Language is crucial for adapting to society, and learning different languages enhances human efficiency. Learning a second language involves acquiring any language in addition to one's native language. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has two meanings, generally, it describes the process of learning a second language, and more specifically, it…

This study is the first to explore microdevelopment in sociolinguistic evaluative judgments of standard German and Austro-Bavarian dialect by adult second language learners of German by using dense time serial measurements. Intensive longitudinal data (10 observations per participant) were collected from four learners at approximately weekly…

The present article aims to estimate the value of language learning through a quick review of the learning process and with a focus on "accumulated knowledge" and "the ability to learn." Following the opinions of researchers and linguists, we can also argue that the whole history of human culture--"of intelligence and…

Most speakers' first language (L1) in Hong Kong and Guangdong China is Cantonese. Even though the L1 of both Guangdong Cantonese speakers and Hong Kong Cantonese speakers is the same, their second languages (L2) belong to different language families. Previous studies have pointed out that L2 status in third language (L3) acquisition is a salient…

While most animals have communication systems, few exhibit such high-level of complexity as human languages. One central question of linguistics and cognitive science is to explore what human cognitive underpinnings and learning mechanisms are necessary to master such a complex system. One influential approach is Chomskyan generativism which…

The study of language acquisition has a long and contentious history: researchers disagree on what drives this process, the relevant data, and the interesting questions. Here, I outline the Starting Big approach to language learning, which emphasizes the role of multiword units in language, and of coarse-to-fine processes in learning. I outline…

This paper invites us to reconsider our usual understanding of infancy, no longer as something that passes but as "infantia." The Latin word "infantia," which is not easy to translate, means a lack of speech, a lack of eloquence, and also infancy, babyhood, and dumbness. Drawing on Barbara Cassin's works on the untranslatables,…

This paper provides fresh insights on how PIs (Polarity Items) in non-veridical contexts (questions and conditionals) are represented in the grammar of multilingual learners of Catalan at different stages of development. It explores how this non-native grammatical system interacts with other previously acquired systems of negation and the implicit…

Codeswitching is a common feature of bilingual language practices, yet its impact on word learning is poorly understood. Critically, processing costs associated with codeswitching may extend to learning. Moreover, verbs tend to be more difficult to learn than nouns, and the challenges of learning verbs could compound with processing costs…

The last two decades have seen a significant amount of interest in bilingual language learning and processing. A number of computational models have also been developed to account for bilingualism, with varying degrees of success. In this article, we first briefly introduce the significance of computational approaches to bilingual language…

Languages differ regarding the depth, structure, and syntactic domains of recursive structures. Even within a single language, some structures allow infinite self-embedding while others are more restricted. For example, when expressing ownership relation, English allows infinite embedding of the prenominal genitive "-s," whereas the…

Paradis' (2023) keynote article is a timely documentation of the ongoing shift in focus within childhood bilingualism research from investigating the factors that modulate majority or second language (ML/L2) attainment (Chondrogianni & Marinis, 2011) to understanding the sources of variation that lead to minority heritage language (HL)…

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in how to maximize learners' retention of multiword expressions. One technique that has been shown to be highly effective is the use of exercises such as those found in mainstream English as a second language textbooks. In the present study, we investigated how the execution of a gap-fill…

Language is subject to a variety of pressures. Recent work has documented that many aspects of language structure have properties that appear to be shaped by biases for the efficient communication of semantic meaning. Other work has investigated the role of social pressures, whereby linguistic variants can acquire positive or negative evaluation…

Although using video to facilitate language learning is an exceedingly common practice, both for in-class and out-of-class learning, at present the literature exploring the use of authentic videos for intentional language learning is void of a user-friendly framework that educators and learners can refer to when selecting and using authentic…