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摘要：This study looks at the effect of developing L2 listening fluency through extensive listening to audio graded readers. A large bank of listening fluency development questions (2,064 items) was constructed based on ten Level 1 graded readers. Three groups of L2 students were engaged in one of three different input modes while studying ten graded readers over a 13-week period: reading only, reading while listening, and listening only. All participants were given one pre-test (60 items) before the intervention and one post-test consisting of three texts (180 items) after the intervention. All the passages were delivered at the same speech rate, and the participants were allowed to listen only once. The post-test results demonstrate that the reading plus listening group produced the most consistent and significant outcome compared with the reading-only and listening-only groups. The results have some implications for developing L2 listening fluency. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Construction grammar (CG) has been proposed as an adequate grammatical formalism for building intelligent language tutoring systems because it is highly compatible with the learning strategies observed in second language learning. Unfortunately, the lack of computational CG implementations has made it impossible in the past to corroborate these proposals with actual language tutoring prototypes. However, recent advances in Fluid Construction Grammar (FCG) now offer exciting new ways of operationalizing robust and open-ended language processing within a CG approach. This paper demonstrates its adequacy for ICALL applications through a case study on error diagnosis in the domain of Spanish tense, aspect and modal morphology. The performance of the FCG tutor is tested on the Spanish Learner Language Oral Corpus (SPLOCC 2). This first FCG Spanish error diagnostic prototype achieves an accuracy of 70% on a total of 500 conjugation errors in four oral tasks carried out by 20 low intermediate and 20 advanced English learners of Spanish. Follow-up experiments will test this prototype on larger learner corpora of differing proficiency levels. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study investigated how synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and face-to-face (F2F) oral interaction influence the way in which learners collaborate in language learning and how they solve their communicative problems. The findings suggest that output modality may affect how learners produce language, attend to linguistic forms, and solve communicative problems. In particular, the use of collaborative processes to construct utterances was more prevalent in F2F interaction than in SCMC. Moreover, learners engaged in activities and produced language differently depending on output modalities, which differed in terms of the physical, social, and interactional contexts that they created and the way in which they influenced learners' communication strategies. The findings indicate that SCMC should be used selectively according to the pedagogical purpose. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This commentary discusses some methodological innovations and challenges in testing two cognitive models of task-based instruction and learning: Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis (2001) and Skehan's Trade-Off Hypothesis (1998). My focus, in view of these models' key constructs, is the extent to which current methodological approaches are adequate to address the theoretical questions posed. I argue that there is a need for more extensive use of methods that can provide independent evidence of construct validity for the independent variables and causal processes invoked by the frameworks. By exploring some innovative task-based research and drawing on examples from other fields, I offer suggestions for improving our practices in future research. Adapted from the source document

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摘要：This article is part of a longitudinal study of American college students studying Mandarin in China. Its main data are drawn from monthly speaking events (four sessions with each student) conducted in Chinese with each of 29 participants in a study-abroad program in China. The study yielded these results: (a) Students made significant progress in their fluency development, especially during the first month; (b) speaking Chinese both inside and outside of class helped fluency; (c) students who consistently spoke Chinese in class and out of class made more progress than those who did not; and (d) time on task, the amount of time that students spent using Chinese, was the most important factor in determining fluency development. The quantitative analysis that is the focus of this article is supplemented by qualitative data from individual students, reflecting the position that only a combination of quantitative and qualitative data can reveal a complete picture of the nature of language acquisition during study abroad. The article concludes with implications for the design and conduct of programs in China.

摘要：This study investigated whether learners of Japanese with different first language (L1) writing systems use different recognition strategies and whether second language (L2) exposure affects L2 kanji recognition. The study used a computerized lexical judgment task with 3 types of kanji characters to investigate these questions: (a) pseudo-homophones, (b) pseudo-homographs, and (c) real words. Three groups of learners participated in the study: (a) beginning-level learners of Japanese whose L1 was alphabetic, (b) beginning-level learners of Japanese whose L1 was logographic, and (c) intermediate-level learners of Japanese whose L1 was alphabetic. The results showed that both levels of learners whose L1 was alphabetic had poor results on the computerized lexical judgment test, possibly due to poor L2 orthographic awareness. The learners with L1 alphabetic knowledge used a poor visual recognition strategy for L2 kanji decoding, whereas those with L1 logographic knowledge were able to access individual kanji characters due to sufficient knowledge of the characters. Some of the learners also preferred phonological coding to recognize kanji characters. In addition, reaction time for the judgment task differed significantly between beginning- and intermediate-level learners. Results indicated that different reading strategies were used by learners of L1 alphabetic or logographic backgrounds and the beginning and intermediate learners who had had different degrees of exposure to the L2.

摘要：The present study explores the use of conjunctions in simple versus complex argumentative tasks performed by second language (L2) learners as a specific measure for the amount of reasoning involved in task performance. The Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2005) states that an increase in cognitive task complexity promotes improvements in L2 performance. This effect should become particularly visible when task-specific performance measures are used (Robinson & Gilabert, 2007). This article evaluates these claims by investigating the oral performance of 64 L2 learners on cognitively simple, as compared with cognitively complex, oral argumentative reasoning tasks. The analysis focuses first on the overall frequency and occurrence of conjunctions. Next, 5 conjunctions that are considered to be highly task-relevant are examined more closely. Results are discussed in light of the speech production of 44 native speakers who performed the same tasks under the same conditions. The discussion addresses implications of the findings for the cognitive approach to task-based L2 research in light of Robinson's (2005) Cognition Hypothesis. From the standpoint of research methodology it highlights the benefits of native speaker data as a baseline for comparison.

