The current study examined the extent to which first language (L1) utterance fluency measures can predict second language (L2) fluency and how L2 proficiency moderates the relationship between L1 and L2 fluency. A total of 104 Japanese-speaking learners of English completed different argumentative speech tasks in their L1 and L2. Their speaking…

Readers should construct a coherent discourse during reading comprehension. The ability to build coherence has been examined using coherence and cohesion judgment tasks. Although eye-tracking studies have been conducted on building coherence or processing cohesion among native language users, few such studies have been conducted with second…

This study examines the knowledge representation of Japanese university students assessed using grammaticality judgement tests (GJTs) and a metalinguistic knowledge test (MKT). The study also investigates the role of automatised and non-automatised explicit knowledge in general L2 language proficiency. Participants were 87 late learners of English…

The type of processing-resource allocation (TOPRA) model predicts that the semantic processing of new second language (L2) words can impede the learning of their forms while structural processing can promote it. Using this framework, the present study examined the effects of processing type (semantic, structural, control), exposure frequency (one…

Research on pre-task planning to date has mainly focused on task performance. However, the effects of planning are contingent on what learners actually do during planning time. One important factor that may determine the quality and usefulness of planning is whether it is done in the first language (L1) or the second language (L2). This research…

To better understand the relationship between second-language (L2) listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness, we examined the moderating effects of listening tests and learner samples while focusing on aspects of metacognitive awareness. Students of English-as-a-foreign-language at a Japanese university (n = 75; the 2019 cohort) took the…

Research on communication strategies (CSs) has been drawing much attention in the area of psycholinguistics and applied linguistics. This study examined if triggering instruction can accelerate the cognitive aspects of CSs transference from L1 to L2. In the first part of the experiment, all participants, twenty-one Japanese university students,…

This study investigated the relationship between a metaphor-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and involvement of the brain's right hemisphere. Specifically, it examined learners' understanding of three levels of sureness associated with different expressions in English -- those that are "certain,"…

This study is an extension of Nahatame's (2018) research that demonstrated the effects of causal and semantic relations between sentences on second language (L2) text processing. Employing eye tracking, this study aimed to examine whether these effects appear during more natural, uninterrupted reading processes and to identify the time course of…

Emotion plays important roles in learning, memory, and other cognitive processes; it does so not only in the form of "macro-level emotion" (e.g., salient affective states and self-reportable motivational currents) but also in the form of "micro-level emotion" (e.g., subtle feelings and linguistic attributes that are usually…

The current study focuses on an e-learning platform called Furago designed to provide language instructors with exercises complementing activities already implemented in their classes. Its objective was to assess the impact the use of Furago could have on the listening skills of first-year Japanese university students. Statistical analyses that…

This article describes the development of a tense and aspect identifier, an online tool designed to help learners of English by harnessing a natural language processing pipeline to automatically classify verb groups into one of 12 grammatical tenses. Currently, there is no website or application that can automatically identify tense in context,…

The current study investigated the extent to which L2 learners' productive vocabulary knowledge could predict multiple dimensions of spontaneous speech production. A total of 39 English as a foreign language (EFL) participants with varying L2 proficiency levels first completed a productive vocabulary knowledge task (Lex30). Their spontaneous…

The Multimedia Principle (Fletcher & Tobias, 2005) states that people learn better and comprehend more when words and pictures are presented together. The potential for English language learners to increase their comprehension of video through the use of captions, which graphically display the same language as the spoken dialogue, has been…

Development of target language pragmatic competence in language learners requires not only provision of cultural features of target language community in language classes but also language learner's willingness to learn and use those cultural features. To investigate the relationship between language learners' attitudes toward cultural instruction…