Foreign language anxiety (FLA), whose impact is often negative on learners' cognitive processing, happens when a learner pursues a foreign language as a non-native speaker. This study aimed to investigate anxiety in learning English as a foreign language and its influence on learners' cognitive processes. The sample comprised graduate and…

Research investigating L2 (second language) willingness to communicate (WTC) has gained ground in the past two decades. Added to that is the emergence of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) with a focus on the phenomenon of change, the implications of which for WTC research have opened up new avenues to enhance our conceptualization of the…

Causal sequences can be segmented into cause and effect. However, some argue causal relations in discourse are by default in "effect-cause" order. Others claim "cause-effect" order is easier to process and the default way of expressing causality, due to iconicity. We conducted experiments testing participants' production…

Willingness to communicate (WTC) has recently been researched as a dynamic variable, with some investigations viewing it as a complex dynamic system (CDS). One important property associated with CDS is the notion of attractor states, which are characterized by stable patterns of behavior. The present study employed an idiodynamic method to monitor…

How does a person decide whether she or he is willing to communicate? Dual-process theories have been influential in the literature on the psychology of making judgments and decisions. Dual-process theories make a distinction between cognitive processes that are fast, automatic, and unconscious (also called 'experiential' thinking) and those that…

Using Englishes as a lingua franca ("EsLF") or international language among EFL learners in an out-of-class setting induces anxiety, then debilitates the intelligibility and comprehensibility of speakers. This research project reports the conceptualisation of EsLF anxiety and its effects on intelligibility and comprehensibility, with the…

This study examined the effects of communication mode ("i.e.", face to face versus computer mediated communication) on the instances of negotiation of meaning (NofM) and its level of noticing by learners. Sixty-four participants (32 dyads) completed two jigsaw tasks in two different mediums (one in each) and four days after the tasks…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that trigger language anxiety among Saudi learners in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. The factor of anxiety is especially found among learners while developing proficiency in over all communication and speaking skills as felt by the EFL teachers. The study also seeks to answer…

Elementary actions online establish an individual's existence on the web and her/his orientation toward different issues. In this sense, actions truly define a user in spaces like online forums and communities and the aggregate of elementary actions shape the atmosphere of these online spaces. This observation, coupled with the unprecedented scale…

While much research has analyzed the role of military veterans' centers on campus, faculty can also purposefully support veterans, a diverse group that may benefit from some accommodations. Intentional pedagogy that keeps the needs of veterans in mind can help us better support diverse populations regardless of military status. Specific issues…

A central issue in second language acquisition (SLA) research is the relationship between morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic knowledge among L2 learners. It has been proposed that, L2 language acquisition starts with transfer of L1 semantic and morphosyntactic processing strategies; however, it has been observed that, at lower proficiency…

Willingness to communicate (WTC) can be conceptualized as changing from moment to moment, as opportunities for second-language communication arise. In this study we present an idiodynamic methodology for studying rapid changes in WTC. The methodology consists of recording responses from six young adult, female speakers to second-language…

We report a replication and extension of Ferreira (2003), in which it was observed that native adult English speakers misinterpret passive sentences that relate implausible but not impossible semantic relationships (e.g., "The angler was caught by the fish") significantly more often than they do plausible passives or plausible or implausible…

Infants younger than 20 months of age interpret both words and symbolic gestures as object names. Later in development words and gestures take on divergent communicative functions. Here, we examined patterns of brain activity to words and gestures in typically developing infants at 18 and 26 months of age. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were…

Four doctoral students and their professor contemplate the value of play in their high school and college classrooms. They discuss their experiences teaching children's books, student illustrations, and excerpts from magazines and newspapers that convey the intricacies of the English language through homonyms, homophones, homographs, and polysemy.…