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This paper reviews important second language research on recasts in response to a recent debate between Goo and Mackey (2013) and Lyster and Ranta (2013) in the journal Studies in Second Language Acquisition. It begins by clarifying the definition of recasts and then examines several controversial issues featuring prominently in the debate, including the theoretical underpinnings of existing research on recasts, mixed findings about their effectiveness in language acquisition, and methodological concerns in effectiveness research. The primary aim of this paper is to demarcate common ground and disagreement that are emerging in this debate and, based on a synthesis and critique of previous empirical studies, to identify directions for future research. It also explores pedagogical implications of recasts research for English-as-a-foreign-language contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the curricular experiences schools provide English learner students (ELs) to meet the dual goals of attaining English language proficiency (ELP) and grade-level achievement. I introduce the concept of Curricular Streams to provide a more nuanced comparative analysis of four urban middle schools, focusing on: (a) the extent to which they provided English language development (ELD) instruction and access to the core and full curriculum; and (b) the relative emphasis on ELP versus core academic content, remediation versus acceleration, and isolation versus integration of ELs with non-EL peers. I situate the Curricular Streams within the schools' broader cultures and practices. The results reveal local definitions of EL status and wide variation in EL Curricular Streams: One school emphasized ELP and remediation over access to the core. Another integrated ELs more quickly into mainstream courses, yet its remediation emphasis limited access to the core. The third provided more access, but isolated ELs. The fourth provided more access to the core, accelerated ELD, and eschewed interventions. The evidence suggests that schools are groping for solutions and it raises questions about the efficacy of EL state policy that relies on local control for interpretation. I provide implications for research, policy, and practice and hypotheses about the characteristics of Curricular Streams and school cultures that might increase ELs' opportunity to learn and achieve the dual goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the spread of English as a lingua franca (ELF), interpreting researchers have started to explore its effects on interpreting quality and on the conference interpreting profession as a whole. This study is based on interviews with ten professional conference interpreters working with Chinese A and English B in Taiwan. We focus on their experiences of interpreting ELF speakers, with particular reference to their three most recent international conferences, exploring how the interpreters cope with the challenges involved and how they perceive the effects of ELF on their profession. Overall, a total of 25 conferences were included in the analysis, involving 235 ELF speakers. The results provide a comprehensive picture of how Chinese-English conference interpreters in Taiwan have risen to the challenge presented by the ELF phenomenon, after years of experience in dealing with the difficulties this often involves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing subgroup in American schools. These students, by a provision in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, are to be supported in their quest for language proficiency through the creation of systems that more effectively measure ELLs’ progress across years. In the past, ELLs’ progress has been based on students’ prior scores measuring the same construct. To disentangle effectiveness from achievement, the reporting has generally targeted mean-group activity. In contrast, student growth percentiles (SGPs) provide a comparison of students’ growth with others who have the same achievement score history. By examining the construct measured by an English language proficiency test as manifested in student scores in Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing, this article outlines the use of SGPs in providing information onhow mucheach student needs to grow, which will allow educators to more effectively apply differential formative instructional strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study perceptions of post-compulsory school studies in Iceland were investigated through semi-structured interviews. While colloquial English suffices for entertainment, hobbies and Internet use in Iceland, a high level of proficiency is required for employment and tertiary study. School learners and young people in tertiary study and employment comment on their perceived proficiency in English and their present and anticipated future uses of the language. Implications for English instruction in Iceland are put forward and it is suggested that Iceland stands outside recognised frameworks of motivation because of its context of high exposure to English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This design-based research study investigated the instructional moves employed by three novice online tutors to provide corrective feedback to Belorusian college-level English language learners during written interactions in an online asynchronous language course. The investigation focused on the number and types of corrective reformulations and prompts in online interactions provided by novice teachers/tutors with minimum prior training. The findings suggest that teachers/tutors may have prioritized the meaning-centered nature of their interaction, with recasts and textual enhancements being their primary corrective feedback techniques. By highlighting communicative meaning-centered interaction, the novice online teachers missed opportunities to improve the quality of their students' L2. Implications for more targeted forms of teacher preparation in future cycles, which expose