This study employed a targeted phonetic instruction to explore the mechanisms that underpin second language (L2) phonetic acquisition. Broadly, two general approaches to phonetic acquisition have been previously proposed. A segmental approach suggests that learners acquire a series of individual, discrete phonemes (e.g., Flege, 1995), while a…

It is well established in language acquisition research that monolingual children and adult second language learners misinterpret sentences with the universal quantifier "every" and make quantifier-spreading errors that are attributed to a preference for a match in number between two sets of objects. The present Visual World eye-tracking…

The Aspect Hypothesis assumes that--in early interlanguages--the perfective past spreads from telic to atelic verbs because events occurring in the past are easier to be associated with predicates having an inherent endpoint in their lexico-conceptual representation. In this study it is questioned whether for initial L2ers knowing the general…

Investigated whether there were differences in retention of language when both visual and auditory stimuli were employed as opposed to just a visual stimulus. It was found that reading-only resulted in higher scores on tests taken immediately, whereas combined listening and reading resulted in higher tests when tests were delayed. (12 references)…

Examines the effects of simplified input in early second language (L2) acquisition of English by experimentally manipulating language input to two groups of learners and then assessing their acquisition longitudinally within a controlled laboratory setting. Findings reveal that the dual task of acquiring vocabulary and grammar does not hinder…

THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE OPTIMAL COMBINATION OF STIMULI AND THEIR TIMING FOR LARGE INCREASES IN RECOGNITION VOCABULARY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AFTER STUDENTS HAVE MASTERED THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE LANGUAGE WAS THE SUBJECT OF RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN WITH STUDENTS ENROLLED AT THE GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS. FOLLOWING A…

The role of vision and bodily movement in the field of language instruction is explained by a phonetician and professor of modern language. (CS)

In this article the focus is on methodology for analysing learner-learner oral conversations mediated by computers. With the increasing availability of synchronous voice-based groupware and the additional facilities offered by audio-graphic tools, language learners have opportunities for collaborating on oral tasks, supported by visual and textual…

One hundred twenty first-grade Mexican-American students (60 from each Fort Worth and Laredo, Texas) were subjects of an experiment which attempted to determine whether bilingualism inhibits verbal ability in one or both of the children's languages. The PPVT-A (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Form A) was used to test verbal ability and…

An analysis of French oral proficiency and guidelines for evaluating and testing the development of such proficiency in learning French as a second language are the keynotes of this dissertation. The speech patterns (structural complexity, rate of production, and hesitation) of three groups of French students with various levels of audiolingual…

A study investigated the processes used by bilinguals for organizing vocabulary by presenting subjects with bilingual word recognition tasks in two modalities (aural and visual) and using a repetition paradigm. Subjects were asked to decide whether a word presented to them was a nonsense word or a real word. Two separate experiments are described.…

A study investigated whether adult learners of a second language would judge grammaticality differently in visual and aural judgment tasks. Four groups were tested: English first-language, French first-language, English second-language, and French second-language. Results indicate judgments were slower and less accurate in the aural condition,…