Studies in Second Language Acquisition最新文献

{"title":"Validity evidence for an EIT as an assessment for Spanish heritage speakers and L2 learners","authors":"Sara Saez-Fajardo, Melissa A. Bowles","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000130","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As the field of heritage language acquisition expands, there is a need for proficiency to compare speakers across groups and studies. Elicited imitation tasks (EITs) are efficient cost-effective tasks with a long tradition in proficiency assessment of second language (L2) learners, first language children, and adults. However, little research has investigated their use with heritage speakers (HSs), despite their oral nature, which makes them appropriate for speakers with variable literacy skills. This study is a partial replication of Solon, Park, Dehghan-Chaleshtori, Carver &amp; Long (2022), who administered an EIT originally developed for advanced L2 learners on a group of HSs. In this study, we administered the same EIT with minor modifications to 70 HSs and 132 L2 learners of Spanish with different levels of proficiency and ran a Rasch analysis to evaluate the functioning of the task with the two groups. To obtain concurrent validity evidence, scores on the EIT were compared with participants’ performance in an oral narration; evaluated for complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF); and compared with a standardized oral proficiency test, the Versant Spanish Test. Results of Rasch analyses showed that the EIT was effective at distinguishing different levels of ability for both groups, and analyses showed moderate to strong correlations between CAF measures and the EIT and very strong correlations between the EIT and the Versant Spanish Test. These results provide evidence that the EIT is an efficient and adequate proficiency test for HSs and L2 learners of Spanish; its use in research settings is recommended.</p>","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143813986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The relationship between boredom and second language achievement: A multilevel meta-analysis","authors":"Fangwei Huang, Haijing Zhang","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000142","url":null,"abstract":"There has been a growing emphasis on researching foreign language boredom in second language acquisition in recent years. However, existing research has yet to reach a consensus regarding the effect of foreign language boredom on learners’ learning achievement. To address this gap, the present study employs multilevel meta-analysis to analyze 47 effect sizes from 33 empirical studies involving a total sample size of 27,838 participants. The findings reveal that foreign language boredom illustrates a small negative effect (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = -.24, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &lt; .001) on language achievement. Furthermore, the moderation analysis reveals that the magnitude of the effect size varies crossing educational stages, achievement measurements, domain-specific language skills, foreign language boredom measurements, teaching modes, and learning contexts. This study provides robust evidence to support the detrimental role of foreign language boredom in language acquisition and identified substantive gaps in this research field, offering valuable directions for future research.","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143736588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The interplay of learners’ cognitive abilities in the learning and automatization of miniature language grammar","authors":"Małgorzata Foryś-Nogala, Olga Broniś, Aleksandra Janczarska","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000117","url":null,"abstract":"This study focused on the relative contributions of cognitive aptitudes to the incidental learning and automatization of mini-language grammar. Over three sessions, participants (<jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 45; first language [L1] Polish; age range: 19–35) completed computerized training in MiniItaliano as well as tasks tapping into working memory, general intelligence, and language analytic ability (LAA). The overt aim of the training was to comprehend messages placed in the context of an Italian supermarket; however, its actual goal was to acquire the target syntactic rules (i.e., subject-verb agreement, gender agreement, word order). The final session included a surprise post-test with untimed and timed grammaticality judgment tasks (GJTs) as measures of explicit and automatized knowledge, respectively. Results showed that performance on both tasks was predicted by LAA over and above other cognitive and control measures. Additionally, scores on the untimed GJTs were related to reliance on (self-discovered) rules, while timed GJTs involved general IQ.","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"377 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143723119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the potential of content-embedded working memory capacity tasks for advancing second language acquisition research","authors":"Janire Zalbidea, Bernard I. Issa","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000154","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000154","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the utility of content-embedded working memory capacity (WMC) tasks for advancing second language (L2) research. While both complex span and content-embedded tasks implement a dual-task paradigm that requires processing and maintenance of information, they differ in that