novice online teachers/tutors to theory and practice of providing form-focused feedback, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings:Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort, this study investigates whether socioeconomic status (SES) moderates the association between center-based early childhood education (ECE) and English proficiency at kindergarten entry for 1st- and 2nd-generation Hispanic immigrant children. Results show significant, positive main effects of ECE and SES on English proficiency. However, results also reveal that the association between ECE and English proficiency differs by SES. Among 1st- and 2nd-generation Hispanic children from very low-SES households, the odds of being proficient in English for children who attended ECE is more than double the odds for children who did not attend ECE. In contrast, the association between ECE and English proficiency for higher SES children did not reach significance. Additional analyses reveal similar patterns for income but not maternal education.Practice or Policy:These results highlight the need for ECE programs that target the poorest Hispanic immigrant children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Chinese learners' use, and acquisition, of a specialized genre of English narrative: narrative in support of an end-state statement (NIE). It uses a comparative assessment of English and Chinese NIE to understand learner text at three levels of proficiency. The study identifies differences between English and Chinese NIE in the backdrop of broad configurational commonality: unlike English, Chinese allows for less definition in thematic delimitation, formal marking of developmental design, and narrative texture, as well as the distinctive feature of a linguistic separation of crucial from subsidiary elements of the narrative development. These differences, together, suggest the accommodation of a less explicit, more implicational style of narration. The influence of this difference is apparent in the acquisition of both NIE-specific and more general lexico-syntactic features. But learning follows a linear progression across the two lower levels of proficiency, in the direction of the target configuration. At the highest level of proficiency, when students are both most fluent and most confident, however, this very advantage makes them 'break free', and, so, they deviate from expected practice, in a reversion to internalized first-language (L1) discoursal practice. Pedagogical implications arising from the study findings are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We examine Chinese learners’ acquisition of English word stress. [•] The factors affecting word stress assignment are explored. [•] Chinese learners could more accurately produce rather than perceive word stress. [•] Syllable structures or phonologically similar words don’t significantly influence stress assignment. [•] Chinese learners benefit from learning stress rules based on grammatical category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Auditory-visual speech perception development in young children was studied. [•] Visual speech influence is strongest around the age of reading acquisition. [•] Integration predicted strongly by language-specific speech perception. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Although Bangladesh is largely monolingual, English is increasingly important for international communication. The English in Action project was established to enhance the use of English as a tool for better access to the world economy. Interventions in three sectors (primary education, secondary education and adult learning) aim to improve the teaching and learning of communicative English over a 9-year period. At the outset of the project a range of baseline studies was undertaken to collect relevant data to develop a detailed representation of the communicative environment for English in Bangladesh. The main focus of this article is formal education contexts. Data collection for these studies involved various methods including interviews, surveys, classroom observations and desk research of existing sources. This article describes the nature of those studies and presents some of the key findings. Together, the studies create a rich picture of the circumstances that bring about a generally low level of competence in communicative English, despite individuals experiencing many years of compulsory study of the subject within formal education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Of the four core language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, writing is obviously the most difficult skill for second and foreign language learners to master. The main reason for this difficulty is the fact that writing is a very complex process which involves both creating and organizing ideas and translating them into cohesive texts which are readable. However, in the English classrooms in India, this skill is generally taken for granted with little or no focus on the complex process of writing. This article takes up this issue, beginning with a few introductory remarks on the teaching of English language skills in the Indian context, and then moving on to a discussion about the differences between speech and writing before proposing a five-step procedure for the development of writing skills in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has repeatedly mentioned that immigrants to the United States should do what he did to acquire English: Avoid using their first languages and speak, listen to, and read a vast amount of materials in English—a combination he referred to as “immersion.” Yet, Schwarzenegger's real path to successful English acquisition was much closer to “de facto” bilingual education: He had the advantage of several years of education in his first language, which provided him with literacy and background knowledge. He also had several sources of comprehensible input in English, including English as a foreign language instruction in his native Austria, English as a second language and content courses in the United States, and a helpful circle of friends. His case is, unfortunately, not very similar to that of a large majority of those adult immigrants to the United States he intends to advise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following recent minimalist accounts of the English so-called that-omission construction (as in I think this book is interesting), this article analyses the written production of bilingual Spanish/Catalan L2 learners of English and reveals L1 interference in the acquisition of this construction. The first part of this article shows how the phenomenon of complementiser omission is different in English with respect to Catalan and Spanish, and summarises a selection of recent proposals. