participants studied word pairs while either making or not making JOLs. Results revealed that making JOLs improved memory for related word pairs as well as for identical word pairs, but not for unrelated word pairs. Importantly, in two of the experiments, participants were further asked to judge at test whether each cue appeared with an unrelated, related, or identical target before attempting to recall it. Results revealed that making JOLs improved the accuracy of these relatedness judgments independently from its effect on recall, thus providing direct evidence that people process cue-target relatedness when making JOLs more than they spontaneously do when not making JOLs. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of why judging one's own learning can modify memory and, more broadly, suggest that instructions to monitor learning can direct people's attention to information that is not or less processed otherwise.

This study investigates two models of L2 vocabulary acquisition at an advanced L2 level: L1 lemma mediation and the revised hierarchical models. Proponents of the L1 lemma mediation model postulate that advanced L2 learners map L2 words to L1 meanings or concepts, whereas proponents of the revised hierarchical model argue that the increasing experience in L2 helps learners remap the L2 words to their L2 meanings. In this study, 26 proficient Arab L2 speakers of English and 26 English native speakers were given 76 semantically related word pairs and were instructed to rate their semantic relatedness on a 5-point Likert scale as quickly as possible. It was found that word pairs sharing the same Arabic translations had been rated significantly higher than word pairs not sharing the same Arabic translations. The results supported the L1 lemma model--namely, even advanced L2 learners still rely on their L1 to access the meanings of L2 words.

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in classroom interactions and preferences by analysing data collected by a questionnaire, observations and interviews. The data were collected focussing on male and female attitudes towards the teacher's gender, teacher's body language, the task partner's gender, the task type, speaking tasks, risk taking, using computers in the tasks, learning about English culture, misunderstanding and clarification, and oral correction feedback, in addition to the differences in the use of reading strategies and gender differences in topic preferences. Forty-seven international students in the UK participated in the research, 26 females and 21 males who were studying on a pre-sessional course in the Language Academy. The results of the quantitative and qualitative data revealed a number of differences in the participants' interaction patterns. Further, many preferences between the participants mediated by gender factor was recorded. The study has provided many recommendations and suggestions for the future studies.

The many permutations of spoken English have called for an interrogation into the notions of 'standard English' and 'native accents'. Despite their problematic nature, these terms remain commonly used, and familiarity with 'standard', inner-circle varieties of English is typical among L2 English speakers, differences in education and language policy notwithstanding. This paper inquires into student language attitudes in Alsace, a region with a long and complex language tradition. A mixed-methods model was used to gather seven students' reactions towards four inner-circle Englishes (Received Pronunciation, Standard American English, Glaswegian English, African American English). Findings revealed student preference for the two American speakers as well as preferential ratings linked to comprehensibility of speakers and a range of past experiences. Other findings favour those of previous language attitude studies in which RP and SAE outperform other samples in areas of education and prestige. GE and AAE samples were associated with both positive human characteristics and a lack of education. Overall, results indicate the need for future empirical research of this population as well as the necessity for linguists, researchers and teachers to make room for the spectrum of speakers and Englishes that lie outside of traditional reference accents.

Perceptual assimilation is a well-known task; however, there is no study on the assimilation pattern of the English monophthongs by L2 Thai learners. The aims of this study are to explore the perceptual assimilation patterns of the British English monophthongs to Thai monophthongs by L2 Thai learners and to examine the effect of L2 experience on this perception. The target British English sounds were /i:, I, e, ae, [upside down a], a?, [backwards c], [near-close back rounded vowel], u:, [upside down v], 3;/ in /bVt/ context. The Thai listeners performed an assimilation task by matching these British English monophthongs with their L1 Thai monophthongs. The results showed no difference in the assimilation patterns between the high-experienced and low-experienced groups in the perception of the English /I, e, a:, [backwards c], [near-close back rounded vowel], u:, [upside down v], 3:/. The degree of the perceived similarity in the matching of these vowels to the Thai sound categories between these two groups was not significantly different from one another either. However, English /e/ was mostly perceived as Thai /e/ in the high-experienced group to a greater degree than the low-experienced group. The findings also showed the difference in the assimilation patterns between these two groups, i.e. for English ae, i:, u:, [upside down a]/ suggesting the importance of the L2 experience in the exploration of the L2 speech learning research. The implication for L2 sound learning of this study is that having higher number of phonemes in the L1 phonological system than that in the L2 one is less important than the L2 experience.

