Assessing pragmatic performance is crucial in second language (L2) pedagogy, and it has recently gained attention within task-based research. Current studies commonly employ holistic or analytic rating scales to evaluate pragmatic performance, yet the reliability and interpretive consistency of such ratings remain debatable. This study proposes a refined approach by distinguishing between dimension-specific holistic ratings and quantitative index-based measures. It also introduces the concepts of pragmatic complexity and pragmatic accuracy to examine task-based pragmatic outcomes. Thirty-seven Czech L2 learners of English completed a simple and a complex decision-making task designed to elicit suggestion speech acts. In line with the Cognition Hypothesis, these tasks varied in cognitive complexity as reflected in the number of elements and reasoning demands. Raters used dimension-specific holistic rubrics to provide scores for pragmatic accuracy and complexity. Complementary indices—ratios of suggestion types and inaccuracies relative to total suggestions—yielded empirically derived indicators of pragmatic performance. Findings indicate that fine-grained, analytic ratings can capture aspects of pragmatic performance that more global assessments may overlook. Moreover, increased cognitive task demands may direct learners’ attentional resources in ways that facilitate improved pragmatic performance. The study concludes with implications for task design and multi-method approaches to L2 pragmatic assessment.
This pilot study examined whether one week of intensive online Italian instruction could yield significant changes in bilinguals’ verbal fluency skills in their second language (L2) (Italian) and first language (L1) (English), as well as in attentional skills (selective attention/inhibition and switching). Eighteen undergraduate Italian language students completed verbal fluency tasks in both English and Italian, and subtests of the Test of Everyday Attention, across three timepoints (pre-course, post-course and follow-up). Participants showed a significant increase in L2 verbal fluency following the course, particularly in semantic (category) fluency, with higher L2 proficiency predicting better performance. In contrast, L1 verbal fluency remained stable, and L2 and L1 fluency were positively correlated at post-course and follow-up. Selective attention improved significantly and was maintained at follow-up, while no changes were observed in sustained attention or switching, although the latter was predicted by L2 proficiency and age. Altogether, this pilot study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that even short-term, online L2 learning can yield lasting benefits to both L2 verbal fluency and attentional inhibition.
Previous research on second language (L2) English and L2 French has shown that phraseological complexity, including diversity and sophistication, increases with proficiency. This study examines phraseological complexity in the academic writing of Romanian university students learning L2 English, comparing their performance with expert Romanian writers. We examine whether Romanian learners’ phraseology becomes more complex at the expert writing level compared to novice levels and identify the categories of phraseological complexity that improve with proficiency. We view Romanian students as novice writers still developing necessary linguistic and rhetorical skills, while expert writers are Romanian scholars who publish in high-quality academic journals. To conduct our analysis, we compare the ROGER corpus, representing novice writing, with the EXPRES corpus, representing expert writing. We apply a dependency-based approach to measuring phraseological complexity, focusing on adjectival modifiers, adverbial modifiers, and direct objects. Our results show that complexity does not consistently increase from novice to expert level, especially for adverbial modifiers and direct objects, where both groups demonstrated low sophistication. This suggests that while some improvements occur, expert L2 writers still fall short of matching native expert phraseological profiles. Qualitative analysis highlights the specific phrases distinguishing novice from expert writers.
Formulaic language may help language learners in second language (L2) acquisition. However, interference with the first language (L1) can also cause errors in L2 production. The present paper explores the possibilities of detecting L1 Russian interference errors connected with phraseologisms in English learner texts with a fine-tuned Transformer-based neural network. Across a dataset of 3,600 erroneous sentences from the essays in the REALEC corpus, the mistakes were classified as Synonyms, Copying Expression, and Tense Semantics. For the Transformer training, the SpaCy library and RoBERTa-base were used. In two versions of the neural network, the data was split into a training set and a development set with a 70/30 ratio. The first was a pipeline consisting of three separately trained Transformers, one for each of the tags. This detected the majority of mistakes but also mixed up categories and gives false positive results. The second was a single Transformer and detected all types of mistakes. While it overlooked many of the errors, its predictions were mostly correct. The main conclusion is that, given a sufficient training dataset, Transformers can effectively detect L1-motivated phraseological mistakes.
