The measurement of second language (L2) productive lexical proficiency has driven a great deal of research over the past two decades. Research has indicated that more proficient speakers and writers tend to use a wider range of words and that more proficient writers tend to use words that are more sophisticated (less frequent in reference…

Developing proficiency and intercultural competence are goals promoted by the Modern Language Association and widely shared by postsecondary second language programs across the United States. Although the development of proficiency has been studied extensively in this context, comparatively little is known about how intercultural competence…

Frequency and proficiency have been found to play an important role in second language (L2) phrasal processing. However, existing research has largely focused on English and other European languages, with other commonly used languages, such as Chinese, being largely disregarded. To fill this gap, we carried out two experiments to investigate how…

Domestic immersion (DI) is an effective context for postsecondary language learning, given that DI's instructor-curated environments promote meaningful second language use while providing abundant support for learners. However, DI is at present understudied within second language acquisition research, especially when compared to its more…

The adjustment of syntactic and phraseological complexity is a key consideration in text adaptation. However, research on this topic in the context of Chinese as a second language (CSL) remains limited. Using 700 CSL reading texts graded following the newly issued Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education,…

Lexical proficiency in a second language (L2) has long been effectively assessed through the measurement of various lexical indices, or textual characteristics that act as observable indicators of such conceptual categories as lexical richness, diversity, sophistication, and fluency. While many studies have established links between these lexical…

The effects of learner- and task-related variables on second language (L2) writing syntactic complexity (SC) have been extensively investigated. However, previous research has rarely assessed the reliability of computational tools for analyzing the SC of L2 spoken production, and we know less about the effects of such variables on L2 speaking SC.…

Emotions in foreign language (FL) learning have become an increasingly popular research avenue in applied linguistics. Such research is often carried out using linear correlational or regression methods, which are limited in the extent to which they can depict interrelations. In this study, we aimed to reexamine the relationships between the…

Study abroad (SA) is touted for providing language learners with regular exposure to a second language (L2) in naturalistic settings. However, few studies have examined how interaction occurs in situ. This study analyzed 13 hours of naturalistic dyadic conversations self-recorded by 15 US-based undergraduate sojourners studying abroad for one…

Although most children learn to communicate in their first language (L1), there is normal and expected variation in their rate of acquisition across all components of the language system. Until recently, most second language acquisition and second language (L2) researchers have assumed that individual differences (IDs) in L1 acquisition are small…

Evidence suggests that short-term study abroad experiences can help advance various dimensions of second language (L2) learners' linguistic competence. However, the extent to which gains following a brief sojourn are durable and maintained after immersion remains an open question. The present study examined both the immediate and sustained…

This study explored the influence of speech rate (normal vs. fast), sentence length (short vs. long), and second language (L2) oral proficiency on listening comprehension in L2 Spanish. Thirty-one native English-speaking learners enrolled in upper-level Spanish courses were aurally exposed to 8 sentences of each type of speed--length matrix, for a…

Recent research in second language acquisition suggests that a number of speed, breakdown, repair, and composite measures reliably assess fluency and predict proficiency. However, there is little research evidence to indicate which measures best characterize fluency at each assessed level of proficiency and which can consistently distinguish one…

This study investigates second language (L2) interactional competence in Mandarin Chinese, with a specific focus on dispreference organization in refusals. Twenty-eight L2 Chinese learners at 3 proficiency levels (A2, B1, and B2) and 10 native speakers each participated in 3 role plays. We found that learners at different levels clearly differed…

This longitudinal study of 17 American learners of French lies at the intersection of 2 complementary fields of inquiry in second language acquisition (SLA): language variation and change (LVC) and language acquisition during study abroad. Studies in LVC examine the nature and use of linguistic features that have more than 1 possible realization…