This paper sets out to explore English language materials development since the emergence of communicative language learning (CLT). Many pedagogical approaches have been innovated to reach the goal of CLT. It will discuss the most common approach of English language materials development used nowadays. This paper specifically introduces a new approach of English language materials development that aims to match second language acquisition principles which will optimize the language learning process. This new approach is called the Text-driven approach which aims to develop activities around an engaging text, in appose to many approaches that aims to find a text meeting their activities purpose. A full 60 minutes lesson based on this framework is presented and discussed in depth to clarify how it can facilitate language acquisition. Further research ideas are then proposed to enrich this field of study.

The present study explores the effects of structured input and traditional instruction on the acquisition of English causative passive forms using online measurements (eye-tracking). Previous empirical research investigating the effects of processing instruction through offline measurements (sentence and discourse) has overall shown positive results for this pedagogical intervention. Research investigating the main factor responsible for the effectiveness of processing instruction has confirmed that it is the structured input component that is the causative factor for the positive effects of processing instruction. The main questions of this study are: (1) what are the effects of structured input and traditional instruction on accuracy when measured by an eye-tracking picture selection task? (2) would possible difference in accuracy between structured input and traditional instruction be accompanied by changes in eye-movement patterns? To provide answers to the two questions formulated in this study, one eye-tracking study was carried out. Fifty-two adult learners (aged 19-21 years) participated and were assigned to one of two groups: structured input (n = 26) or traditional instruction (n = 26). Neither instructional groups received explicit information. A pre and post-training design was adopted and the two groups received two different instructional treatments (structured input vs. traditional instruction). Participants were assessed through a picture selection eye-tracking task to measure accuracy and eye-movement patterns while they were processing auditory sentences. Results of the eye-tracking task indicated that the structured input group achieved significantly higher accuracy scores compared to the group receiving traditional instruction. The main findings from the present study reveal that structured input training causes a change in learners' eye-movement patterns.

"Standard" varieties are often perceived as morally superior compared with "nonstandard" varieties (Hill 2008). Consequently, these differences lead to ideologies that racialize "nonstandard" varieties (Rosa 2016), and increase the negative stereotypes towards "nonstandard" varieties (Giles and Watson 2013). One outlet of such stereotypes can be observed with speech intelligibility and accentedness judgements. This study examines whether seeing a White or a South Asian face impacts listeners' perception of American, British, and Indian English and to what extent listeners' social network diversity plays a role in predicting their perception of speech. Results indicated that intelligibility scores decreased and accentedness judgements increased for all varieties when speech was paired with South Asian faces. However, listeners with less racially diverse social networks had the highest accentedness judgements. Understanding how to account for the emergence and behavioral implications of different English varieties is a pressing question, and these results shed light on how English varieties are perceived. The implications will be discussed in light of language teaching, linguistic practices, and language research.

While most research on scalar implicature has focused on the lexical scale "some" vs "all," here we investigated an understudied scale formed by two syntactic constructions: categorizations (e.g., "Wilma is a nurse") and comparisons ("Wilma is like a nurse"). An experimental study by Rubio-Fernandez et al. (2017) showed high rates of logical responses to superordinate comparisons, even though they are underinformative when interpreted pragmatically (e.g., "A robin is like a bird" implies that a robin is not a bird). Based on recent studies on enrichment priming, we predicted that including "some" and "all" statements (which typically elicit high rates of pragmatic responses) in sentence verification and sentence evaluation tasks would introduce an informativity bias, increasing pragmatic responses to superordinate comparisons. The results of three Web-based experiments supported our predictions, showing that different scalar expressions not only give rise to different rates of scalar implicatures, but can also affect the degree to which an experimental task elicits pragmatic reasoning.