This article examines how cognitive and linguistic mechanisms support second language (L2) reading comprehension, with a focus on executive functions such as working memory, inhibition, and attentional control. Drawing on recent empirical and theoretical contributions, it considers how bilingual experience shapes reading processes and outcomes. The review highlights two core characteristics of bilingual lexical access: reduced lexical entrenchment and interlingual co-activation. These factors impact word recognition in the L2 and vary depending on word frequency, age of acquisition, and orthographic similarity between languages. Cognates often facilitate reading, while interlingual homographs may create interference, depending on task context and semantic constraints. We also revisit the debated “bilingual advantage” in executive functions: Some studies support enhanced cognitive flexibility and working memory in bilinguals, particularly when language switching is frequent, while other researchers report no significant differences, suggesting that the bilingual advantage may depend on specific task demands and participant characteristics. Moreover, we underscore the role of metacognitive skills, such as comprehension monitoring and strategic reading, in supporting L2 reading. In several studies, oral language proficiency and reading fluency are consistently strong predictors of comprehension performance. In conclusion, this article calls for further longitudinal and neurocognitive studies to better understand how bilingualism shapes the cognitive architecture of reading and how individual and contextual factors mediate these effects.
Multi-word verbs (MWVs) can represent a challenge for EFL learners, with difficulties arising from the array of verb–particle combinations, many of which are polysemous and semantically opaque. Although MWVs expressing motion tend to be transparent, contrastive differences between languages regarding the description of movement in space may cause problems. This paper explores the use of MWVs in English by first-language (L1) Italian speakers and L1 English speakers in written descriptions of a clip from Chaplin’s The Kid. Their use in a corpus of texts by 281 Italian students ranging from B1 to C level in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) was compared with a comparable corpus of 73 native speaker (NS) texts. All instances of adverbial particles preceded continuously or discontinuously by a lexical verb were retrieved using AntConc and the concordance lines were checked manually. The research questions focus on which combinations are most frequent in the two corpora and how their use differs across CEFR levels and according to NS status. The large majority of verb-particle combinations turned out to express motion. Differences in the frequency and types of these combinations emerged, not only between NSs and learners of English, but also across CEFR levels. The paper highlights MWVs expressing motion that appear essential to describe the events unfolding in the clip. Considerations are made on how these findings can inform teaching materials, which can enable learners to make more informed choices when using MWVs to express motion.
This article explores both the theoretical and practical dimensions of attention in second language (L2) learning. The first section defines attention from a cognitive psychology perspective, particularly through the lens of cognitive load theory (CLT), while the second section examines practical scenarios such as listening comprehension, video comprehension with and without subtitles, and AI-assisted writing tasks. By integrating both CLT and perspectives from second language acquisition, the article offers a comprehensive understanding of attention’s role in L2 learning and its potential to inform classroom practices, emphasizing the importance of directing learners’ attention to maximize learning outcomes.
As if learning a second language (L2) was not challenging enough, languages continue to innovate and introduce new words. One source of lexical innovation can be the use of existing nouns as novel verbs (e.g., ‘to porch the newspaper’), which are termed denominal verbs. In a psycholinguistic study, we investigate whether L2 English speakers (N = 41) show lower acceptability judgments and higher processing effort when reading such novel denominal verbs, and whether this is influenced by their L2 proficiency or the diversity of their language experience. The results suggest that the L2 speakers are sensitive to the novel verbs, showing both reading time and judgment effects. No effects of language experience were attested, but the more proficient the speakers were, the more sensitivity they showed to the novel verbs in their judgments. This suggests that even relatively proficient L2 English speakers are still developing their flexible use of the L2, particularly when it comes to lexical innovation.
English and Arabic differ in their use of articles with genericity and this might affect learners’ accuracy. English has two types of genericity – the Noun Phrase (NP)-level generic (singular with the definite article and plural with bare plural nouns) and the sentence-level generic (singular with the indefinite article and plural with bare plural nouns) – while Arabic uses only the definite article, without differentiation. This study investigates the effects of first language (L1) transfer, proficiency level, receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary on the acquisition of genericity. To examine generic contexts in English, 160 L1 Saudi Arabic learners of English completed an acceptability judgement task, receptive and productive vocabulary tasks and a proficiency test. The study outcomes, which relate to both low-level and high-level learners, show target-like performance for the use of the definite article with the NP singular but non-target-like performance with the NP plural and sentence singular and plural, in which the learners overused the definite article; these findings indicate the effect of L1 transfer. The results showed that the learners had problems mapping the features that differ between the L1 and L2 but that they did not show difficulties in acquiring uninterpretable features. Receptive and productive vocabulary along with the proficiency level affected the Saudi Arabic learners’ accuracy with regard to generic contexts.