the former demand maintenance of extraneous memory elements during processing, while the latter demand processing and maintenance of the same elements. Since manipulating information stored in working memory is critical for L2 processing and development, particularly in intentional learning contexts, content-embedded tasks may serve as strong predictors of several linguistic outcomes. We report preliminary evidence suggesting that both content-embedded tasks (available in IRIS [<jats:uri xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\" xlink:href=\"https://www.iris-database.org/details/iv6nR-HD9NQ\">https://www.iris-database.org/details/iv6nR-HD9NQ</jats:uri>]) and complex span tasks can be significant predictors of explicit L2 aptitude and L2 reading comprehension, but that content-embedded tasks can show advantages over complex span tasks in some instances. We discuss methodological implications for the measurement of WMC in L2 research.","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143695752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New data on text reading in English as a second language: The Wave 2 expansion of the Multilingual Eye-Movement Corpus (MECO)","authors":"Victor Kuperman, Sascha Schroeder, Cengiz Acartürk, Niket Agrawal, Dominick M. Alexandre, Lena S. Bolliger, Jan Brasser, César Campos-Rojas, Denis Drieghe, Dušica Filipović Đurđević, Luiz Vinicius Gadelha de Freitas, Sofya Goldina, Romualdo Ibáñez Orellana, Lena A. Jäger, Ómar I. Jóhannesson, Anurag Khare, Nik Kharlamov, Hanne B. S. Knudsen, Árni Kristjánsson, Charlotte E. Lee, Jun Ren Lee, Marina P. T. Leite, Simona Mancini, Nataša Mihajlović, Ksenija Mišić, Miloslava Orekhova, Olga Parshina, Milica Popović Stijačić, Athanassios Protopapas, David R. Reich, Anurag Rimzhim, Rui Rothe-Neves, Thais M. M. Sá, Andrea Santana Covarrubias, Irina Sekerina, Heida M. Sigurdardottir, Anna Smirnova, Priyanka Srivastava, Elisangela N. Teixeira, Ivana Ugrinic, Kerem Alp Usal, Karolina Vakulya, João M. M. Vieira, Ark Verma, Denise H. Wu, Jin Xue, Sunčica Zdravković, Junjing Zhuo, Laoura Ziaka, Noam Siegelman","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000105","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper reports an expansion of the English as a second language (L2) component of the Multilingual Eye Movement Corpus (MECO L2), an international database of eye movements during text reading. While the previous Wave 1 of the MECO project (Kuperman et al., 2023) contained English as a L2 reading data from readers with 12 different first language (L1) backgrounds, the newly collected dataset adds eye-tracking data on English text reading from 13 distinct L1 backgrounds (<span>N</span> = 660) as well as participants’ scores on component skills of English proficiency and information about their demographics and language background and use. The paper reports reliability estimates, descriptive statistics, and correlational analyses as means to validate the expansion dataset. Consistent with prior literature and the MECO Wave 1, trends in the MECO Wave 2 data include a weak correlation between reading comprehension and oculomotor measures of reading fluency and a greater L1-L2 contrast in reading fluency than reading comprehension. Jointly with Wave 1, the MECO project includes English reading data from more than 1,200 readers representing a diversity of native writing systems (logographic, abjad, abugida, and alphabetic) and 19 distinct L1 backgrounds. We provide multiple pointers to new venues of how L2 reading researchers can mine this rich publicly available dataset.</p>","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143599931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why you should stop using the ideal L2 self and the L2 motivational self-system to measure motivation (Reaction to Al-Hoorie, Hiver & In’nami, 2024)","authors":"Neil McClelland, Jenifer Larson-Hall","doi":"10.1017/s0272263124000779","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263124000779","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper responds to Al-Hoorie, Hiver, and In’nami’s (2024) critique of the second language (L2) Motivational Self System (L2MSS) by advocating for an immediate cessation of its use in the absence of substantial revision and validation. We revisit foundational studies in the tradition, exposing critical methodological flaws that we feel undermine empirical support for the model. Further, we examine systemic factors that contributed to the largely uncritical acceptance of the model. Drawing on our own experiences, we reflect on how these dynamics have obstructed the adoption of more robust motivational theories available in psychology and education. We further caution that without a stronger emphasis on validating measurement instruments, similar distractions may continue to hinder progress in the field.