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the data of a group of L2-learners of English at different levels of development. We conclude at the end of the article that the L2 production of these students suggests that the that-insertion rule responsible for the presence of that in specific syntactic environments in English has not been learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ethnographic case study explores how two middle-class Chinese immigrant parents in a southeastern U.S. city facilitate their newcomer adolescents' second language acquisition and social integration. Data show that parents' inadequate English proficiency may not be a fixed constraining factor; their class habitus and cultural capital may enable them to work as change agents in their adolescents' integration process, This study highlights the positive impact of parents' active social integration on that of their adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how learning an additional language can positively affect children's opinions and feelings about languages and how this process can be enriched when different languages – namely, the additional language and the children's L1s – are present and used in the classroom in an informed way. It is hypothesised that this will benefit children as language learners and, ultimately, as learners. A qualitative and quantitative study was carried out with 25 young learners for a school term. Their L1s (Catalan and Spanish) were brought into the English classroom and activities incorporating translation and codeswitching (CS), namely the pedagogically based CS, were developed. This switching of codes was promoted by the teacher but used by the students. Based on the research results, the article concludes by describing and discussing the positive development observed in the children's language awareness and plurilingual competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article commemorates Lau v. Nichols on its fortieth anniversary by examining language access rights in the new era of health care reform following the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Language assistance services are critical to accessing health care. Starting with Lau and ending with the ACA's nondiscrimination provision, this article surveys the progression of these rights over time. A review of current national health care policy priorities for limited English proficient individuals completes the narrative of how language access rights have been an integral part of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tells the story of a child immigrant's L2 acquisition process. The narrative demonstrates the effects of social and academic factors on motivation to acquire an L2 and the result of immigration at a young age on cultural identity formation. The article begins by discussing the need for research into sociocultural factors in the second language acquisition process and by reviewing recent research on motivation and identity. The author then describes the development of a coding scheme of motivation and identity factors for the study. The author uses life story and visual anthropology methods to present the narrative of an Italian man who immigrated to the United States at age seven and analyzes the narrative according to the coding scheme. The narrative and its discussion reveal the way that teachers contribute to students' L2 success and the importance of fostering hybrid cultural identities among L2 learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monopoly of both technology and English language usage is the mark of today's modernized and globalized environment. Students are equipped and equipping themselves for the competition through English Language learning and acquisition. Students have new ways of learning second language now by the introduction of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in addition to the normal pedagogic process. But the question remains, Is CALL successful in what it is intended for or what are the challenges that it still faces? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how learners of English as a foreign language process reduced relative clauses (RRCs) from the perspective of usage-based language learning, which posits that language knowledge forms a hierarchy from item-based knowledge consisting only of entrenched frequent exemplars to more advanced schematized knowledge. Twenty-eight Japanese undergraduates pro-vided phrase-by-phrase reading times for frequent and infrequent RRC exem-plars. Immediately after the experiment, the participants also made stimulatedrecall comments on their thought processes employed during sentence process-ing. Both the reading-time data and the stimulated-recall data show that the learners who comprehended infrequent exemplars as well as frequent exemplars had computed syntactic relationships at the key regions of the sentences in real time, and that those who could not comprehend infrequent exemplars had not. These results suggest that the former type of learners successfully activated the RRC schema while the latter learners failed to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study presents the results of an experiment investigating the effects of processing instruction (PI) and dictogloss (DG) on the acquisition of