This exploratory study reports on characteristics of proof production and proof writing observed in the work of first-year university students who took part in workshops on the theorem prover LEAN (https://leanprover.github.io). These workshops were voluntary and offered alongside a transition to proof module in a UK university. Through qualitative analysis of 36 student produced proofs of an unfamiliar statement we highlight characteristics of proofs produced by students who did engaged and who did not engage with LEAN. The analysis shows two characteristics of proofs written by students who engaged with the programming language. The first concerns proof writing and includes the accurate and correct use of mathematics language and symbols, together with the use of complete sentences and punctuations in proofs. The second concerns proof structure and includes the overt break down of proofs in goals and sub-goals. We conclude by hypothesising a link between the characteristics observed and the experience of engaging with the theorem prover and we reflect on the potential that engagement with this theorem prover may have in mathematics instruction at university level.

This research paper explores the processes and outcomes of a peer review system which was introduced to 74 first-year students on a BA Education programme in 2016-17. In this one-year action research study, students completed a series of tasks linked to both their academic work and professional teaching placements. The scaffolded nature of these tasks aimed to develop the students' skills, knowledge and confidence as novice peer reviewers. The students' task responses, written reflections of the peer review process and interviews were analysed, to explore the potential value of producing and giving formative feedback to peers. The sustainability of peer review was considered when peer review moved into the students' professional context. This considered how becoming peer reviewers helped students to develop two graduate attributes - forming evaluative judgements based on an understanding of quality and being able to communicate feedback orally - and the influence of these qualities on students' development of self-regulation. The students' challenges in engaging in the peer review process were also considered.

This meta-analytic study compared the effect of peer-led learning versus non peer-led learning on students' cognitive achievement in post-secondary education. Twenty-eight studies published in English from six countries between 1993 and 2017 were identified and used in the analysis. Result of the analysis on the random-effect model showed a moderate but positive effect, meaning that peer-led learning was associated with higher cognitive achievement than non-peer-led learning. Three study characteristics were examined including duration, student leaders' training, and task type. Only the task type was found significant in moderating the effect of peer-led learning. Student leaders' facilitation of problem-based learning tasks outperformed other types of tasks. Results of this study not only provided suggestions for peer-led learning designers and coordinators but also called for future research of student leaders' readiness as well as online peer-led learning.

Recent findings have shown that language plays an important role in the acquisition of novel cognitive tasks (van 't Wout & Jarrold, 2020). The current study sought to elucidate the factors that influence the contribution of language to novel task learning, focusing specifically on the role of task complexity (defined by the number of stimulus-response [S-R] rules per task) and the role of task instructions (by comparing trial-and-error learning to instruction-based learning). In each experiment participants were required to learn the correct response to novel sets of picture stimuli. When analyzed as a function of stimulus occurrence within a task, both experiments found that initial performance was worse under articulatory suppression (AS; verbal distractor task) than under foot tapping (i.e., nonverbal distractor task), but only if the task was more complex (consisting of 6S-R rules) and not if it was less complex (consisting of three or four S-R rules), suggesting that the acquisition of a simpler task by trial and error might not require verbal mediation. Experiment 2 furthermore found that the role of language was modulated by the manner of acquisition: For trial-and-error learning, the detrimental effect of AS increased and then decreased again as a function of stimulus occurrence. Conversely, for instruction-based learning, AS exclusively affected the first few stimulus occurrences, suggesting that participants can create a verbal representation of the task during the instruction phase. Together, these experiments demonstrate that the role of language in novel task learning is modulated by task complexity and task instructions.

We report on an action research study conducted by two mathematics teacher educators in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. The project consisted of three phases, the first two taking place in our respective teacher education courses and a final phase in which prospective mathematics teachers from both locations engaged in dialogue through a speculative fiction task. Our aim was to explore how our prospective mathematics teachers can be supported in becoming mathematics teachers for sustainable futures by innovating our own mathematics teacher education curricula. This study suggests that generative methods which support teachers in speculating on paths to potential futures as teachers of mathematics, can provide access to how prospective teachers negotiate issues in relation to the climate crisis and ways in which they conceive of related changes in their practices. By identifying the aspects of mathematics teaching that are viewed by the prospective teachers as contingent, and through offering tasks that support an expansion of this view, teacher educators are better placed to support the development of teaching practices needed for sustainable futures.

