{"title":"Towards Greater Conceptual Clarity in Complexity and Difficulty: A Commentary on “Complexity and Difficulty in Second Language Acquisition: A Theoretical and Methodological Overview”","authors":"Xiaofei Lu","doi":"10.1111/lang.12688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12688","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487314","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":"Changes in Language Learners’ Affect: A Complex Dynamic Systems Theory Perspective","authors":"Katalin Piniel, Ágnes Albert","doi":"10.1111/lang.12686","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12686","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated changes in motivation, self‐efficacy beliefs, and a range of emotions, including enjoyment, hope, pride, curiosity, anxiety, boredom, apathy, confusion, and shame, from a complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) perspective over a 2‐year period in the Hungarian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Using the same questionnaire, we collected data four times throughout 4 semesters from 101 participants studying English in two Hungarian high schools. For data analysis, we used latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) to detect the group‐level changes in learners’ motivation, self‐efficacy, and emotions. We also employed dynamic cluster analysis to identify trends in learners’ trajectories regarding these variables. In our panel data, linear models described the data well concerning the ought‐to second language (L2) self, language learning experience, boredom, apathy, and confusion, and for enjoyment, curiosity, anxiety, and shame, nonlinear models had the best fit. We could also identify trajectories depicting attractor states and learner paths that featured influences of perturbations.","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142487599","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":"Developing Second Language Mandarin Fluency Through Pedagogic Intervention and Study Abroad: Planning Time, Speech Rate, and Response Duration","authors":"Jiayi Wang, Nicola Halenko","doi":"10.1111/lang.12694","DOIUrl":"10.1111/lang.12694","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This longitudinal study examines the effects of a pre-study abroad (SA) pedagogic intervention and subsequent SA experience on second language (L2) Mandarin fluency. It explores two temporal aspects of oral fluency—planning time and speech rate—along with one performance measure, duration of response. Additionally, L2 contact data were included as a supplementary variable in the analysis. The experimental group was assessed at three points: before instruction (T1), after 2 weeks of instruction (T2), and post-SA (T3). A non-instructed control group that participated in the SA period provided baseline data. Both groups demonstrated improved fluency after the SA period, with the experimental group showing superior performance in planning time, speech rate, and duration of response. The greatest reduction in between-group differences occurred at T2 and persisted over time. These findings highlight that combining targeted instruction with exposure is highly effective, with L2 contact strongly correlating with overall fluency gains.</p>","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"74 S2","pages":"177-206"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/lang.12694","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142486785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is This (Becoming) a Theory of Second Language Acquisition?: A Commentary on “Complexity and Difficulty in Second Language Acquisition: A Theoretical and Methodological Overview”","authors":"Jonas Granfeldt","doi":"10.1111/lang.12689","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12689","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142486784","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":"Optionality, Complexity, Difficulty: The Next Step: A Commentary on “Complexity and Difficulty in Second Language Acquisition: A Theoretical and Methodological Overview”","authors":"Benedikt Szmrecsanyi, Tanguy Dubois","doi":"10.1111/lang.12692","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12692","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142486783","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":"Effects of Task Instructions on Predictive Eye Movements and Word Recognition During Second Language Sentence Comprehension","authors":"Aine Ito","doi":"10.1111/lang.12684","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12684","url":null,"abstract":"This study tested whether encouraging prediction enhances prediction in second language (L2) speakers. L2 English speakers listened to English sentences like <jats:italic>The woman … will read/buy one of the newspapers</jats:italic> while viewing the target (a newspaper) and distractor objects (a rose, a bowl, and a mango) on a screen and clicked on the target as quickly as possible. The target was predictable (<jats:italic>read</jats:italic>) or unpredictable (<jats:italic>buy</jats:italic>) from the verb meaning. Participants looked at the target longer and were quicker to move the mouse to it when instructed to predict sentence continuation than when they were merely instructed to comprehend sentences. This result held true both when the target was predictable and unpredictable. Furthermore, only when instructed to predict did the participants make more clicking errors when the target was unpredictable than predictable, which suggested that encouraging prediction can interfere with word recognition accuracy in unpredictable contexts due to reduced cognitive resources or failed predictions.","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142449425","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 Effects of Task Repetition on the Processing and Acquisition of Technical Vocabulary Through Video‐Lecture‐Based Tasks: A Mixed‐Methods Study","authors":"Danni Shi, Andrea Révész, Ana Pellicer‐Sánchez","doi":"10.1111/lang.12679","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12679","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated how repeating a video‐lecture‐based task affects second language (L2) learners’ processing and incidental acquisition of technical vocabulary as well as the relationship between processing and lexical gains. The participants were 75 Chinese learners of L2 English. Thirty participants performed the task once (control group), whereas another 30 participants did the same task three times (repetition group). The two groups then completed unannounced vocabulary posttests. The remaining participants engaged in stimulated recall after performing the task once, twice, or three times. The repetition group made greater gains in vocabulary knowledge than the control group, and the repetition group's visual attention to the target words declined during repeated viewing. The amount of attention to the target words emerged as a predictor of delayed meaning recall, with task repetition decreasing the strength of this relationship. Stimulated‐recall participants repeating the task reported increased awareness of specific aspects of the target words.","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142440154","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}
Zeynep Köylü, Nurullah Eryılmaz, Carmen Pérez-Vidal, Marjolijn Verspoor, Hana Gustafsson
{"title":"Longitudinal Development of Holistic Formulaicity, Formulaic Sequences, and Lexical Complexity in Sojourner Diaries: A Dynamic Usage-Based Perspective","authors":"Zeynep Köylü, Nurullah Eryılmaz, Carmen Pérez-Vidal, Marjolijn Verspoor, Hana Gustafsson","doi":"10.1111/lang.12680","DOIUrl":"10.1111/lang.12680","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Because of authentic exposure, study-abroad sojourners are expected to become more proficient in terms of holistic formulaicity (defined as targetlike language use of intensifiers, fillers, multiword sequences, lexical features, verb–argument constructions, pragmatic and discourse features, and so on), use of formulaic sequences, and lexical measures. This study traces the development of these constructs over time in written diary texts of 26 Catalan/Spanish bilingual sojourners in an Anglophone country during study abroad. It adopts a dynamic usage-based perspective, underlining the importance of frequency of exposure and individual variability in developmental trajectories. Generalized additive mixed model analyses, which take individual nonlinear behavior into account, showed significant gains toward holistic formulaicity, but not in use of formulaic sequences nor in lexical complexity measures. We argue that at advanced stages some measures may have reached ceiling, but that sojourners may still progress in becoming more finely attuned to the conventionalized ways of saying things in the speech community.</p>","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"74 S2","pages":"116-147"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/lang.12680","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142328991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sybille Heinzmann, Robert Hilbe, Kristina Ehrsam, Lukas Bleichenbacher
{"title":"Study Abroad Students’ Social Contacts in Different Linguistic Contexts and Their Relationship With English Use and Development","authors":"Sybille Heinzmann, Robert Hilbe, Kristina Ehrsam, Lukas Bleichenbacher","doi":"10.1111/lang.12674","DOIUrl":"10.1111/lang.12674","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Our contribution draws on quantitative data from a longitudinal mixed-methods study to uncover different patterns of social contacts of study abroad (SA) students and the relationship of these social contacts with (a) language use, (b) target language development, and (c) contextual variables. Data were obtained by means of online questionnaires pre, during, and post sojourn. English oral proficiency gains were measured using the Oral Proficiency Interview by Computer (OPIc) test before and after the stay. Latent profile analysis yielded four profiles of social contacts, which differed in terms of the degree of integration into the community of locals or international students. Students with distinct profiles differ significantly with respect to language use but not in terms of language gains. Regression analyses indicate that comparable progress in oral proficiency was made by students across profiles of social contacts and also by those in an English as a lingua franca (ELF) context suggesting that different SA context and networking patterns are conducive to second language (L2) gains.</p>","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"74 S2","pages":"24-57"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/lang.12674","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142321541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gwen Brekelmans, Bronwen G. Evans, Elizabeth Wonnacott
{"title":"Training Child Learners on Nonnative Vowel Contrasts With Phonetic Training: The Role of Task and Variability","authors":"Gwen Brekelmans, Bronwen G. Evans, Elizabeth Wonnacott","doi":"10.1111/lang.12677","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12677","url":null,"abstract":"Substantial research suggests that high variability (multitalker) phonetic training helps second language (L2) adults improve differentiation of challenging nonnative speech sounds. Is such training also useful for L2 children? Existing studies have mixed findings and important limitations. We investigate the potential benefits of computerized phonetic training for 50 Dutch 7‐year‐olds and 39 11‐year‐olds trained on English vowel contrasts in a 2‐week study in a classroom setting. Half received multitalker, and half received single‐talker input (i.e., high variability vs. low variability; HV vs. LV), with learning evaluated by a battery of tests. Both groups improved in training; however, 11‐year‐olds improved more. Moreover, 11‐year‐olds showed generalization to novel talkers, and 7‐year‐olds did not, with Bayes factor analyses providing evidence for the null. Generalisation in 11‐year‐olds was no greater following HV than LV input, with evidence for the null on one of two tasks where generalization was found. Results are discussed in terms of the interplay between age, task demands, and talker variability.","PeriodicalId":51371,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142321809","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}