Introduction: Against the background of contradictory research findings in the field the present study aimed at unraveling the structural complexities of gender differences in secondary students' verbal self-concepts and, thus, analyzing possible gender x achievement interaction effects in the L1 German and L2 English language subject. According…

The purpose of this study was to explore possible cerebral asymmetries in the processing of decomposable and nondecomposable idioms by fluent nonnative speakers of English. In the study, native language (Polish) and foreign language (English) decomposable and nondecomposable idioms were embedded in ambiguous (neutral) and unambiguous (biasing…

CALL glossing in first language (L1) or second language (L2) texts has been shown by previous studies to be more effective than traditional, paper-and-pen L1 glossing. Using a pool of studies with much more statistical power and more accurate results, this meta-analysis demonstrates more precisely the degree to which CALL L1 glossing can be more…

In the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), the role of transfer has been theorized and studied to account for the influence of the native language on an interlanguage. However, stemming from behaviorist mentality, the concept of "transfer" has become widely associated with the direct transfer of habits and fails to take into…

The primary goal of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between Universal Grammar and the properties that Universal Grammar constrains, by investigating how language is created/acquired. The framework proposed in this dissertation provides us with tools for predicting what will and will not appear in linguistic systems of…

The investigation of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has produced significant results in the last few years especially in regard to the description and use of this variety of English in various domains. Somewhat less is known about how far the learners and users of English as a foreign language are aware of the changing role of English, how they…

The current study investigated first language (L1) effects on listener judgment of comprehensibility and accentedness in second language (L2) speech. The participants were 45 university-level adult speakers of English from three L1 backgrounds (Chinese, Hindi, Farsi), performing a picture narrative task. Ten native English listeners used…

Recent scholarship within the field of applied linguistics highlights the fact that identities are not static but are fluid, multiple, changeable across time and space, and always constructed in relationship to interactions with others. In other words, identities are constantly in motion. This paper presents a framework for examining the notion of…

Facilitating effective mathematics learning and higher mathematics achievement have long been recognized as a key to the scientific and technological advancement of the African continent. While the central role that language proficiency plays in mathematics teaching and learning has received an overwhelming research attention in the literature…

If in Edward Said's words, "everyone lives life in a given language; everyone's experiences therefore are had, absorbed, and recalled in that language" ("Out of Place", 1999: 217), a writer who chooses to write in a language other than the mother-language is inevitably a victim of displacement. In a geography-decentred world,…

The aim of the present study is twofold. One, we will show that Talmy's (1985, 1991, 2000) motion typology that groups Russian and English together as satellite-framed languages may be justified on linguistic grounds but is inadequate from a psycholinguistic point of view. Two, we will argue that the shortcomings of the typology may account…

The effectiveness of bilingual programs for promoting academic achievement of language minority children in the United States has been examined in six meta-analyses. The present meta-analytic study investigates this topic for the first time in the European context. Thorough literature searches uncovered 101 European studies, with only 7 meeting…

Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, is experiencing growing intra- and interlingual diversity. On the intralingual level, Tussentaal ("in-between-language") has emerged as a cluster of intermediate varieties between the Flemish dialects and Standard Dutch, gradually becoming "the" colloquial language. At the…

We ask whether an adult learner's knowledge of their native language impedes statistical learning in a new language beyond just word segmentation (as previously shown). In particular, we examine the impact of native-language word-form phonotactics on learners' ability to segment words into their component morphemes and learn phonologically…

In this article we focus on "false cognates", lexical items that have overlapping orthographic/phonological properties but little or no semantic overlap. False-cognate pairs were created from French (second language or L2) and English (first language or L1) items by manipulating the levels of morphological correspondence between them.…