The influence of individual difference variables on second language (L2) listening comprehension has been an area of research that has been gaining renewed attention in recent years. The current study investigated the effects of two cognitive variables, aptitude and metacognitive awareness, on 107 native-Korean, English as a foreign language…

Language teachers cannot help their students develop high levels of metalinguistic knowledge and language aptitude if they themselves are found lacking in these abilities. This article reports on a study that utilised a descriptive correlational mixed-methods research design to gather data from 89 multilingual teachers of English, Chinese, French,…

Despite the extensive research on bilingual development, our understanding of how lexical competition unfolds in the bilingual mind remains limited. Previous studies have predominantly focused on crosslinguistic competition, neglecting the examination of the competition process within each language and the influence of diverse bilingual…

While language aptitude and motivation are considered to be important contributors to second language (L2) attainment, two major gaps in the past research have been (1) a lack of nonlinear models stemming from a naive and tacit assumption that learning outcomes are linearly related to their predictors, and (2) a lack of unified and integrative…

Past studies on aptitude for interpreting have investigated the correlation between personal traits and achievement, yet relatively few have singled out students' emotional state as an important aptitude constituent or tracked its developmental patterns. To address this gap, the present study followed 116 Chinese students of interpreting for five…

Critical thinking, intelligence, and language aptitude are three cognitive factors, each, in its own way, influencing our lives. They are important in successful reasoning, problem-solving, and foreign language learning, and thus are worth studying regarding their influence on individuals' language-related skills, in particular, foreign…

Over the last two decades, there has been an increasing interest in third language (L3) phonology (Cabrelli Amaro, 2012; Cabrelli Amaro & Wrembel, 2016). However, research so far has been primarily directed at specific stages of learning and has independently explored either production (e.g., Llama, Cardoso, & Collins, 2010; Llama &…

Individual differences (IDs) play an important role in the second language learning process and explain the varied experiences of the L2 learner. The two major IDs, language aptitude and motivation, can be primary factors in one's ultimate proficiency. While language aptitude is largely fixed, motivation is malleable and can aid in overcoming…

Gifted children are described as very talented children who achieve more than their age mates in one or more domains (Steiner and Carr in Educ Psychol Rev 15(3):215-246, 2003). These children potentially share a cognitive advantage enabling them to excel in language, but also in other domains. In the present study we explored whether gifted…

Second language (L2) writing has been determined to be influenced by what is read, with language learners tending to borrow words and short phrases from input texts while writing (e.g., Wang & Wang, 2015). This phenomenon is referred to as lexical alignment. Only one empirical study has investigated the influence that the linguistic complexity…

Adult second language (L2) learning often exhibits great variability in its rate and outcome. Although research shows that learning trajectories are partly shaped by social and contextual factors (e.g. Larson-Hall, 2008), certain learner factors play an important role in enhancing L2 pronunciation learning by helping L2 learners notice and process…

This study investigated the underlying structure of a set of eight cognitive tests from the two most recent language aptitude test batteries: the LLAMA (Meara, 2005) and the Hi-LAB (Linck et al., 2013) to see whether they had any underlying constructs in common. The study also examined whether any of the observed constructs could predict L2…

Languages generally use musical pitch variation of the voice as part of their sound systems (Maddieson, 2011)--pitch variations that can be somewhat reminiscent of music. Music ability and/or training may influence language processing (e.g., Bidelman et al., 2011; Delogue et al., 2010). In particular, studies have concluded that there may be a…

Energy Conservation Theory of Second Language Acquisition (ECT-L2A) (Han, Bao, & Wiita, 2017b), an interdisciplinary theory juxtaposing a physics perspective and an applied linguistics perspective, conceptualizes individuals' ultimate attainment as a function of dynamic transformation of endogenous and exogenous energies throughout the…

As part of the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism (DMM), Herdina & Jessner (2002) cite multilinguals' increased metalinguistic awareness as one of the key factors that distinguish third language acquisition from second language acquisition. Many TLA studies have sought to show that this increased metalinguistic awareness and the beneficial…