Previous studies have shown that multilingual speakers are influenced by their native (L1) and non-native (L2) grammars when learning a new language. But, so far, these studies have mostly used untimed metalinguistic tasks. Here we examine whether multilinguals' prior grammars also affect their sensitivity to morphosyntactic constraints during…

This study aims to investigate patterns of variation in the interplay of L2 language ability and general reading comprehension skills in L2 reading, by comparing item-level effects of test-takers' results on L1 and L2 reading comprehension tests. The material comes from more than 500,000 people tested on L1 (Swedish) and L2 (English) in the…

As an undergraduate program, Business English is still in the initial stage of development in China. It is a new inter-disciplinary and applied discipline, the teaching of which is practical and diverse. Teaching assessment is an important part of the curriculum teaching because it is beneficial for the teacher to obtain feedback, improve teaching…

This study investigated second language distribution of Chinese connectives by tallying responses on a mini-discourse completion test taken by English-speaking learners with different language learning backgrounds and at different proficiency levels. The results showed that an underuse pattern underlay practically all Chinese connectives as a…

Individual differences (IDs) largely contribute to success in adult second language attainment (e.g., Dörnyei, 2006). Heritage language (HL) studies have also explored the role of IDs, namely psychosocial variables, and biographical factors with an adult HL learner population. However, the specific contribution of these variables to HL learners'…

The lack of early identification, suboptimal language stimulation and limited remedial services in Sri Lanka for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing place them at-risk of language delay. The reality for many preschool and primary school children entering formal education in Sri Lanka is a language delay in spoken language and/or sign language…

When viewed through a generic, one-size-fits-all perspective, use of input enhancement does not appear effective. Through analysis of individual grammatical features and different learner proficiency levels, a significant impact may be revealed. To study the impact of input enhancement on diverse grammatical features, 16 short reading texts and…

This study addresses the social-cognitive interactions that occur in code-switching and integrates social and cognitive factors from a usage-based perspective. It investigates code-switching in two different interaction modes -- speech and writing -- to consider not only the influence of social factors (social networks and attitudes) but also the…

Aboriginal English, the language many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students bring to the classroom, represents the introduction of significant change into the English language. It is the argument of this paper that the linguistic, social and cultural facts associated with the distinctiveness of Aboriginal English need to be taken into…

This paper proposes a literature-based composition course for advanced Non-native English Speaking (NNES) students in an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) program and provides a rationale, a syllabus, and some suggested pedagogy for consideration. The principal reasons for choosing a literature-based format include the following: (1) extended…

This article investigates verbal short-term memory (vSTM) and verbal working memory (vWM) abilities and their relation to lexical and syntactic abilities in monolingual (mono-) and bilingual (bi-) children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and typical development (TD). The authors employed the following tasks: vSTM (non-word repetition…

Working memory (WM) limitations are frequently reported for children with specific learning disorder (SLD). However, WM capacity influences more than literacy and numeracy, as research highlights the contribution of WM to language development, in particular syntax. In this article, the authors study the effect of syntactic intervention, i.e.…

This research examined differences between dyslexic, poor and normal readers who learn in the same educational framework, across various linguistic and meta-linguistic skills in Hebrew as the first language (L1) and English as a foreign language (FL), following an intervention program focusing on English linguistic skills. The participants…

This study examined the impact of storyboarding-based collaborative narrative writing using Google Docs on EFL learners' writing fluency, syntactic complexity, and overall performance. For this purpose, a cohort of 30 EFL college learners was selected and exposed to a nine-week intervention where they collaboratively wrote storyboarding-based…

The 23rd Annual Graduate Student Conference of the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature (LLL) at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa was held on Saturday, April 20th, 2019. As in past years, this conference offered the students in the six departments across the college, East Asian Languages and Literatures, English, Indo-Pacific…