There is controversy in the literature on language acquisition concerning whether L2 learners develop separate systems for the two languages or they construct a unitary system for both (i.e. interlanguage). Here we investigate whether Voice Onset Time (VOT) can provide evidence supporting one of the two perspectives mentioned. To assess the…

The act of refusal takes place in everyday lives, but it has been discussed to be a difficult speech act for nonnative speakers. This study seeks to investigate Korean EFL learners' refusals in extended discourse along with their pragmatic perceptions. Sixteen college students were engaged in oral role-plays with two native English speakers and…

A growing body of literature has investigated impoliteness in many domains. Nevertheless, little research has examined impoliteness done by foreign language learners. Impoliteness used in interlanguage complaints by English as a foreign language learners was observed. The effects of interlocutors' different status levels and social distance on the…

Many empirical studies carried out to test the three major functions of the Comprehensible Output Hypothesis proposed by Swain lend some support to the Hypothesis in one way or another. This study aims to investigate whether giving the Chinese EFL learners an opportunity for oral output encourages them to notice their linguistic problems in oral…

Analysing the effects of second language (L2) production on L2 learners' interlanguage (IL) modifications is the main scope of this paper. For this purpose, English L2 learners' output production and IL modifications in performing two different task types, one-way and two-way tasks, are compared. The one-way task used in this study was a story…

The validity of speech act data taken from different kinds of elicitation instruments has been widely discussed in interlangauge and cross cultural pragmatics literature. In this study an attempt is made to evaluate and investigate data taken from two of the most popular speech act instruments namely, written DCT and closed role play. The…

This study investigates second language (L2) development of Spanish verbal morphology, subject omissions, and subject-verb (SV) inversions by learners in two different proficiency levels and learning contexts. Oral narratives from 40 L2 learners at the intermediate and advanced levels, both at home and in a study abroad (SA) program, were examined…

A spoken language eye-tracking methodology was used to evaluate the effects of sentence context and proficiency on parallel language activation during spoken language comprehension. Nonnative speakers with varying proficiency levels viewed visual displays while listening to French sentences (e.g., "Marie va decrire la poule" [Marie will…

This paper presents a brief summary of processability theory as proposed by [Pienemann, M., 1998a. "Language Processing and Second Language Development: Processability Theory." John Benjamins, Amsterdam; Pienemann, M., 1998b. "Developmental dynamics in L1 and L2 acquisition: processability theory and generative entrenchment." "Bilingualism:…

In this pilot study looking at interlanguage prosody, normal, and contrastively focused constructions in English were collected from four English-as-a-first-language speakers and four Japanese-as-a-first-language speakers. These productions were then played to six native English speakers to see how well they could identify the stress placement of…

Examines two rating scales for assessment of oral proficiency and judges both as inadequate because they are based on an untenable theory of the development of proficiency in a second language and on mistaken intuitions about oral interaction. The paper concludes with a discussion of an architectural, context-dependent theory of second-language…

Investigated the correlation between global foreign accent (GFA) and voice onset time (VOT). VOT values for /p/, /t/, and /k/ were measured at two times, separated by an interval of 42 months. Subjects were 11 Japanese speakers of English as a foreign language; 5 age-matched native speakers of English served as the control group. (Author/VWL)

This paper examines the effect of formality in three different situations on the oral production of French interlanguage. An analysis of 39 Dutch-speaking students revealed that, contrary to predictions, the more formal situation does not lead to higher accuracy rates. (23 references) (Author)

Questioning the notion of a sensitive period for second language acquisition, this research examined students' interlanguage development in selected classes at two grades in early, middle, and late French immersion. These classes were administered the same verb tense tests: an oral elicited imitation test and written rational cloze test. Analysis…

This journal focuses on the learning and teaching of Italian as a foreign language. Selected articles include the following: "Immigrant Women in Bologna: Themes and Problems"; "But Those Cursed Accents: Where Did They Go?"; "Modern Languages in the Primary School: The Scottish Experience"; "Suggested Strategies…