A large data set of L1 psycholinguistic norms (Balota "et al." 2007) was used to assess spoken L2 English lexical proficiency in cross-sectional and longitudinal learner corpora. Behavioral norms included lexical decision and word naming latencies (i.e. reaction times) and accuracies for 40,481 English words. A frequency measure was…

This study examines first language (L1) English transfer in the acquisition of plural noun semantics in second language (L2) Arabic. Drawing on previous research on the L2 acquisition of plural noun interpretation, the study presents and discusses new production data of specific and generic definite plurals by English-speaking learners of Arabic…

In this article, we address the issue of targeted instruction on interpretive contrasts between native and second-language grammatical meanings. Such mismatches are predicted to create challenges for learners. We illustrate this with French and English pronouns. In French, clitic pronouns (le, la) point to human as well as inanimate referents,…

Learning idioms has always been difficult for L2 learners of English. Drawing on a cognitive linguistic perspective of idiom learning, this paper reports on an empirical study that investigated the effects of incorporating the knowledge of conceptual metaphor and metonymy in L2 classroom instruction of English idioms. The study confirmed the…

With this paper, I explore societal and institutional support for Chinese Heritage Language (HL) education through specific HL policies and practices in British Columbia (BC). Framed by power relations and societal attitudes, the paper intends to contextualize historical and contemporary marginalization enacted through HL-related legislatives,…

In the multilingual environments of Africa, national literacy policies vary in terms of the attention they give to the roles and purposes of local, national and international languages. In the context of the global Sustainable Development Agenda, the instrumental purpose of literacy is often assumed, if not explicitly spelled out. At community…

The present study looks into the effects of early multilingual education by investigating linguistic knowledge and metalinguistic awareness in young learners at the primary level. The study aims to establish whether children in multilingual education programmes perform higher on a measure of metalinguistic awareness and with regards to their L1…

Recently, there has been considerable L2 research on interfaces between different modules of grammar (internal), such as syntax-semantics, or between grammar and other cognitive systems (external), such as semantics-pragmatics. Sorace's (2011) Interface Hypothesis proposes that L2 learners, even at highly proficient levels, often fail to integrate…

This study has investigated the interlanguage features in spoken language of a Korean learner of Bangla. Data has been collected through interviews which were recorded and analyzed. The analysis of the respondents' language has been made in terms of phonetic, morphological and syntactic aspects. The language deviations may be attributed to…

This paper employs the innovative method of Elicited Metaphor Analysis to present original research in Malaysia into students' metaphors for 'language'. We summarize reasons why language and first/ second language learning are centrally important in education, and show patterned features of language metaphors in proverbs and in teacher talk about…

This descriptive observational study examined the implementation of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE) language policy to the classroom practices of a grade three multilingual classroom in the Philippines. The constructive alignment of the said language policy implementation was evaluated in terms of: (1) Mother Tongue (MT) as a…

English articles are thought to be complex, ambiguous and not salient in spoken language, which is why second language (L2) learners of English exhibit usage variability. Much of the L2 acquisition literature seems to agree that L2 learners are affected, one way or another, by their first language (L1). However, the debatable and controversial…

This study explored teachers' perceptions of learner engagement in L2 task-based interaction. Fifty-four pre- and in-service ESL/EFL teachers with different L1 backgrounds and L2 teaching experiences were asked to define and rate learner engagement in two learner-learner interactions. The results revealed three major indicators that the teachers…

Background: Over the years, the majority of the Basotho nation and many countries have known Lesotho as a country which has Sesotho and English as the only spoken languages and as medium of instruction in schools. Whereas, in reality, Lesotho has many spoken languages. Many tribes have their own spoken languages which, hitherto, have not been…

The present study examines both properties of the language and properties of the learner to better understand variability at the earliest stages of second language (L2) acquisition. We used event-related potentials, an oral production task, and a battery of individual differences measures to examine the processing of number and gender agreement in…