Research suggests that memory for an item improves when one is allowed to retrieve the item (Slamecka & Graf, 1978). This study explored benefits of providing opportunities for target-word retrieval during second language vocabulary learning. English speakers studied new Spanish words while viewing 24 word-picture pairs. They first viewed all 24…

This study examines how topic familiarity and working memory capacity affect beginning Spanish learners' reading comprehension and their processing of future tense morphology. Participants included 94 adult learners from an accelerated, beginning Spanish course. In addition to completing a computerized version of a reading span test as a measure…

The present study revisited the issue of simultaneous attention to form and meaning from a methodological perspective that addressed several potential methodological issues of previous research in this strand of inquiry. Seventy-two second-semester-level participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental groups, including a control,…

This study investigates knowledge of gender agreement in Spanish L2 learners and heritage speakers, who differ in age and context/mode of acquisition. On some current theoretical accounts, persistent difficulty with grammatical gender in adult L2 acquisition is due to age. These accounts predict that heritage speakers should be more accurate on…

This study provides a model for examining the second language (L2) acquisition of structures where the first language (L1) and (L2) are similar, and where native speaker (NS) use varies. Research on the copula contrast in Spanish ("ser" and "estar" mean "to be") has shown that an assessment of learner choice cannot rely on an error analysis…

This study investigated the relationship of first language (L1) skills in elementary school and second language (L2) learning in high school. Students classified as high-, average-, and low-proficiency L2 learners were compared on L1 achievement measures of reading, spelling, vocabulary, phonological awareness, and listening comprehension…

This study compares quantitative and qualitative results for task-based second language (L2) grammar instruction conducted as whole-class, teacher-led discourse (TLD) versus small-group, learner-led discourse (LLD). Participants included 78 English-speaking adults from six university classes of beginning L2 Spanish, with two assigned to each…

Reports the results of a feasibility study exploring the use of visual information for vowel production training in a foreign language. After 10 minutes of visual articulatory modeling and shaping, a native Spanish speaker improved her ability to produce a tongue position difference between English and Spanish vowels. (57 references) (Author/CB)

Presents the results of two studies intended to determine: (1) whether psycholinguistics can explain the reading behaviors of adult Spanish speakers reading in English and Spanish, and (2) whether these readers transferred their Spanish reading skills to English. (Author/AM)

The present study investigates the developmental aspect of the revised hierarchical model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994) concerning the access to the conceptual store from the second language (L2). We manipulated the level of proficiency and age of L2 acquisition. We tested Spanish-Catalan bilinguals (49 early proficient bilinguals, 28 late proficient…

Data from three children learning Spanish are explored for the development of linguistic person in an inflectional language. Contrastive use of person, tense, and number and the presence of overt subjects and overt objects are examined. (Author/VWL)

This study addresses the role of output in second language (L2) acquisition by comparing processing instruction (PI) to communicative output (CO) tasks. Participants included 80 English-speaking adults from six university course sections of beginning L2 Spanish, with two assigned to each treatment (PI = 27; CO = 28) and two others comprising a…

Examined the effects of semantic and structural elaboration on second language lexical acquisition. English-speaking low-intermediate Spanish learners attempted to learn 24 new Spanish words in three conditions. Results provide evidence that increased semantic processing can inhibit the ability to encode the formal properties of new words.…

Examined second language learners' ability to use their second language knowledge in production, exploring form/meaning relationships. Groups of native English speakers watched video segments four times while recording their own online rendition in Spanish, viewing either repeated or different segments each time. Results indicated that task…

In this article we report on a study in which verbal protocol data were used to explore English as a foreign language writers' planning behavior while engaged in academic writing tasks. The analysis was approached from a temporal perspective (i.e., time spent on planning operations) in relation to three independent variables: (a) the participants'…