The involvement load hypothesis (ILH) was designed to predict the effectiveness of instructional tasks for incidental L2 vocabulary learning. In this meta-analysis we examined 398 effect sizes from 42 empirical studies (N = 4,628) to explore (a) the overall predictive ability of the ILH, (b) the relative effects of different components of the ILH…

Despite its critical role for the development of the field, little is known about replication in second language (L2) research. To better understand replication practice, we first provide a narrative review of challenges related to replication, drawing on recent developments in psychology. This discussion frames and motivates a systematic review,…

This study applied systematic meta-analytic procedures to summarize findings from experimental and quasi-experimental investigations into the effectiveness of using the tools and techniques of corpus linguistics for second language learning or use, here referred to as data-driven learning (DDL). Analysis of 64 separate studies representing 88…

This study employed synthetic and meta-analytic techniques to review the literature on the Cognition Hypothesis, which predicts that increasing task complexity influences the quality of second language production. Based on 8 inclusion criteria, 17 published studies were synthesized according to key features. A subset of these studies (k = 9) was…

Summarizes a range of theoretical approaches to language acquisition. Argues that language representations emerge from interactions at all levels from brain to society. Connectionism, which provides a set of computational tools for exploring the conditions under which emergent properties arise, is discussed, and simulations of emergence of…

A review of research about second language learning indicates that nonprimary acquisition is sensitive to the center-periphery distinction. There is clear evidence that this construct has reflexes in interlanguage word order with respect to the probability of native word order influence, difficulty, and order of emergence. (CB)

Reviews research on student motivation for second-language learning from the standard applied linguistics approach. The utility of other concepts of motivation to such research conducted at the micro, classroom, and syllabus levels is discussed as well as informal, out-of-class, and long-term factors. (188 references) (Author/CB)

A study of children's acquisition of synonymy as a sense-property during the second childhood period (as defined by Piaget) suggests that, contrary to psychologists' claims, nominal realism is a linguistic phenomenon that should be studied as such. (75 references) (Author/CB)

Argues that facts of phonological and morphological interference can be satisfactorily accounted for only by a theory that treats local, morphologically dependent alternations in the morphological component of the grammar and global automatic alternations in the phonology with phonotactically motivated repair mechanisms and not with what are…

Examines the role of "routines" and grammatical patterns in first and second language acquisition by children and adults, specifically with regard to syntactic structures. (Author/AM)

Reviews research on the social interaction and negotiation of second language (L2) learners and their interlocutors. This research illustrates ways in which negotiation contributes to conditions, processes, and outcomes of L2 learning by facilitating learners' comprehension and structural segmentation of L2 input, access to lexical form and…

Reviews the history of applied linguistics together with the history of the journal "Language Learning," indicating the journal's particular place in that larger history and honoring its 50th anniversary. (Author/JL)

Reviews research that has been emerging from the availability of corpora on the grammar of spoken English. Presents arguments for the view that spoken and written language utilize the same basic grammatical repertoire, however different their implementations of it are. (Author/VWL)

Examines perspectives from which foreign language anxiety research has been conducted, the instruments that have been used, and the results that have been reported. Three approaches to the study of anxiety are identified as trait, state, and situation specific perspectives. (68 references) (VWL)

An examination of second-language acquisition research assumptions argues that second language data are important to understanding the nature of language. Exploration of theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence relating to language universals indicates that research must consider how disparate facts of language are conceptually related…