We investigate sensitivity to island constraints in English native speakers and Najdi Arabic learners of English, examining (1) whether second language (L2) learners whose native language (L1) does not instantiate overt "wh"-movement are sensitive to island constraints and (2) the source of island effects. Under a grammatical account of…

EFL listening comprehension has been a stark challenge for language learners, but little is known about the combined effect of individual differences, such as working memory capacity, and metacognitive intervention. Thus, the present experimental study investigates the effect of metacognitive intervention on the listening performance and…

This study first validates a survey on self-regulated vocabulary learning strategies. It then examines the effects on the acquisition of new second language (L2) words from a reading text of three word-focused exercise conditions: reading + marginal glosses, reading + gap-fill and reading + sentence writing. It also evaluates the extent to which…

A growing number of studies have focused on uncovering linguistic and cognitive skills predictive of reading comprehension. Vocabulary knowledge (VK) and morphological awareness (MA) are two important linguistic variables for reading comprehension. In contrast, working memory (WM) is an essential cognitive variable for reading comprehension. The…

According to cognitive psychologists, consistent practice (i.e., tasks with a high degree of similarity) of a skill leads to the development of automaticity, with the degree of automatization being increased if the practice also involves exact repetition. Practice is skill specific, meaning that practicing one skill does not automatize related…

Cognitive control is a mental construct thought to be important in most cognitive tasks, including second language learning. Its functions are believed by many scholars to be mainly domain-general, with some transferability across linguistic and non-linguistic domains. Our study aims to investigate to what extent the domain-generality claim of…

This study examines the referential context effect on second-language relative clause ambiguity resolution by proficient L1 Chinese learners who learn English as a foreign language (EFL) and investigates whether the ambiguity resolution process is constrained by individuals' working memory capacity (WMC). It presents a self-paced reading study and…

In light of mixed findings in existing input enhancement research, Issa and Morgan-Short in a 2019 article urged researchers to compare the relative effects of input enhancement that taps into learners' attention to the external format of second language (L2) target forms (e.g. through capitalizing or boldfacing the forms) and input enhancement…

This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM), semantic-encoding (SE) ability, and reading comprehension (RC) within the domain of second language acquisition (L2). 120 L1-Persian EFL learners were placed in three proficiency groups (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) based on their scores on the IELTS test. The…

This study compared how distinct lexical competences, including lexical knowledge as well as processing skills at both word/lexical and sublexical/morphological levels, collectively and relatively predict reading comprehension in adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The participants were 220 Arabic-speaking EFL learners in a…

Non-word repetition tasks are widely used to assess phonological short-term memory (PSTM). Results of previous research on the performance of monolingual and bilingual children in PSTM tasks are inconclusive. Although in some studies bilinguals did outperform monolinguals in the repetition of non-words, most studies reported comparatively weak…

While the relationship between language experience and foreign language aptitude (FLA) has been studied extensively, little is known about the underlying intermediate link between them. This study investigates whether multilingual learning experience is correlated with FLA and whether working memory (WM) mediates this relationship. A total of 93…

This study examined whether the assessment of executive function (EF) added a unique contribution to second language (L2) reading comprehension in children in French immersion. Participants were 8- to 9-year old children who completed a collection of measures assessing French reading (i.e., word reading, decoding, and reading comprehension ) and…

Awareness, short-term memory, and long-term memory are interrelated cognitive abilities that influence orthographic acquisition under Individual Differences. Connectionists ignore the role of biological grammar in language acquisition and consider external inputs or interventions as factors that shape abstract grammar through network mapping…

The present study examines the effects of pre-task explicit instruction on second language (L2) oral self-repair behaviour while controlling for the effects of working memory. The participants were 121 Iranian learners of English at incipient levels of language proficiency. Their working memory was measured using an operation span task and then…