The current study examined cognitive effects of two pathways of second language (L2) acquisition longitudinally in Chinese speakers learning English in an L2-dominant environment. Thirty-nine participants who attended an intensive 10-week English course (L2-instruction group) were compared to 38 participants who attended regular university courses…

Hypothesized that orientations toward language learning (L2) as well as social support would influence students willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language. Grade 9 L2 students of French immersion participated in the study. Results showed endorsement of all five orientations (travel, job related, friendship with Francophones, personal…

Investigates children's changing sensitivity to processing cues for identifying agent as a function of proficiency in a second language. English speaking children in an immersion school were asked to identify the agent for a set of audiotaped sentences in English and Japanese. Found children learned word order, lexical semantics, and canonical…

Compares English acquisition of German students in English immersion (IM), non-immersion, and non-IM groups from the same school as the IM groups. Examines whether English vocabulary learning occurs incidentally while students are learning history or geography taught in English and whether learning abilities activated in the IM classroom are the…

Examines aspects of communicative classroom discourse that may affect the potential of recasts to be noticed as negative evidence by young second-language learners. The database comprises transcripts of over 18 hours of interaction recorded during 27 lessons in four immersion classrooms at the primary level. (Author/JL)