In the present study, we sought to advance the field of learner corpus research by tracking the development of phrasal vocabulary in essays produced at two different points in time. To this aim, we employed a large pool of second language (L2) learners (N = 175) from three proficiency levels--beginner, elementary, and intermediate--and focused on…

Some second language (L2) acquisition researchers have suggested that learners should be made aware of cross-linguistic similarity for them to benefit from cognateness. To test this assumption, we ran two longitudinal classroom quasi-experiments with Polish learners of English. We chose 30 Polish-English cognates, 30 false cognates, and 30…

This study investigated the influence of cognitive ability on bilingual children's vocabulary development in both their languages. Sixty-nine bilingual immigrant children participated, with data collected at three annual intervals. At Time 1, the participants were 5 or 6 years old. Receptive vocabulary was tested in the minority (Turkish, Tarifit)…

This longitudinal randomized trial study investigated the effects of phonological specificity training on second language (L2) vocabulary learning. Eighty-six Dutch secondary-school students participated in one of two experimental conditions or in an animacy judgment (active control) condition. Participants in the phonological specificity training…

We investigated the influence of nonparental caregivers, such as foreign domestic helpers (FDH), on the home language spoken to the child and its implications for vocabulary and word reading development in Cantonese- and English-speaking bilingual children. Using data collected from ages 5 to 9, we analyzed Chinese vocabulary, Chinese character…

A growing research line documents significant bivariate correlations between individual measures of speech perception gathered in infancy and concurrent or later vocabulary size. One interpretation of this correlation is that it reflects language specificity: Both speech perception tasks and the development of the vocabulary recruit the…

This study investigated second language (L2) lexical development in the spontaneous speech of six adult, L2 English learners in a 1-year longitudinal study. One important aspect of lexical development is lexical organization and depth of knowledge. Hypernymic relations, the hierarchical relationships among related words that vary in relation to…

Fifty-five children from multilingual backgrounds being educated in English were studied longitudinally over a 2-year period with measures taken of their phonological skill, vocabulary, and letter knowledge. Phonological segmentation ability and letter knowledge proved significant predictors of both concurrent and later reading achievement a year…

Tracked the acquisition of 11 words over the course of a year for three adult learners with advanced proficiency in English. Four kinds of words were measured for knowledge: spelling, associations, grammatical information, and meaning. (Author/JL)

Administered the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory to 25 bilingual (English/Spanish) and 35 monolingual children who were furnishing data for longitudinal study. Assessment of the degree of overlap between bilingual children's lexical development in their two languages showed that they developed early vocabulary at the same rate as…

This study examined linguistic interdependence in 98 bilingual Turkish/Dutch children of Turkish background living in the Netherlands since birth, to determine whether language and literacy skills can be transferred from 1 language. The results indicated that, although the transference of lexicon and syntax skills was limited, pragmatic,…