Studies that have measured pragmatic fluency in the form of planning time and speech rate, as indicators of processing ability, have confirmed that learners' processing ability and pragmatic knowledge are independent from each other. The present study is a longitudinal, developmental investigation which investigates whether the study abroad stay (SA) has an effect on the overall appropriateness, planning time and speech rate in high and low imposition situations of ten L2 Japanese learners' oral requestive output during their overseas sojourn. With the exception of appropriateness which had the most positive change, (mainly with low imposition requests), the study found that the SA had minimal positive impact on the variables examined, suggesting that activation and processing of pragmatic knowledge needs enhancement from other sources, and that learners need a longer period of time to develop appropriate pragmatic output across a range of academic encounters. Results further revealed much individual variation, further highlighting the complexity of examining pragmatic performance over time.

Word knowledge and the speed of word processing in monolingual children and adults are influenced by word properties, such as the age of acquisition (AoA), imageability, and frequency. Understanding how different properties of words contribute to the ease of processing by bilingual children is a critical step for establishing models of childhood bilingualism. However, a joint impact of these properties has not been so far assessed in bilingual children. Here, we compared the impact of AoA, imageability, and frequency on accuracy and response times in picture naming and picture recognition tasks in monolingual and bilingual children. We used Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks to test 45 monolingual children (aged 4 to 7 years) and 45 migrant bilingual children in their L1 (Polish). Word AoA, imageability, and frequency independently affected the accuracy and response times in both picture naming and picture recognition tasks. Crucially, bilingual children were more sensitive to word characteristics than their monolingual peers: Bilingual children's accuracy was particularly low for words of high AoA (in the picture recognition task) and for words of low frequency (in the picture naming task). Also, the increase in response times for low-imageable and low-frequent words was particularly salient in bilingual children. The results suggest a new area of interest for further studies: the question of whether bilinguals and monolinguals show different sensitivity to psycholinguistic factors, and if so, does that sensitivity change with age or language exposure?

This study investigates the immediate and sustained effects of a pre-departure study abroad training on the oral production of L2 Chinese formulaic language across a range of social and transactional interactions. Eighteen upper-intermediate learners of Chinese were assigned to either an instructed or non-instructed group to determine the efficacy of instruction designed to enhance their study abroad year in China and beyond. A three-stage pre-post-delayed longitudinal experimental design was adopted to examine instructional effects over an academic year, elicited by means of a computerised oral task (COT). The assessment was based on quantitative appropriateness ratings and a qualitative analysis of the output. Results show that the instructed group outperformed the control group immediately after the pre-study abroad (pre-SA) instruction, as well as after the year abroad. The significant difference between the two groups, however, decreased after the period abroad as the control group also showed significant improvement without the pre-SA instruction. Nevertheless, the sustained effect of the instruction enabled the experimental group to retain their competitive edge, even after a year in the target language country. The findings demonstrate the longitudinal benefits of pre-SA instruction.

Bilingualism is a multi-faceted experience and bilinguals differ in how they use their languages in daily life. Therefore, assessments of bilingualism that consider the role of (social) context are needed when describing bilinguals. In this study, we evaluated how (reliably) the Language and Social Background Questionnaire (LSBQ; Anderson et al. 2018) describes language experiences of bilinguals living in the UK. Across 163 participants, nine factors were found to describe their daily-life language experiences in different contexts or with different interlocutors. Factors describing language use also correlated with objective English (L2) proficiency. These findings emphasise the need for studies to characterise bilinguals' daily-life language use in more detail and with a focus on the multi-dimensionality of bilingualism. Test-retest reliability (assessed across two weeks) was moderate to substantial, showing that the LSBQ might be a reliable tool to capture these bilingual experiences.

