Many language learners lack the motivation to read complex texts. Because high-immersion Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly reported to be highly motivating, the goal of our study was to compare English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' (N=79) motivation while reading a story with subtitles in VR (experimental group) versus reading the same…

In a study of binding relations of reflexive anaphors, it is suggested that a nonsyntactic aspect of language plays a role; i.e., viewpoint in sentence processing. This notion may help specify the type of evidence that can trigger learners' progress in the acquisition of the English reflexive. (Contains 33 references.) (Author/LB)

A study investigated the ability of 75 Italian secondary school students to subordinate in English. The students were learning English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) through formal instruction. The differences in learning a foreign language in formal versus informal situations are discussed, and a study of two adult Italians learning ESL informally is…

This paper gives a contrastive analysis of noun phrases in English and Chinese. The syntactic features of the structures, the devices used to mark distinctions in number, case and gender, as well as the similarities and differences between English and Chinese relative clauses are discussed. Partly due to the documented differences between these…

The process of acquisition of three syntactic structures in Engish (i.e., yes-no questions, wh-questions, and negation) was studied. The subjects were 30 school children whose native language as well as medium of instruction was Malayalam, one of the four dominant Dravidian languages. The children were in the second, fourth, and sixth year of…

Examines the variable realization of the third person singular present tense by learners of English as a Second Language at elementary and intermediate levels of proficiency in unplanned discourse in South Africa. (35 references) (Author/CK)