摘要：This study investigates whether native Hmong speakers' first language (L1) lexical tone experience facilitates or interferes with their perception of Mandarin tones and whether training is effective for perceptual learning of second (L2) tones. In Experiment 1, 3 groups of beginning level learners of Mandarin with different L1 prosodic background (Hmong, Japanese, and English) took a perception test on Mandarin tones. Both the English and Japanese groups outperformed the Hmong group in perceptual accuracy of Mandarin tones. In Experiment 2, 18 learners with different L1 background received either perception training only or perception with production training on Mandarin tones for 6 hours within 3-4 weeks. Both training paradigms were effective for perceptual learning of Mandarin tone contrasts as the two training groups' perceptual accuracy improved significantly at posttest compared with a control group. Although Hmong speakers initially had more difficulties in perception of Mandarin tones than the other 2 groups, they are by no means disadvantaged by their L1 prosodic background as they gain L2 experience after intensive training.

摘要：In this study I examine the construct of aptitude in learning Chinese as a second language (L2) to an advanced level. I test 2 hypotheses: first, that L2 aptitude comprises 4 components -- working memory, rote memory, grammatical sensitivity, and phonemic coding ability -- and second, that L2 aptitude affects learning both directly and indirectly (mediated by strategy use and motivation). Native speakers of English (n = 96) studying advanced Chinese took the Modern Language Aptitude Test and a phonological working memory test and responded to motivation and strategy use questionnaires. Using end-of-course listening, reading, and speaking proficiency test results as measures of Chinese learning, I constructed a structural equation model to test the hypotheses. The model fit the observed data. Of the 4 components foreseen to comprise L2 aptitude, rote memory contributed the most and working memory the least. Aptitude, strategy use, and motivation had about the same impact on learning but varied in how well they predicted the individual skills of listening, reading, and speaking. The results shed light on L2 aptitude in the particular context of an advanced L2 Chinese course.

摘要：This study investigates caption-reading behavior by foreign language (L2) learners and, through eye-tracking methodology, explores the extent to which the relationship between the native and target language affects that behavior. Second-year (4th semester) English-speaking learners of Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish watched 2 videos differing in content familiarity, each dubbed and captioned in the target language. Results indicated that time spent on captions differed significantly by language: Arabic learners spent more time on captions than learners of Spanish and Russian. A significant interaction between language and content familiarity occurred: Chinese learners spent less time on captions in the unfamiliar content video than the familiar, while others spent comparable times on each. Based on dual-processing and cognitive load theories, we posit that the Chinese learners experienced a split-attention effect when verbal processing was difficult and that, overall, captioning benefits during the 4th semester of language learning are constrained by L2 differences, including differences in script, vocabulary knowledge, concomitant L2 proficiency, and instructional methods. Results are triangulated with qualitative findings from interviews.

摘要：English-speakers' learning of a French vowel contrast (/(schwa)/-/o/) was examined under six different stimulus conditions in which contrastive and noncontrastive stimulus dimensions were varied orthogonally to each other. The distribution of contrastive cues was varied across training conditions to create single prototype, variable far (from the category boundary), and variable close (to the boundary) conditions, each in a single talker or a multiple talker version. The control condition involved identification of gender appropriate grammatical elements. Pre- and posttraining measures of vowel perception and production were obtained from each participant. When assessing pre- to posttraining changes in the slope of the identification functions, statistically significant training effects were observed in the multiple voice far and multiple voice close conditions.

摘要：This study examines the roles of proficiency and working memory (WM) capacity in second-/foreign-language (L2) learners' processing of agreement morphology. It investigates the processing of grammatical and ungrammatical short- and long-distance number agreement dependencies by native English speakers at two proficiencies in French, and the relationship between their proficiency and WM capacity in French and their sensitivity to agreement violations. Native English speakers at mid- and high proficiencies in French and native French speakers completed an acceptability judgment task, a self-paced reading task, and a WM task in French, and the English speakers also completed a WM task in English. The results showed that whereas all participants performed at ceiling on the acceptability judgment tasks, only the high-level L2 learners and native speakers showed some sensitivity to number agreement violations. For L2 learners, this sensitivity did not vary as a function of the length of the agreement dependency. The results also indicated that L2 learners tended to be more sensitive to agreement violations as their WM memory capacity in French increased. The implications of these results for theories of L2 morphological processing are discussed.

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摘要：Although wh-words generally stay in situ in Chinese wh-questions, they can be topicalized. However, the wh-topicalization is determined at the syntax-discourse interface and has to be governed by discourse conditions; only discourse-linked (D-linked) wh-words can be topicalized, but non-D-linked ones cannot. This article reports on an empirical study that investigated English speakers' second language (L2) acquisition of Chinese wh-topicalization. The results of an acceptability judgment test indicate that advanced English speakers are sensitive to the discourse condition that governs the syntactic derivation of wh-topicalization in Chinese, as they were found to be able to make the distinction in their L2 Chinese by allowing D-linked, but not non-D-linked, wh-elements to topicalize. However, these results also indicate that wh-determiner phrases (DPs) and wh-noun phrases (NPs) differ in their sensitivity to presupposition background information in L2 Chinese wh-topicalization, and it is argued that the availability of the deictic feature in the wh-element involved is a variable affecting the D-linking properties of wh-elements in the development of L2 Chinese wh-topicalization, and this seems more likely to be a representational deficit than a processing problem. Adapted from the source document