This paper takes a system dynamic approach to study homogeneous texts where the dynamics of the lexical richness of such texts over time are of the focal concern. It is hypothesized that the progress of the lexical complexity is driven by how far away this process is from the maximum level of complexity, while is subject to the fluctuations due to…

For adults, "no" and "not" change the truth-value of sentences they compose with. To investigate children's emerging understanding of these words, an experimenter hid a ball in a bucket or a truck, then gave an affirmative or negative clue (Experiment 1: "It's not in the bucket"; Experiment 2: "Is it in the…

We test the interpretation of pronominal forms in L2 speakers of English whose L1 is Spanish. Previous research on learners of nonnull subject languages has shown conflicting results. The aim of the present study is to reconcile previous evidence and shed light on the factors that determine learners' difficulty to interpret pronominal forms in the…

The phenomenon of regularization -- learners imposing systematicity on inconsistent variation in language input -- is complex. Studies show that children are more likely to regularize than adults, but adults will also regularize under certain circumstances. Exactly why we see the pattern of behaviour that we do is not well understood, however.…

This chapter introduces three applications of Bayesian inference to common and novel issues in second language research. After a review of the critiques of conventional hypothesis testing, our focus centers on ways Bayesian inference can be used for dealing with missing data, for testing theory-driven substantive hypotheses without a default null…

Taking a psycholinguistic orientation within task-based language teaching scholarship, this study investigated the effects of mode (oral vs. written) and task complexity on second language (L2) performance. The participants were 78 Catalan/Spanish learners of English as a foreign language. Half of the participants performed the simple and complex…

This article investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of two expressions of the semantic feature [definite] in Russian, a language without articles, by English and Korean native speakers. Within the Feature Reassembly approach (Lardiere, 2009), Slabakova (2009) has argued that reassembling features that are represented overtly in the…

The research project reported in this chapter consists of three studies in which syntactic complexity, lexical variation and fluency appear as dependent variables. The independent variables are task complexity and proficiency level, as the three studies investigate the effect of task complexity on the written and oral performance of L2 learners of…

Children with dyslexia are believed to have very poor phonological skills for which they compensate, to some extent, through relatively well-developed knowledge of letter patterns. We tested this view in Study 1 by comparing 25 dyslexic children and 25 younger normal children, chosen so that both groups performed, on average, at a second-grade…

Language testing is an area of applied linguistics that combines the exercise of professional judgment about language, learning, and the nature of the achievement of language learning with empirical data about student performance and, by inference, their abilities. The relationship between judgments and empirical data in language testing is…

A study explored similarities and differences in relative pronoun use by native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. The study was conducted with 40 university students, 20 NSs and 20 NNSs. Specifically, the study examined the frequency of relative pronoun use and the spontaneity of subjects' responses in completing a sentence…

The popular view that children have an advantage in learning a second language has considerable support in research, although it is not uncontested. One approach proposes that the child possesses a unique capacity for language that the adult no longer has. Another view argues that the child's brain is more flexible. A third approach assumes that…

A study inspired by previous research investigated comprehension of three complex English structures by Dutch high school students at three levels of proficiency. Dutch learners responded similarly to speakers of other languages in an earlier study, but had significantly more ease with one structure familiar in Dutch. (MSE)

A study compared the effects of cognitive complexity on the speech production of 14 advanced non-native speakers of English and 14 native English-speakers. Cognitively simple and complex tasks were distinguished based on text type (narrative versus expository). Subjects read one narrative and one expository text in separate sessions, then wrote…

A study used compressed speech to observe aural processing strategy differences between native English-speakers and high- and medium-level learners of English as a second language. Quantitative and qualitative differences in recall among the three groups were found. (Author/MSE)