Journal of Second Language Studies - Volume 5, Issue 2, 2022

This paper discusses the degree to which most of the most widely-used measures of dispersion in corpus linguistics are not particularly valid in the sense of actually measuring dispersion rather than some amalgam of a lot of frequency and a little dispersion. The paper demonstrates these issues on the basis of data from a variety of corpora. I then outline how to design a dispersion measure that only measures dispersion and show that (i) it indeed measures information that is different from frequency in an intuitive way and (ii) has a higher degree of predictive power of lexical decision times from the MALD database than nearly all other measures in nearly all corpora tested.

Coherence relations are expressed differently across languages, often leading to language learners misusing discourse connectives. We argue that the ability to detect these errors crucially depends on the coherence relation under scrutiny, as errors may remain unnoticed when the relation is clause-internal and marked with a highly optional connective. We focus, therefore, on specifications, a relation that German-speaking learners sometimes struggle to correctly indicate when writing in French. We assessed whether non-native readers detect this error and show preferences for either explicit or implicit marking of specifications. Findings show that non-native speakers were generally able to detect the error in a sentence-evaluation task but did not react to it in a self-paced-reading task, contrary to native speakers. They also judged implicit specifications as more correct than explicitly marked specifications. We conclude that non-native speakers do not always benefit from connectives during text processing, especially when they are highly optional.

Recent models of third language acquisition (L3A) propose that previous linguistic knowledge largely has a facilitative effect. That is, either typological proximity or linguistic similarity will mostly lead to facilitation and the patterns of non-facilitation will be rather subtle. The present study investigates whether Danish-Russian bilingual children may overcome difficulties associated with knowing Russian, an article-less language, and benefit from knowing Danish when learning L3 English. To isolate the effects of each language we use a subtractive language groups design and compare article use in bilinguals and two control groups (L1 Russian-L2 English and L1 Danish-L2 English children). The results of a forced choice elicitation task show that the use of articles is near target-like in Danish-Russian and L1 Danish children and that bilinguals outperform L1 Russian children. A detailed investigation of article use, misuse and omission errors also suggests that non-facilitation from Russian is virtually non-existent. Thus, young bilinguals can successfully transfer article semantics from Danish at early stages of L3A.

Different methods to acquire a language can contribute differently to learning success. In the present study we tested the success of L2 stress contrasts acquisition, when ab initio learners were taught or not about the theoretic nature of L2 stress contrasts. In two 4-hour perceptual training methods, French-speaking listeners received either (a) explicit instructions about Spanish stress patterns and perception activities commonly used in L2 pronunciation courses or (b) no explicit instructions and a unique perception activity, a shape/word matching task. Results showed that French-speaking listeners improved their ability to identify and discriminate stress contrasts in Spanish after training. However, there was no significant difference between explicit and non-explicit training nor was there an effect on stress processing under different phonetic variability conditions. This suggests that in L2 stress acquisition, non-explicit training may benefit ab initio learners as much as explicit instruction and activities used in L2 pronunciation courses.

Grounded in the sociocultural theoretical framework, this study compared peer interaction among same-grade (similar proficiency) and different grade (different proficiency) pairs in terms of patterns of interaction established and learning opportunities that such interactions afford. The same learners (N = 24) aged between 10 and 12 interacted with the same and different grade partners during common classroom lessons in two EFL classrooms. Findings reveal that grade matched pairs tended to establish patterns of interaction conducive to learning while different grade pairs tended not to. However, the relationship between patterns of interaction and learning opportunities is not clear-cut.

Second language instructors often have students talk about their own experiences rather than abstract impersonal topics. Intuitively, such topics seem more likely to encourage student engagement. Unfortunately, virtually no empirical research has examined the effects of personal prompts on spoken output. To address this gap in research, the current study (N = 117) compares the spoken output of Japanese university English students who responded to a personal prompt with students responding to an impersonal prompt. Output was recorded in transcripts and then analyzed using a battery of measures related to complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Findings showed that personalized prompts were associated with greater fluency. Moreover, there was some evidence that impersonal prompts led to output with greater lexical complexity. Rates of accuracy were similar in both groups. Correlational analysis suggested that lexical sophistication was associated with reduced fluency. The conclusion addresses practical implications and avenues for further research.

This article firstly introduces an emerging field of bilingual aphasia and discusses the theoretical framework and the significance of bilingual aphasia research. It then provides a review of existing research, focusing on recovery patterns, cross-linguistic transfer effects, and modulating factors in the rehabilitation of bilingual aphasia. It concludes with identification of areas for future research to advance knowledge in bilingual aphasia.