the English passive voice. Sixty speakers of Turkish studying English at university level were assigned to three groups: one receiving PI, the other receiving DG and the third serving as a control group. Assessment measurements consisted of an interpretation task, a sentence-level production task and a reconstruction task in a pretest-posttest design. The results indicated that PI offered an advantage over DG in terms of developing correct interpretation of passive structures in English. In addition, PI was found to be as good as DG in terms of developing sentence-level production and simple text reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective In recent years, immigration has become a central focus of political scrutiny. Much of the negativity directed toward the largely Mexican immigrant population asserts that they do not wish to learn English and acclimate to the dominant culture of the United States. Very little research, however, has explored how Mexican immigrants or Mexican Americans assess the value of English proficiency. Methods Utilizing the Survey of Texas Adults, we examine attitudes regarding the importance of English. We explore the attitudes of Mexican-origin persons compared to other racial/ethnic groups, as well as explore within-group differences based on citizenship, nativity, and language use. Results Our findings reveal the high importance that Spanish speakers, as well as many non- U. S. citizen Mexican immigrants, place on English proficiency. Furthermore, the results indicate that Spanish speakers are actually most likely to stress the importance of English. Conclusions Our research contradicts accounts of the largely Spanish-speaking Mexican immigrant population as not valuing the English language. In so doing, our work contributes to larger scholarly efforts to better understand immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the usage- and exemplar-based roots of second language (L2) negation construction learning. Based on two longitudinal case studies involving two adult L2 English learners and a corpus of 63 three-hour sessions of recorded classroom interactions, the study shows that L2 learning follows the predictions of usage-based models of language knowledge and acquisition, as the two participants' learning of English negation constructions is found to go from recurring expressions toward an increasingly schematic, dynamic inventory of linguistic resources. Furthermore, exploring the evolution of two negation patterns in ongoing discourse, I suggest that local usage and long-term learning are inseparable and call for further detailed investigations of how locally contextualized interactions influence L2 development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective In recent years, immigration has become a central focus of political scrutiny. Much of the negativity directed toward the largely Mexican immigrant population asserts that they do not wish to learn English and acclimate to the dominant culture of the United States. Very little research, however, has explored how Mexican immigrants or Mexican Americans assess the value of English proficiency. Methods Utilizing the Survey of Texas Adults, we examine attitudes regarding the importance of English. We explore the attitudes of Mexican-origin persons compared to other racial/ethnic groups, as well as explore within-group differences based on citizenship, nativity, and language use. Results Our findings reveal the high importance that Spanish speakers, as well as many non- U. S. citizen Mexican immigrants, place on English proficiency. Furthermore, the results indicate that Spanish speakers are actually most likely to stress the importance of English. Conclusions Our research contradicts accounts of the largely Spanish-speaking Mexican immigrant population as not valuing the English language. In so doing, our work contributes to larger scholarly efforts to better understand immigrants in general and Mexican immigrants in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the consistency of a measure of integrative motivation in the prediction of achievement in English as a foreign language in 18 samples of Polish school students. The results are shown to have implications for concerns expressed that integrative motivation might not be appropriate to the acquisition of English because it is a global language and moreover that other factors such as the gender of the student or the environment of the class might also influence its predictability. Results of a hierarchical linear modeling analysis indicated that for the older samples, integrative motivation was a consistent predictor of grades in English, unaffected by either the gender of the student or class environment acting as covariates. Comparable results were obtained for the younger samples except that student gender also contributed to the prediction of grades in English. Examination of the correlations of the elements of the integrative motivation score with English grades demonstrated that the aggregate score is the more consistent correlate from sample to sample than the elements themselves. Such results lead to the hypothesis that integrative motivation is a multi-dimensional construct and different aspects of the motivational complex come into play for each individual. That is, two individuals can hold the same level of integrative motivation and thus attain the same level of achievement but one might be higher in some elements and lower in others than another individual, resulting in consistent correlations of the aggregate but less so for the elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students entering school with limited vocabularies are at a disadvantage compared to classmates with robust knowledge of words and meanings. Teaching a few unrelated words at a time is insufficient for catching these students up with peers and preparing them to comprehend texts they will encounter across the grades. This article presents children's literature and research-supported activities that can accelerate vocabulary acquisition