The increasing availability of large-scale corpora and advanced data-processing tools has enhanced the analysis of phraseological units. This study investigates the phraseology of English non-finite clauses – specifically to-infinitive, -ing, and past participle clauses –headed by adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and pronouns. It explores the phraseological patterns of these structures and their semantic extensions within a specialized corpus of business English. The corpus comprises academic and journalistic registers, with the academic register including research articles from four leading journals and graduate theses from Tunisian institutions, while the news register features business articles from The Economist and Financial Times. The study identifies lexico-grammatical patterns forming various phraseologies of non-finite clauses and categorizes these patterns into semantic sets based on the degree of fixedness. Findings reveal differences in the frequency of non-finite phraseologies across the academic and news register, and similarities in the degree of fixedness and functions of the most frequent patterns. The study offers a corpus-based account of how non-finite clause constructions are used across business registers, contributing to a broader understanding of register variation, discourse organization, and phraseological conventions in business discourse.
Integration between production data and processing data has generally been based on the combination between corpus-based measures and psycholinguistic experiments. The main limitation of this approach is that the sample of participants providing these two kinds of data will be different, thus entailing the impossibility of investigating how production and processing are related at the level of the individual. This is particularly true when it comes to a key component in second language development such as word combinations, which has attracted attention in both corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics, without ever addressing the individual learner experience. To tap into this area, we conducted a preliminary study by eliciting written texts from a group of learners of Italian as a second language (L2), identified a set of correct verb + noun (object) combinations in each text, performed lexical and grammatical manipulations and built individualised eye-tracking experiments for each of the same participants. We found that originally produced verb + noun (object) combinations are processed faster than manipulated combinations, that lexical manipulation affects processing more than grammatical manipulation and that a higher strength of association between the components of the combination determines a processing advantage in learners with an advanced level of proficiency. Theoretical and methodological implications for the analysis of production and processing in an L2 are discussed.
Cross-linguistic interaction is a prominent issue in third language (L3) acquisition. The belief that typological similarities are the driving force behind transfer source languages has been rebutted repeatedly. For example, notwithstanding the fact that Dutch–German grammatical parallels are much stronger than those between English and German, Dutch learners of L3 German (L3G) have been found to rely heavily on their second-language (L2) English knowledge in their grammatical L3G development. An important question is how language teachers can support their learners in exploiting their pre-existing linguistic knowledge when learning a new language. This is particularly important for foreign-language teaching that builds on more implicit, usage-based forms of instruction. The present study addresses this question by examining three potential techniques to implicitly raise awareness for transfer opportunities: pedagogical translanguaging (PT), typographic input enhancement (TIE), and input flood (IF). Using a pretest-posttest design, 101 Dutch secondary school learners of L3g indicated their acceptance of correct subject-object-verb and incorrect subject-verb-object subordinate clauses in German. To determine the effects of implicit L3 instruction on the learners’ background language activation, they participated in an intervention with PT, TIE, and IF. Findings of our ecologically valid in-class study indicate that the implicit intervention resulted in a significant increase in students’ awareness of positive first language (L1)–L3 (Dutch-German) transfer opportunities for subordinate clause syntax. Our data support the use of teacher-led implicit instruction that enhances learners’ awareness of positive transfer opportunities to facilitate language learners’ exploitation of their full linguistic repertoire in their L3 development.
