L2 sounds present different kinds of challenges to learners at the phonetic, phonological, and lexical levels, but previous studies on L2 tone learning mostly focused on the phonetic and lexical levels. The present study employs an innovative technique to examine the role of prior tonal experience and musical training on forming novel abstract…

Research on advanced L2 adult learners and viable classroom instruction for them has become increasingly important along with increasing global connections. This study investigated the effects of different kinds of spoken input modification on listening comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning by 106 advanced Chinese speakers of Japanese…

Previous studies on lexical focus on form (FonF) have mostly centred on FonF in reading with a few pre-selected lexical items. This study investigated the contribution of oral incidental FonF to developing learners' lexical knowledge in a free discussion EFL class. Incidental FonF was provided to 15 upper-intermediate learners who participated in…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of word internal morphological form variation on adult first language (L1) (n = 20) incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were given a 37,611-token English novel containing pseudo words, placed throughout the text by the novelist. Two…

"I want to make the most of my college experience…pass the courses I need to get into law school, make new friends, and travel. Maybe study abroad." These are the sentiments of one undergraduate student. These goals are not so different from those of hundreds of students attending college, yet, the mere fact she is blind creates a…

This study investigates the potential benefits for incidental vocabulary acquisition of implementing a particular sequence of input--output--input activities. More specifically, learners of English as a foreign language (EFL; n = 32) were asked to watch a TED Talk video, orally sum up its content in English, and then watch the video once more. A…

Academic lectures are potential sources of vocabulary learning for second language learners studying at universities where English is the medium of instruction, as well as those in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs. Topic-related vocabulary is likely to occur frequently in academic texts, and academic speech consists of a reasonable…

Ensuring second language (L2) learners have an adequate breadth and depth of L2 vocabulary knowledge is a key pedagogical objective in L2 learning contexts. For this reason, establishing guiding principles that successfully enhance the efficacy of L2 vocabulary knowledge development is of strong importance. The current study investigated the value…

This article explores the pedagogical practices used by high school teachers in integrating disciplinary and language knowledge in a multilingual context where English is the medium of instruction. Specifically, we explored the way high school teachers implement the English Across the Curriculum (EAC) strategy in their content subjects. EAC is an…

We investigated how positive, negative, and neutral mood states influence aspects of second language acquisition, either directly or in interaction with certain personality characteristics (openness, intuition, emotional intelligence, foreign language anxiety, and impulsivity). After completing individual differences questionnaires, 120…

Research on corrective feedback (CF) and language teachers' beliefs and practices on the provision of CF has been mainly limited to learners' non-target-like use of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling (non-formulaic forms). Consequently, learners' non-target-like use of formulaic sequences, that is, collocations, idioms, lexical…

This paper computes estimates of the potential for Extensive Reading (ER) and Extensive Viewing (EV) to support the academic and discipline-specific vocabulary needs of students. While research into ER/EV for general vocabulary is well-established, only recently has academic vocabulary begun to be researched. Given curriculum time constraints,…

Language researchers and teachers have long been interested in the timing of learning, and the distributed practice effect, whereby greater inter-session intervals result in longer retention, is well-known (Kim & Webb, 2022). Many L2 studies have focused on the intentional learning of lexis (Edmonds, Gerbier, Palasis, & Whyte, 2021),…

Second language pragmatics are not easily acquired by second language learners for a variety of reasons including negative first language transfer, insufficient grammatical competence, and inadequate instruction. For adult learners living in the second language environment, adequate pragmatic knowledge is essential even for beginning level…

Response time variability and its changes over time have been interpreted as indicative of levels of knowledge automatization. Predominantly, only declines in variability have been examined over the course of practice and growing second language proficiency. We discuss possible scenarios that may involve increasing, rather than declining…