by immersing children in semantic clusters to build knowledge of abstract concepts and individual words representing the concepts. These methods are efficient as well as effective and have the potential to increase breadth and depth of word learning for students with less and more rich vocabularies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between migrants’ social networks, the processes of language acquisition and tourism employment. Data collected using netnography and interviews are used to identify the strategies that Polish workers in the UK use to develop their language skills. The paper highlights the roles played by co-workers, co-nationals and customers in migrants’ language learning, both in the physical spaces of work and the virtual spaces of internet forums. It also shows how migrant workers exchange knowledge about the use of English during different stages of their migration careers: prior to leaving their country of origin and getting a job, during their employment and after leaving their job. Implications for academic inquiry and human resource management practice are outlined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Anglophone children in Grades 2 and 5 who attended an intensive French immersion program were examined for linguistic and metalinguistic ability in English and French. Measures of linguistic proficiency (vocabulary and grammatical knowledge) were consistently higher in English and remained so even after 5 years of immersion education in French. Measures of metalinguistic ability (letter fluency and ignoring semantic anomalies in sentence judgments) in French improved significantly over the two grades studied and closed the gap (letter fluency) or caught up with (sentence judgments) similar performance in English. This dissociation between developmental trajectories for linguistic and metalinguistic development is exactly the pattern expected for fully bilingual children, endorsing immersion education as a route to bilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the authors investigate the acquisition of the article system of English as a phenomenon at the interface between morphosyntax and semantics. L1 acquisition studies have found that children make mistakes in article use until they are at least four years old or possibly older. Also, adult L2 acquisition studies have reported that learners of English often have consistent difficulty in the use of articles until very late stages of acquisition. This study sought to understand whether child L2 learners would display acquisition patterns similar to child L1 for the English article system. The authors analyzed article use in L2 children from four L1 backgrounds: Mandarin/Cantonese Chinese, Hindi/Urdu/Punjabi, Arabic, and Spanish. The findings of the study indicate that the interface domain of the article system is indeed problematic for child L2 learners. The authors found that all L1 groups had difficulty acquiring the semantic aspect of the phenomenon. In the no-article L1 groups, the acquisition of the morphosyntactic aspect of article use showed the effect of L1 in the form of article omissions. Transfer of the mapping of the feature [−definite] onto indefinite article forms from L1s did not take place in the Arabic and Spanish L1 groups, indicating that L1 transfer in child L2 acquisition is limited. Comparing the findings with those of the previous studies of child L1 and adult L2 acquisition, the authors conclude that the predominant trends in children’s article acquisition were developmental rather than transfer-based. This finding in particular highlights the special status of L2 children as a unique learner population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have studied family language planning within bilingual family contexts but there is a dearth of studies that examine language planning of multilingual parents who raise their children in one of the world's lesser spoken languages. In this study I explore the ideologies and language planning of Luxembourgish mothers who are raising their children bilingually in Luxembourgish and English in Great Britain, where there is no Luxembourgish community to support them and where a monolingual discourse prevails. All mothers strongly identified with Luxembourgish, aimed at developing active bilingualism and recognised their role in ensuring exposure to Luxembourgish. However, five mothers choose a one-person-two-languages model which limits exposure to Luxembourgish. The article illustrates the extent to which the mothers’ management of their own and of the children's language use is mediated by their ideologies, experiences of multilingualism and their interactions in a large monolingual setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Alberta Health Services maintains a database of children, adolescents and adults referred to the child and adolescent mental health and psychiatry intake service. In this study, we sought to systematically assess the impact, if any, of English language proficiency on enrolment of children for mental health services. Specifically, we assessed the extent to which children referred for mental health services were enrolled. In doing so, we categorized our sample (12,143) as English Proficient (EP), or Less English Proficient (LEP). Overall, we found that LEP children were significantly less likely to be enrolled compared to EP children. This disparity in enrolment was only present when other variables were not taken into account. English Proficiency is an important factor for some subgroups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This exploratory study describes a framework for data-driven learning (DDL), inGeneral (non-major) English university classes, in which learners construct linguistic corpora instead of merely consulting them. Prior related work has addressed the needs of language specialists, in particular trainee translators who are learning how to compile glossaries, rather than non-major students of English. It is argued in this article that the process of creating a corpus