This article investigates how phraseological diversity measures behave across two different axes of variation – expertise and order – with the aim of determining their ability to discriminate between different levels of expertise in writing as well as their sensitivity to the orderliness of texts. Through a scoping review of phraseological complexity studies, we identify the conceptualizations and operationalizations underlying the phraseological complexity construct. Phraseological complexity relies on modelling interrelationships between words to account for their complexity not in isolation, but in relationship with co-occurring words. After trying extensions of classical lexical diversity measures (e.g., type-token ratio [TTR]-based), we borrow from information theory the measure of information fluctuation complexity, which is able to model the interrelationships between consecutive tokens via token pair frequencies. Using a controlled simulation setting, we apply these measures to four corpora of Italian spanning the spectrum from more expert to less expert writers, as well as synthetic corpora that represent more orderly and disorderly variants of the same texts. Although TTR-based measures computed on bigrams also capture changes in the text structure, fluctuation complexity is the only measure that exhibits a bell-shaped curve, peaking for original texts and decreasing for either orderly or disorderly variants, thus capturing an intuitive notion of complexity.
Prior research on information structure has yielded differences in the use of cohesive devices to highlight additive relations by speakers of Romance and Germanic languages (Dimroth et al., 2010). We investigated the focusing function of the additive particle auch [also/too/as well] in Swiss German-French (n = 71) and Swiss German-Italian (n = 70) bilinguals. Standard German (n = 40) and Swiss German (n = 40) monolinguals served as comparison groups. Participants retold related events shown in a video stimulus. Information was also gathered on language dominance and proficiency. The dependent variable was whether auch was placed left to the entity-subject (auch herr rot geht schlafen [mister red too goes to sleep]), the alternative being its positioning after the finite verb (herr rot geht auch schlafen [mister red goes to sleep, too]). German shares the left-of-entity position with Italian and prefers the post-finite-verb position, which is shared with French. The left-of-entity position of the additive focus particle is not shared with English. We tested the effects of the other main language (French or Italian), language dominance, proficiency in the main languages and proficiency in English and French as third languages (L3s). While the comparison groups show similar results regarding the left-of-entity positioning of auch, bilingual data show that this position is more used by Swiss German-Italian speakers. Moreover, the more proficient in German and dominant in Swiss German both groups of bilinguals are, the more they use auch in this position. Proficiency in L3s is not associated with the syntactic position of auch. The discussion focuses on the degree to which our findings can be understood as suggesting crosslinguistic influences. Furthermore, we address the methodological challenges in estimating the potential effect of L3 proficiency on the positioning of the additive particle.
“The language we use every day is composed of prefabricated expressions, rather than being strictly compositional” (Gray & Biber, 2015, p. 125). These prefabricated expressions contribute to the phraseology of a language, characterized by the tendency of words to occur in preferred sequences rather than occurring randomly or solely in accordance with grammatical rules (Groom, 2005; Hunston, 2002). Phraseological competence plays a pivotal role in second language acquisition (Sinclair, 1991) and mastering phraseological units specific to academic language is a crucial indicator of language development. These units help reduce processing effort for learners of academic English (Nesselhauf, 2005). This study adopts a corpus-driven approach, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze phraseological patterns and compare the linguistic productions of novice first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) and expert academic writers. Three- to four-word lexical bundles containing the most frequent grammatical keywords were extracted and classified according to their functional roles within the discourse. A qualitative contrastive analysis, guided by Granger’s (1998) principles of overuse and underuse in learner corpora, was then carried out in order to further explore the nuances of these patterns. The results suggest that using both quantitative and qualitative contrastive analysis offers valuable insights into the phraseological competence of L2 learners, particularly in academic contexts. The study examines the distribution of multi-word expressions in English L1 and L2 academic texts, contributing to the contrastive study of L2 phraseology and offering practical implications for English language teaching.
This study discusses the current approach to the construct of phraseological complexity, which has captured the attention of second language research in the last few years. It assumes that the two current dimensions of phraseological complexity – diversity and sophistication – do not adequately represent, in its application to phraseology, the notion of structural complexity, that is, the objective dimension of linguistic complexity, independent from any cognitive and developmental dynamics. Echoing Pallotti’s (2015) “simple view of linguistic complexity”, the study thus proposes a different view of phraseological complexity as a multidimensional construct. It suggests that structural phraseological complexity can be described by the three complementary dimensions of density, diversity and distance. Finally, it presents a case study exploring the correlation between the three proposed dimensions and proficiency in texts produced by intermediate and advanced learners of Italian, and by Italian native speakers.