Research suggests that second language words are learned faster when they are similar in phonological structure or accent to the words of an individual's first language. Many major theories suggest this happens because of differences in frequency of exposure and context between first and second language words. Here, we examine the independent contribution of accent and phonological structure on the speed of word learning and on the depth of semantic encoding while controlling for frequency of exposure and context. Fifteen participants learned novel words associated with abstract shapes in a paired associates task. The words systematically varied in their accent and phonological structure. Learning speed was measured for each word and the depth of semantic encoding was measured via a novel manipulation of the N300 ERP component in a Picture Recognition Task of the learned items. Both non-native structure and accent slowed word learning and differences in the N300 effect indicated that semantic encoding was shallower for words with a non-native than native phonological structure, despite almost ceiling levels of accuracy. These results are consistent with a model of second language learning that proposes both accent and phonological structure influence how fast and deep new language vocabulary is learnt.

This article reports on an empirical study on the acquisition of Chinese imperfective markers ("zai," "-zhe[subscript P]" and "-zhe[subscript R]") by English-speaking learners at three proficiency levels. Compared to English, Chinese has a richer imperfective aspect in terms of markers (forms) and features (meanings). Results are presented from a grammaticality judgment task, a sentence-picture matching task and a sentence completeness judgment task. We find that advanced learners are successful in reassembling additional semantic features (e.g. the [+durative] feature of "zai" and the [+atelic] feature of "-zhe[subscript P]") when the first language (L1) and second language (L2) functional categories to which the to-be-added features belong are the same. However, advanced learners have problems in differentiating between the interpretations of the progressive "zai" and the resultant-stative "-zhe[subscript R]", and are not sensitive to the incompleteness effect of "-zhe[subscript P]", which indicates that discarding L1-transferred features is arduous for learners. Our findings, in general, support the predictions of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2009). In addition, there is some evidence obtained for L1 influence, which persists at an advanced stage.

The results of a self-paced reading study with advanced German, Dutch and French second language (L2) learners of English showed that their online comprehension of early closure (EC) sentences which are initially misanalysed by native English speakers (e.g. "While John hunted the frightened rabbit escaped") was affected by whether or not, like English, their first language (L1) encodes aspect grammatically (French) or only via lexical means (German, Dutch). The English and the higher proficiency French participants showed a processing asymmetry in their online reading of the temporarily ambiguous sentences, assumed to be caused by the difference in the aspectual perspective a comprehender takes when initial verbs appear in the past simple vs. the past progressive. In contrast, the German and Dutch learners, irrespective of proficiency, treated both progressive and simple sentences in the same way, despite the fact that all the L2 learners were matched according to their metalinguistic knowledge of English aspectual distinctions. Furthermore, despite patterning with the German learners online, the Dutch L2 learners' offline judgments were more akin to those of the English native speakers and the French L2 learners, showing an effect of aspect, which could be argued to lend support to the idea that progressive aspect may be becoming grammaticalized in Dutch. Taken together, the results of this study add to our growing understanding of cross-linguistic influences during online L2 sentence processing, and differences between L2 parsing and learners' metalinguistic L2 performance.

Less-advantaged students are under-represented at prestigious universities, but can we infer that they actively avoid them? This research measured university applicants' knowledge of 115 UK universities. Using card-sort tasks within an interview format, 56 Year 13 students from different types of 16-19 education described how they chose five courses for their application form. Significant cross-cohort trends in knowledge and understanding demonstrated the influence of different educational environments, but within-cohort variation showed that applicant characteristics could over-ride environmental factors. The only cohort where every student understood relative status was an independent school providing individual, career-focused guidance. Limited resources in state-sector schools and colleges necessitated 'opt-in' models of guidance, meaning that only highly motivated students were well-informed. When students knew that universities are ranked by national league tables, this informed their decision-making strategy, but reliance on word-of-mouth rather than fact-based information resulted in some students over-estimating status and graduate outcomes. A new conceptual framework blending developmental and cognitive psychology explained persistent class-based progression trends whilst demonstrating how personal agency or educational interventions enabled some less-advantaged students to enter prestigious universities. There was no evidence that prestigious universities were actively avoided, but some students had insufficient knowledge or understanding to make status-based distinctions.