inculcates a sense of ownership in the learner and therefore has a motivational impetus. This is especially true, it is claimed here, when the topic of the corpus is of personal interest to the learner, or coincides with their major field of study. Learners may pursue language study for only a short period of their university career, but once the corpus is constructed, some students may be sufficiently motivated to consult it and add to it when needed. Moreover, the process of compiling the corpus may lead to the acquisition of not only language but also useful transferable skills, including information technology and problem-solving competencies. This study presents some of the motivational issues surrounding DDL in Asia and suggests corpus construction as a solution. Previous research on corpus construction by learners is reviewed. Inthe experiment which forms the core of this study, 90 freshmen compiled andanalyzed corpora as part of a General English course in Taiwan. Of these, 19students completed final projects based on corpora they had compiled. Their findings – and reactions to the use of corpora compilation as a language learning tool – are reported in a qualitative data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation of Chinese university EFL learners' attitudes towards English and Chinese in relation to their motivation to learn the language and awareness of their ethnic identity. 302 university students answered a 22-item Language Attitudes Questionnaire and 112 of them answered four open-ended questions. Analyses of the data reveal that the participants held positive attitudes towards English, were motivated to learn the language, and valued their association with English-speaking culture and people, meanwhile considering their native language superior to English. Thus the paper concludes that the students had a sound sense of Chinese identity with an appreciation of the value of the English language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings of gender-related tendencies found in a study of factors influential in third language acquisition of English in Denmark and Greenland. A survey consisting of a questionnaire and an English test was carried out amongst pupils in their last year of compulsory schooling in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Nuuk, Greenland. In total, responses from 187 pupils were included, some of which were responses from pupils learning English as a second language; these respondents were included for comparisons (Copenhagen: L2 learners N =59, L3 learners N=32; Nuuk: L3 learners N=96; age: 14-16 years). The results showed significant gender-related differences with different patterns between the three learner groups (L2 and L3 learners in Copenhagen, L3 learners in Nuuk) with regard to the level of English proficiency, the degree to which pupils like English as a school subject and the pupils' degree of English classroom anxiety. The results differentiate the view that L3 learners as a group do less well in English than L2 learner peers, warranting further research into gender-related tendencies and extra focus on the English acquisition of L3 learner boys in particular in the Danish context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the hypothesis that heritage speakers of a minority language, due to their childhood experience with two languages, would outperform late learners in producing contrast: language-internal phonological contrast, as well as cross-linguistic phonetic contrast between similar, yet acoustically distinct, categories of different languages. To this end, production of Mandarin and English by heritage speakers of Mandarin was compared to that of native Mandarin speakers and native American English-speaking late learners of Mandarin in three experiments. In experiment 1, back vowels in Mandarin and English were produced distinctly by all groups, but the greatest separation between similar vowels was achieved by heritage speakers. In experiment 2, Mandarin aspirated and English voiceless plosives were produced distinctly by native Mandarin speakers and heritage speakers, who both put more distance between them than late learners. In experiment 3, the Mandarin retroflex and English palato-alveolar fricatives were distinguished by more heritage speakers and late learners than native Mandarin speakers. Thus, overall the hypothesis was supported: across experiments, heritage speakers were found to be the most successful at simultaneously maintaining language-internal and cross-linguistic contrasts, a result that may stem from a close approximation of phonetic norms that occurs during early exposure to both languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed various socio-psychological orientations of the Iranian undergraduate students towards learning English. The research focused on what are considered as the two most important social psychological variables; attitude and motivation. A total of 400 students participated (48.3% female and 51.7 % males). The questionnaire consisted of two parts, questions eliciting demographic data and a set of attitudes scales. The respondents showed favorable attitude towards learning English. Regarding their receptive skills, the respondents rated their reading skill higher than their listening skill. On the other hand, concerning productive skills that are natural of course the respondents rated their writing skill higher than speaking. Students acknowledged the social dimension of English as a language that can offer the opportunity of cross-cultural exchanges. In addition, strong and positive correlations were found among integrative orientation and other psychological variables such as; instrumental orientation, motivation intensity, and desire to learn English. Hierarchical regression showed that, 38% of variance in integrative orientation is explained by only instrumental orientation variable. The results highlight that Iranian students learn a foreign language mainly for its utilitarian value rather than integrative motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies that have investigated the effects of instruction on the SLA of specific grammatical features have focused on intentional learning. This study investigated incidental acquisition by comparing the relative effects of two types of instruction—comprehension-based instruction (CBI) and production-based instruction (PBI)—on young Japanese learners’ incidental acquisition of English plural –s. Results showed that both the CBI and PBI groups performed significantly better than the control group on both the comprehension and production tests. There were no statistically significant differences between the two experimental groups. However, a comparison of those learners in the two groups who were complete beginners indicated an advantage for the CBI instruction. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the interactions in one CBI and one PBI class showed that the students who received both kinds of instruction had ample exposure to plural –s nouns but that the nature of the corrective feedback they received differed. Whereas the feedback that the students in the CBI group received on their comprehension errors enabled them to distinguish the meanings of plural and singular nouns, the feedback that the students in the PBI group received on their production errors—in the form of recasts—did not result in the repair of errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The effects of acoustic degradation and context use on sentence perception were evaluated in listeners differing in age of English acquisition. Method: Five groups of 8 listeners, native monolingual (NM), native bilingual (NB), and early, late, and very late non-native bilingual (NN-E, NN-L, and NN-VL, respectively), identified target words in 400 Speech-Perception-in-Noise (SPIN) sentences presented in 8 combinations of noise (+6 vs. 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio), reverberation (1.2 vs. 3.6 s reverberation time), and context (high vs. low predictability). Results: Separate effects of noise, reverberation, and context were largely level dependent and more significant than their interaction with listeners' age of English acquisition. However, the effect of noise, as well as the combined effect of reverberation and context, was mediated by age of acquisition. NN-VL listeners' performance was significantly compromised in all test conditions. NB, NN-E, and NN-L listeners' use of context, by contrast, deviated substantially from the monolingual normative in difficult listening conditions. Conclusions: Findings suggest that linguistic background needs to be considered in the understanding of bilingual listeners' context use in acoustically degraded conditions. Direct comparison of early bilingual listeners' performance with monolingual norms may be inappropriate when speech is highly degraded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the author explores the importance of fluency versus accuracy in learning the English language among students and teachers at PSNA College of Engineering and Technology in Dindigul-Tamil Nadu, India to determine whether second language acquisition is a conscious process. Majority of the respondents claimed they achieved fluency first. Nearly 16 out of 25 of the respondents said they learned the language unconsciously. About 14 of 25 lecturers noted that their English language acquisition was an unconscious learning.

The article challenges the assumption that English language learners experiencing home language loss do not have language proficiency in the U.S. It notes that the assumption is based on misunderstandings of the transitory phase of children's second language acquisition which results in missing learning opportunities or receiving inappropriate assessments and unwarranted referral for special education evaluation in children. It describes the characteristics of bilingualism in children which plays a role in early educator's assumptions on the shifting language proficiencies in children and presents recommendations for teaching young English language learners.

The article presents the study on the phonological acquisition in Turkish which is necessary for children learning the English language. It states that the participants for the standardization sample of Ankara Articulation Test (AAT) were children from the age between two to twelve years. It mentions that the tests are given to participants individually by a group of trained volunteer students wherein it consists of 47 pictures that has 53 words to name. It notes that the responses of the participants are recorded and its errors are counted by the testers on tested sound in the words. Moreover, the sound that the participants produces is included in their repertoire wherein it could be identified in the phonetic inventories.

Under headings such as finances, child care, cultural challenges, location, racism, teachers, and accents, 30 immigrant women speaking either Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, or Urdu told their stories of arriving in Canada without English, and the obstacles they faced in trying to acquire English. While differing in their goals for learning English, they had a unanimous desire to become fluent in English. The women, who were interviewed in their first language, discussed the impact of a lack of English on their lives, including their health, family responsibilities, education, and ability to integrate into their new country. They were very specific in identifying what could help them overcome the obstacles they faced, and in their recommendations for policy-makers and service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents research findings from a study of pupils bilingual in German and Turkish. The research investigates the relation between the bilingual students' reading competency in their language of origin (Turkish) and their successful acquisition of a second language (German). Their acquisition of what is for them a third language, English, in turn is compared with their native German school counterparts' success at the task.