This study investigates the extent to which syntactic structures typically analyzed in phraseological complexity studies (e.g., verb + noun, adjective + noun and verb + adverb collocations) capture the range of multi-word phenomena exhibited in French learner texts. To this end, we re-examined data from a previous study in which multi-word sequences were identified in second-language (L2) French texts using a manual bottom-up procedure (Forsberg & Bartning, 2010). Each sequence from the original study was coded for syntactic structure in order to determine which types of phraseological units were present in the learner texts. The results showed that while verb + noun, adjective + noun and adverb + verb collocations made up a large proportion of manually identified sequences (36% of types), other syntactic structures were also frequently identified by the authors of the original study. These included, for example, verbs + prepositions (e.g., commence à [start to]; 16.4% of types), prepositional phrases (e.g., au fur et à mesure [progressively]; 15.2% of types) as well as nouns modified by prepositional phrases (qualtité de vie [quality of life]; 5.5% of types). We also compared the frequency of these syntactic structures across Common European Framework Reference proficiency levels. These results shed more light on the construct of phraseological complexity and provide insights into the types of units to focus on in future studies of phraseological complexity in L2 French.
We explore the impact of in-class input on pre-literate foreign language learners’ production of second-language (L2) English vowels, comparing vowels in words newly learnt in class from a near-native speaker of Standard Southern British English (SSBE), and earlier-learnt words heard from foreign-accented speakers. We further explore if and how classroom exposure to SSBE affects learners’ first-language (L1) vowels. Over 16 weeks, we recorded seven Moravian Czech preschoolers who attended weekly English lessons. They produced words with SSBE /i, ɪ, ɛ, æ, ʌ/ and Moravian Czech /iː, i, e, a/. We modelled normalised vowel height and retraction using linear mixed effects models. In newly learnt words, participants produced L2 /ɛ/ as higher than /æ/, showing greater separation of the vowels than in earlier-learnt words. Still, /ɛ, æ/ overlap was observed, with /æ/ showing great variability. Participants raised L2 /i/ in later recordings, producing /i/ and /ɪ/ similarly in earlier-learnt and newly learnt L2 words. L1 production was recorded twice approximately nine weeks apart. Participants raised L1 /iː/ and /i/, which became more similar in height and overlapped more with L2 /i/. L1 /e/ retracted and overlapped more with L2 /æ/; L1 /a/ retracted, assimilating to L2 /ʌ/. Our findings illustrate the influence of input characteristics on child learners’ production of L2 vowels and suggest that classroom input can drive phonetic drift in young children.
Salience is frequently cited as a post-hoc explanation of results in second language acquisition (SLA) research. However, how salience is operationalized varies considerably and empirical investigations into the causal effect of salience are sparse. This systematic review analyzes studies that manipulated theorized salience manifestations in second-language contexts toward three primary objectives: (1) to provide an overview of how salience has been empirically operationalized in SLA research, (2) to synthesize existing findings on the impact of salience on second-language learning, and (3) to identify gaps in the current literature to guide future research toward a more comprehensive understanding of salience and its role in second-language acquisition. We extracted 473 references from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, retaining 42 studies for detailed analysis. Results indicate a positive relationship between higher levels of salience and second-language learning outcomes. Findings also show remaining gaps regarding isolated salience manifestations in general and psycholinguistic manifestations in particular.
This paper provides an innovative exploration of second language academic writing through the lens of Vivian Cook’s theories, particularly his concept of multi-competence, giving examples and recommendations of how the theory may be applied in the classroom. Initially, the paper discusses Cook’s redefinition of bilingualism and its cognitive impacts, setting the theoretical foundation. It then moves onto the application of these theories in English for Academic Purposes (EAP), highlighting how Cook’s ideas can transform teaching strategies and address the linguistic challenges faced by second language learners. Subsequent sections analyse the role of cultural and linguistic backgrounds in shaping academic writing styles, illustrating Cook’s influence on understanding the dynamic between learners’ first and second languages. The paper progresses by examining specific methodological approaches that can illuminate Cook’s theories, such as the use of keystroke logging to study writing processes in real-time. Finally, it assesses the critical role of collaborative work and peer feedback in EAP, advocating for a balanced approach to instructor and peer review as a linguistically informed foundation to enhance learning outcomes in academic writing.