This experiment investigated comprehension monitoring in children learning English as an additional language (EAL) compared to monolinguals. Sixty-three 9-10-year-old children read texts containing an internal inconsistency (e.g. a barking kitten vs. barking puppy) while their eye movements were monitored. Standardized tests measured word reading fluency and vocabulary size and the children completed a questionnaire tapping rereading behavior. There was no overall difference between EAL and monolingual children. Regardless of EAL status, children with larger vocabularies were more efficient in their re-analysis of inconsistent information, as revealed by regressive eye movements. As efficient re-analysis of inconsistent information is essential for comprehension and is ubiquitous in proficient readers, the presence of this pattern in the children is indicative of successful online monitoring. However, rereading of inconsistent vs consistent words in the eye movement record was not related to children's self-reported rereading, not providing any support for deliberate rereading. Our findings indicate that successful online monitoring relies on strong word knowledge leading to efficient processing of texts, both for bilingual and monolingual children, and beyond deliberate rereading.

This paper sets out to bridge the gap between theory and practice by suggesting activities and resources that could be used in the audiovisual translation (AVT) classroom when training students to achieve credible and natural-sounding dialogue in dubbing. Following a competence- and task-based approach, these activities have been implemented by the author when teaching English into Spanish dubbing at master's level and explore the advantages of using translation technology (e.g. translation memory and corpus management tools) in the AVT classroom. When suggesting activities, the emphasis is also placed on what can be learnt from other disciplines, such as creative writing, and on the links that can be established with other subjects (e.g. translation technology) in order to improve future audiovisual translators' instrumental competences and understanding of the specific features of original and dubbed audiovisual dialogue.

Remembering to carry out intended actions in the future, known as prospective memory (PM), is an important cognitive ability. In daily life, individuals remember to perform future tasks that might rely on effortful processes (monitoring) but also habitual tasks that might rely on more automatic processes. The development of PM across childhood in laboratory contexts is well understood, but little is known about the social context in which children develop their PM skills in everyday life. In the current study, three hundred and one parents reported on their 3- to 11-year-old child's PM, child's strategy use, and on their own scaffolding of their child's PM using the Children's Everyday Memory Questionnaire (CEMQ; adapted from the Prospective Memory Questionnaire). Preliminary analyses showed that the PM items on the CEMQ were reliable and composed of two components (a PM and a PM strategy use subscale). Our results showed that children's PM and use of memory strategies, as reported by their parents, increased with age. Further, more frequent parent scaffolding was related to better PM in children. These relations were also explored separately for older and younger children. Notably, parents of younger, 3- to 6-year-olds reported scaffolding them more frequently with age, while parents of older, 7- to 11-year-olds reported scaffolding them less frequently with age. Open-ended responses revealed that parents used verbal reminders and children used external aids most frequently. Overall, parent scaffolding appears to impact children's PM, but future research is needed to identify the causal direction of these relations.

National cultural distance is considered to be a strong predictor of language learners' pragmatic competence. To test the actual effect of national cultural distance on pragmatic competence holistically and comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence discretely, the current study was conducted on two groups of undergraduate students of English: 24 German students considered culturally close to Britons as target language community and 28 South Korean students considered culturally distant from Britons. A 24-item pragmatic comprehension test developed by Taguchi (2007, 2008) was used to measure language learners' pragmatic comprehension ability. A discourse completion task developed by Bardovi-Harlig (2009) was also used to measure language learners' pragmatic production ability. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed the significant positive effect of national cultural distance on pragmatic competence holistically and comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence discretely. The pedagogical implications of the findings suggested incorporating target language pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic features into class instruction and providing abundant opportunities for language learners to be exposed to pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic features of the target language.

