The present study administered six test instruments to 13- to 14-year-old learners of English in Austria and Sweden (N = 213), countries offering settings with more explicit and implicit learning environments, respectively. Confirmatory Factor Analyses for Austria yielded a factor comprising timed grammaticality judgment tests, an oral narrative…

We conducted a multisite replication of Yang and Lyster's (2010) study investigating the effects of recasts and prompts on learning English regular and irregular past tense. Our study was conducted with intact high school and vocational school classes in Italy and Bosnia. Our participants were young adolescents (14-15 and 16-17 years old), a…

Presents a theoretical perspective of second language learning which explains cross-cultural problems in terms of conflicting culturally determined definitions of reality. The article contends that students' difficulties in learning a second language often stem from a lack of understanding of the social context of the language. (Author/POP)

This paper presents a case study of the untutored acquisition of English by a 33-year-old Costa Rican male. Three causes for his lack of linguistic development over a 10-month period are considered: ability, age, and social and psychological distance. The third of these is seen as the cause. (Author/POP)

Intermediate-level English as a second language students were examined for levels of reading comprehension. Half of each group (experimental and control) received more complete versions of test passages than the other half, and the experimental group was taught appropriate cultural background information between tests. Background knowledge did…