It remains unclear whether late second language learners (L2ers) can acquire sufficient knowledge about unique-to-L2 constructions through implicit learning to build anticipations during real-time processing. To tackle this question, we conducted a visual world paradigm experiment to investigate high-proficiency late first-language Dutch…

In recent decades, English taught programmes have rapidly increased in number throughout Europe and East Asia as universities aim to internationalise their curriculum, which has given rise to an increase in English-medium instruction (EMI). This study aims to compare the teaching experiences at three EMI programmes in The Netherlands, China, and…

The aim of this study was twofold: first, to develop an experimental technique as a tool to investigate learning outcomes of spontaneous, naturalistic second language (L2) learning under controlled laboratory conditions; and second, to explore how this technique can be used to understand the basic conditions and limits of this learning. Two…

As English is widely accepted as a lingua franca in today's world, the importance of the language has been acknowledged globally in the present case. To rank the countries in terms of their English language proficiency, the EF Proficiency Index is prepared each year. In this study, five countries having the highest scores according to the Index…

It has been proposed that an implicit learning deficit explains the difficulties with grammar commonly observed in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The present study further investigates this link in two ways. Firstly, we investigate whether kindergartners with DLD have more difficulties with preposition understanding and…

We investigated age-related decline in adult learning of Dutch as an additional language (Ln) in speaking, writing, listening, and reading proficiency test scores for 56,024 adult immigrants with 50 L1s who came to the Netherlands for study or work. Performance for all four language skills turned out to decline monotonically after an age of…

Drawing on usage-based approaches this paper addresses the challenge of capturing EMI teachers' linguistic needs for the purposes of teacher training in international Medical Education. The focus is on EMI medical teachers in various instructional formats. Each format requires a specific linguistic repertoire resulting dynamic interactions of…

To prepare students for an increasingly globalized world, intercultural group work (IGW) holds promise as a pedagogical tool, because it may help them develop intercultural competence and second-language proficiency. These skills also are needed to complete the discipline-specific aspects of group work successfully. This study investigates the…

Whilst the links between learner corpus research (LCR) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) have long been debated, McEnery et al. (2019. "Corpus Linguistics, Learner Corpora, and SLA: Employing Technology to Analyze Language Use." Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 39: 74-92. doi:10.1017/S0267190519000096) claim that learner corpus…

Applied linguistics may benefit from a morphological complexity measure to get a better grip on language learning problems and to better understand what kind of typological differences between languages are more important than others in facilitating or impeding adult learning of an additional language. Using speaking proficiency scores of 9,000…

This study follows a group of modern foreign languages (MFL) teachers in the Netherlands during a nine-month professional development project around the theme of 'Content in MFL'. The project was initiated following proposals to refocus the MFL curriculum on the basis of integrated learning outcomes for both language proficiency and areas of…

This study examines the developmental relationship between L2 Chinese oral fluency and self-repair in Dutch students learning Chinese. In this study, 76 junior Dutch students were split into two different groups based on level and were tested at two time periods (T1 and T2) for L2 Chinese fluency, which included the control variables of repetition…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most classes in higher education were offered online, and student and staff mobility came to a sudden halt. With its focus on online interaction and collaboration between students from different cultural backgrounds, Virtual Exchange (VE) has presented itself as an excellent opportunity to students and educators to…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been said to increase not only foreign language proficiency but also learner motivation (Coyle, D., P. Hood, and D. Marsh. 2010. "CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). In contexts where CLIL is elective, however, the question can be…

Medical students need to become fluent in the native language of the country they will be working in before entering their work environment at the hospital. For this purpose, third-year students in the international track medicine (ITM) at Maastricht University attended the interactive online medical-Dutch language course. In this study, the aim…