Semantic ambiguity has been shown to slow comprehension, although it is unclear whether this ambiguity disadvantage is attributable to competition in semantic activation or difficulties in response selection. We tested the two accounts by examining semantic relatedness decisions to homonyms, or words with multiple unrelated meanings (e.g., "football/electric fan"). Our behavioral results showed that the ambiguity disadvantage arises only when the different meanings of words are of comparable frequency, and are thus activated in parallel. Critically, this effect was observed regardless of response-selection difficulties, both when the different meanings triggered inconsistent responses on related trials (e.g., "fan-breeze") and consistent responses on unrelated trials (e.g., "fan-snake"). Our electrophysiological results confirmed that this effect arises during semantic activation of the ambiguous word, indexed by the N400, not during response selection. Overall, the findings show that ambiguity resolution involves semantic competition and delineate why and when this competition arises.

Language use is intrinsically variable, such that the words we use vary widely across speakers and communicative situations. For instance, we can call the same entity "refrigerator" or "fridge." However, attempts to understand individual differences in how we process language have made surprisingly little progress, perhaps because most psycholinguistic instruments are better-suited to experimental comparisons than differential analyses. In particular, investigations of individual differences require instruments that have high test-retest reliability, such that they consistently distinguish between individuals across measurement sessions. Here, we established the reliability of an instrument measuring lexical entrainment, or the tendency to use a name that a partner has used before (e.g., using "refrigerator" after a partner used "refrigerator"), which is a key phenomenon for the psycholinguistics of dialogue. Online participants completed two sessions of a picture matching-and-naming task, using different pictures and different (scripted) partners in each session. Entrainment was measured as the proportion of trials on which participants followed their partner in using a low-frequency name, and we assessed reliability by comparing entrainment scores across sessions. The estimated reliability was substantial, both when sessions were separated by minutes and when sessions were a week apart. These results suggest that our instrument is well-suited for differential analyses, opening new avenues for understanding language variability.

Integrated test tasks, such as listening-to-speak or reading-to-write, are increasingly used in second language assessment despite relatively limited empirical insights into what they assess. Most research on integrated tasks has primarily focused on the productive skills involved; studies exploring the receptive skills mostly investigated tasks with reading input. Little is known about the nature of listening comprehension in integrated listening-to-write or listening-to-speak tasks. This study therefore investigates the listening construct underlying integrated tasks with oral input and its effect on summary accuracy. Eight listening-to-summarize tasks (four listening-to-speak, four listening-to-write) were administered to 72 Thai-L1, English-L2 students. Sixty participants provided their views on sources of listening difficulty through post-task questionnaires. Twelve participants produced stimulated recalls on their listening comprehension processing. The analyses of the recalls, combined with participants' listening notes and oral/written summaries, revealed participants' use of several cognitive listening processes and their monitoring through (meta)cognitive strategies, functioning interactively and interdependently in complex ways. The use of listening processes and strategies varied between tasks with different listening inputs, partly owing to differences in the passages' linguistic difficulty (as perceived by the participants). However, the successful application of these processes and strategies (and their combinations) proved to be a prerequisite for producing accurate summaries.

Background: We present a unique study of adventure sports coaches teaching lead climbing. Expanding existing work on judgement and decision making, we examine the coaching process and the decision making employed to manage the pedagogical and security needs of climbers when they are being introduced to lead climbing. Research design and data collection: As part of a mixed approach, an Applied Cognitive Task Analysis was initially conducted on a small sample of expert coaches (n = 7) before a questionnaire was designed and administered with a larger sample (n = 53). Findings: The study identifies that the tuition of lead climbing is built on nine core elements that form a shared mental model which in turn is individualised to meet the needs and demands of the individual learning to lead climb. The existence of this coherent shared mental model displays minor modifications to reflect the coach's own climbing background. More importantly, the existence of this shared mental model is derived from the instructors' own experiences of climbing and teaching lead climbing rather than any formalised training. In short, this model is actualised through an informal community of practice. Conclusion: The implication for training instructors is that the skills of adapting these nine core aspects to meet individual needs should also be given due consideration alongside the technical skills of rope work and security.