</p>","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"91 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143582798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Affect as a component of second language speech perception","authors":"John Dylan Burton, Paula Winke","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000063","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Growing evidence suggests that ratings of second language (L2) speech may be influenced by perceptions of speakers’ affective states, yet the size and direction of these effects remain underexplored. To investigate these effects, 83 raters evaluated 30 speech samples using 7-point scales of four language features and ten affective states. The speech samples were 2-min videorecordings from a high-stakes speaking test. An exploratory factor analysis reduced the affect scores to three factors: assuredness, involvement, and positivity. Regression models indicated that affect variables predicted spoken language feature ratings, explaining 18–27% of the variance in scores. Assuredness and involvement corresponded with all language features, while positivity only predicted comprehensibility scores. These findings suggest that listeners’ perceptions of speakers’ affective states intertwine with their spoken language ratings to form a visual component of second-language communication. The study has implications for models of L2 speech, language pedagogy, and assessment practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143427335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of multiword sequences in fluent speech: The case of listener-based judgment in L2 argumentative speech","authors":"Kotaro Takizawa, Shungo Suzuki","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000051","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study explored how second language (L2) speakers’ use of multiword sequences in speech predicted perceived fluency ratings while controlling for their utterance fluency. A total of 102 Japanese speakers of English delivered an argumentative speech, which was analyzed for bigram and trigram measures (frequency, proportion, and mutual information) and utterance fluency measures capturing three subdimensions: speed, breakdown, and repair fluency (Tavakoli &amp; Skehan, 2005). Perceived fluency was assessed by 10 experienced L2 raters. Mixed-effects regression analyses revealed that after establishing the parsimonious model solely by UF predictors (marginal <span>R<span>2</span></span> = .61), a frequency-based n-gram predictor––bigram proportion––slightly but significantly explained the remaining variance of fluency rating scores (0.8%). The results indicated that multiword sequences in speech had a small but systematic impact on perceived fluency, even controlling for the effects of utterance fluency. This finding contributes to the discussion concerning the role of multiword sequences in fluent speech production.</p>","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143393449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Challenges in inflected word processing for L2 speakers: The role of stem allomorphy","authors":"Rosa Salmela, Minna Lehtonen, Seppo Vainio, Raymond Bertram","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000026","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Morphological knowledge refers to the ability to recognize and use morphemes correctly in syntactic contexts and word formation. This is crucial for learning a morphologically rich language like Finnish, which features both agglutinative and fusional morphology. In Finnish, agglutination occurs in forms like <span>aamu: aamu+lla</span> (‘morning: in the morning’), where a suffix is transparently added. Fusional features, as seen in <span>ilta: illa+lla</span> (‘evening: in the evening’), involve allomorphic stem changes that reduce transparency. We investigated the challenges posed by stem allomorphy for word recognition in isolation and in context for L2 learners and L1 speakers of Finnish. In a lexical decision task, L2 speakers had longer response times and higher error rates for semitransparent inflections, while L1 speakers showed longer response times for both transparent and semitransparent inflection types. In sentence reading, L2 speakers exhibited longer fixation times for semitransparent forms, whereas L1 speakers showed no significant effects. The results suggest that the challenges in L2 inflectional processing are more related to fusional than agglutinative features of the Finnish language.</p>","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143385366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Disentangling the causal role of motivation, enjoyment, and anxiety in second language speech learning: A final report","authors":"Kazuya Saito, Jean-Marc Dewaele, Yo In’nami, Mariko Abe","doi":"10.1017/s0272263125000038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263125000038","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While our earlier report focused on the initial four months of the dataset (Saito et al., 2018, <span>Language Learning</span>), this study investigates the relationship between individual differences in motivation (Ideal Self and Ought–to Self), emotions (Enjoyment and Anxiety), and L2 speech learning among 121 Japanese English–as–a–Foreign–Language high school students over 1.5–years. Participants’ L2 speech proficiency consistently improved at each testing point (6 months, 10 months, and 1.5 years), while their motivation and emotions, measured through questionnaires, remained relatively stable. The results of structural equation modeling suggest that the relationship between motivation, emotions, and acquisition may evolve. Within the first 6-10 months, data indicated a correlational relationship, highlighting a mutual influence among motivation, emotions, and acquisition. However, as the study progressed beyond one year, after students had fully adapted to their educational settings, a clearer causal relationship emerged: Enhanced motivation and more positive emotions were linked to increased classroom practice, leading to significant gains in L2 speech proficiency. The predictive roles of Anxiety remained unclear in this longitudinal dataset.</p>","PeriodicalId":22008,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Second Language Acquisition","volume":"128 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143385367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}