The article examines the varied horizon of multimedia and web tools for English language acquisition in the Information Age. The authors discusses useful activities that can be assigned for English language learners to enable them to have better speaking skills and a broader vocabulary. These activities include crossword puzzles, written and aural comprehension exercises, quizzes, and multiple-choice tests.

This article reviews research on English past-tense acquisition to test the validity of the single mechanism model and the dual mechanism model, focusing on regular-irregular dissociation and semantic bias. Based on the review, it is suggested that in L1 acquisition, both regular and irregular verbs are governed by semantics; that is, early use of past tense forms are largely restricted to achievement verbs — regular or irregular. In contrast, some L2 acquisition studies show stronger semantic bias for regular past tense forms (Housen, The development of tense-aspect in English as a second language and the variable influence of inherent aspect, John Benjamins, 2002). It is argued that L1 acquisition of the past-tense morphology can be accounted for adequately — without assuming dual mechanisms — by relying on connectionist-like input-based prototype formation as a mechanism for the development of tense-aspect morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pretend play is an achievement in which children ‘talk and act’ the pretense into being. In order to do this, constant negotiations on the details of the play take place. This study describes how five-year-old girls propose and negotiate the ongoing play activity using the Finnish agreement pursuing question particle jooko. The data come from The Helsinki Cross-Sectional Child Language Corpus. The method of analysis is ethno-methodological conversation analysis. When Finnish five-year-old girls construct proposals, the question particle jooko is used frequently and flexibly. With jooko proposals girls open coherent negotiations. The analysis of three different proposal designs with jooko shows how girls shift the play frame, negotiate details of the play and persuade each other. A comparison with Finnish adult language reveals the girls’ similar use of the particle jooko in turn final position and different uses in turn initial and turn middle position. Our findings confirm the previous descriptions of English-speaking girls’ directives using specific, future oriented and co-operative practices in their play negotiations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study investigates whether two different means of learning the word sequence ‘despite the fact (that)’ lead to differential outcomes of the acquisition of the grammatical structure imbedded in the word string which is, due to L1 transfer, especially problematic for Chinese learners of English. The participants of the study were randomly divided into two groups. While one group was taught the grammatical structure under investigation through explicit instruction, the other group was required to commit the word string to memorization through repetition or recitation without being given any explicit instruction. It turns out, following the results of subsequent tests, that the recitation group significantly outperformed the instruction group in terms of procedural knowledge whereas the instruction group outperformed the recitation group on declarative knowledge. The inference that can be drawn from the study, among other things, is that the memorization of the whole word string may facilitate the acquisition of the imbedded structure, especially on the procedural level, whereas explicit instruction can only exert visible influence on the awareness of knowledge. One explanation for the result is that ‘despite the fact (that)’ was memorized as an unanalysed whole, i.e. chunk. It is suggested that formal criteria for grouping phrases be introduced in language teaching programmes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents findings from research conducted in two primary schools in South Australia with New Arrivals Programs (NAPs). The paper draws upon two forms of data: questionnaires administered to teachers and ethnographic observations of children at play in the schoolyard. These data are used to examine two aspects of education for refugees and other migrants: (1) the assumption that English language acquisition is central to the "integration" of refugees and other newly arrived migrants (and both that integration is of key importance and that the work of integration must primarily be undertaken by refugees and other migrants, not the broader community); and (2) the impact of power differentials between NAP and non-NAP students in the use of playground spaces. We argue that the education provided to refugee and newly arrived migrant students in NAPs needs to move beyond treating English language acquisition as a requirement to "fit in," and we call for schools with high populations of refugee and migrant students to consider how spatial relations in their schools may be negatively impacting these student populations. Finally, the paper calls for an approach to education that is situated in global contexts of colonization and power relations, and in which the terms for inclusion of NAP students are mutually negotiated, rather than predetermined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]