The use of group-based, task-oriented, peer interaction formats in classroom and public L2 speaking tests has grown in recent years. However, these assessments have received comparatively little attention when compared to other formats such as the oral proficiency interview (OPI). In order to better understand the local exigencies of this group-based, peer interaction format, the current paper, using a Conversation Analytic (CA) methodology, explores the mechanisms through which consequences are brought about in such highly task-oriented, collaborative discourse. In doing so, I report on examinees' use of directives to shape the emerging interactional agenda and so negotiate deontic rights relative to their co-participants. There is a focus, in particular, on the turn design and sequential placement of these directives and, from this, it is shown how different linguistic formats correlate to a propensity for recipients to either endorse (that is, enact) or circumvent (ignore, challenge) the interactional agenda imposed by said directive. Finally, this paper discusses some of the implications these findings have in terms of learner and assessor training.

At some UK universities, non-credit bearing courses for the general public are offered in a wide range of languages, often taught by hourly paid staff. Ensuring similar, high quality learning experiences and learning outcomes across languages can be a challenge. This study inquired into the viability and value of a consciousness-raising approach, i.e. whether teachers would be able and likely to implement it, and whether students would engage with such tasks and find them useful. The study included students and teachers engaged in the learning/teaching of Arabic, French, Italian, and Spanish. Following some input about Language Awareness pedagogic principles, and with some mentoring by the researchers, the teachers designed their own consciousness raising grammar tasks with accompanying communicative output opportunities and implemented them in their classes. To respond to our research questions, this paper draws on semi-structured interviews with teachers and students. The tasks, which combined a form and meaning focus, presented rich affordances for learner engagement with language and were enjoyed by the majority of students. The teachers struggled to correctly estimate task difficulty and time needed but felt that the approach had contributed to improving their teaching and that they were likely to use it in the future.

This mixed-methods study investigates writers' task representation and the factors affecting it in test-like and non-test-like conditions. Five advanced-level L2 writers wrote two argumentative essays each, one in test-like conditions and the other in non-test-like conditions where the participants were allowed to use all the time and online materials they needed. The writing was done on computers, and we recorded the writing process and keystrokes using the "Screen Capture Video" and "Inputlog" programs. We audio recorded stimulated recall interviews after each writing session, with the writers reporting and commenting on their writing strategies and their reasons for following them. The findings of this study suggest that there are several factors that play a role in task representation, such as previous education, personal beliefs, and task conditions. Although these factors were present in all participants' responses, the differences in the writers' approaches to interpret and execute the writing were marked. The results highlight various pedagogical issues and options related to teaching writing in general and to the place of task representation on writing programs in particular.

This study reports on the results of classroom research investigating the effects of using data-driven learning methods by students in revising their writing errors. The main purpose of the study is to examine to what extent is consulting a corpus effective in correcting lexical errors in their writing. It has been found in previous research that data-driven learning can benefit students in the revision process and that it works better for certain error types (Tono et al, 2014). The targeted error category was lexical errors including formal errors or semantic errors. For the study, a small corpus of 44 student paragraphs written in a timed writing task was used. The corpus of student paragraphs was analyzed for the common lexical errors. The error classification used in the study was drawn from the lexical error taxonomy of James (1998). All lexical errors were hand tagged according to the taxonomy. From among the common errors, certain errors were chosen for revision activities. Students were given hand-on instruction on using an online corpus and its concordancing tools and were asked to revise the selected errors by referring to the corpus. The effectiveness of consulting a corpus while revising errors was compared for different lexical error types.

In this paper we present the results from a study in which 21 mathematics trainee teachers engage with two practice-based tasks in which classroom management interferes with mathematical learning. We investigate the trainees' considerations when they make decisions in classroom situations and how these tasks can trigger their reflections on the teaching and learning of mathematics. In our analysis we used the constructs of "Social" and "Sociomathematical norms" (Cobb & Yackel, 1996) and "Teaching Triad" (Jaworski, 1994). Results indicate commendable norms trainees aspire to establish in their classroom, such as peer respect, value of discussion and investigative mathematical learning. However, they often miss the opportunity to engage students with metacognitive discussions and mathematical challenge as they focus on behavioural issues or endorse dichotomous and simplistic views of mathematical learning. We credit these tasks with allowing insight into trainees' considerations and we propose their further implementation in teacher education programmes.