We investigated age-related decline in adult learning of Dutch as an additional language (Ln) in speaking, writing, listening, and reading proficiency test scores for 56,024 adult immigrants with 50 L1s who came to the Netherlands for study or work. Performance for all four language skills turned out to decline monotonically after an age of arrival of about 25 years, similar to developmental trajectories observed in earlier aging research on additional language learning and in aging research on cognitive abilities. Also, linguistic dissimilarity increased age-related decline across all four language skills, but speaking in particular. We measured linguistic dissimilarity between first languages (L1s = 50) and Dutch (Ln) for morphology, vocabulary, and phonology. Our conclusion is that the L1 language background influences the effects of age-related decline in adult language learning, and that the constraints involved reflect both biological (language learning ability) and experience-based (acquired L1 proficiency) cognitive resources.

This study sought to investigate the psychological network structure of adult Spanish heritage language (HL) learners’ motivational profile by considering interconnections among the following variables: the possible HL selves, family influence, intended HL learning effort, HL achievement goal orientations, HL enjoyment, HL anxiety, perceived classroom environment, and critical language awareness. In line with a complex systems perspective, mutually interdependent connections among variables were estimated using psychological network modeling. The analysis revealed a majority of positive associations among the system constituents, with nodes representing the possible HL selves, HL enjoyment, and intended HL learning effort holding the most central influence on the network. Results also shed light on the unexplored relevance of critical language awareness in understanding HL learners’ motivational and emotional dispositions. We discuss the theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications of the study, highlighting the potential of network analysis for providing insights into complex psychological phenomena.

Recent studies suggest that developing L2 receptive knowledge of single words is associated with increased receptive knowledge of collocations. However, no study to date has directly examined the interrelationship between productive word knowledge and productive collocation knowledge. To address this gap, the present study administered a controlled productive word test and a controlled productive collocation test to 27 native English speakers and 55 nonnative speakers (L1-Arabic). The tests assessed word and collocation knowledge of the most frequent 3,000 lemmas in English (1K, 2K, and 3K frequency bands). The test scores were analyzed using three mixed-effects models for the following outcome variables: collocation appropriacy, collocation frequency, and collocation strength. Results revealed productive word knowledge as a significant predictor of productive collocation knowledge, though with a small effect. This association was omnipresent regardless of frequency band. We discuss implications of these findings for L2 learning and teaching.

This study investigated the psycholinguistic and child-related variables that modulate vocabulary development and the so-called receptive–expressive gap in child L2 learners of Gaelic with English as their L1. In total, 50 6- to 8-year-old English-Gaelic bilingual children attending Gaelic-medium immersion education were administered the English and the Gaelic Crosslinguistic Receptive and Expressive Lexical Tasks (CLTs). On the Gaelic CLT, children performed better on nouns than verbs. Accuracy was modulated by item-related variables such as the estimated age when a word is acquired and its morphophonological complexity. The receptive–expressive gap was larger in the minority L2 than in the majority L1 and did not narrow after 1 year of schooling. The gap was smaller for nouns than verbs in English but not in Gaelic. Exposure to English differentially affected the receptive–expressive gap across languages. This study offers new insights into the psycholinguistic and individual factors affecting the receptive–expressive gap in bilingual children in immersion education.

This longitudinal study explored the roles of item- and learner-related variables in L2 learners’ development of productive collocation knowledge (L1 = Dutch; L2 = German; NLearners= 50). Learners’ form recall knowledge of 35 target collocations was measured three times over a 3-year period. The item-related variables investigated were L1-L2 congruency, corpus frequency, association strength, and imageability. We also explored the learner-related variables L2 prior productive vocabulary knowledge and L2 immersion. Mixed-effects regression modeling indicated a significant effect of time, congruency, and prior productive vocabulary knowledge on learners’ collocation learning. While learners’ knowledge of congruent collocations remained relatively stable after year one, knowledge of incongruent collocations increased significantly. Learners’ prior productive vocabulary knowledge was clearly associated with growth of productive collocation knowledge, but besides overall growth there were instances of attrition.

The current study examined cognitive effects of two pathways of second language (L2) acquisition longitudinally in Chinese speakers learning English in an L2-dominant environment. Thirty-nine participants who attended an intensive 10-week English course (L2-instruction group) were compared to 38 participants who attended regular university courses taught in English (L2-immersion group). Four repeated assessments were conducted over 10 weeks: precourse (baseline) and postcourse assessments, and two interim assessments every 3 weeks. Both groups matched on background variables (e.g., intelligence) and showed comparable cognitive performance in all measures at the baseline. The longitudinal results showed a similar improvement in both groups for most cognitive measures, such as visual and auditory inhibition. The only significant group difference was observed in the auditory inhibition test, where the L2-instruction group outperformed the L2-immersion group. Taken together, our results suggest a specific effect of language experience and an overall effect of linguistic context on cognitive functions.

This longitudinal study with time-serial data examines for the first time whether different types of intraindividual variation in second language (L2) performance and cognitive functioning are related, and how and when they influence L2 development longitudinally in older adulthood. We analyzed the L2 development of 26 German-speaking adults aged 62–79 who were taught L2 English for 2 × 90 minutes per week over 6 months. At each of the 15 measurements, the participants completed three L2 tasks and eight cognitive measures, and they answered open-ended questions about socioaffective variables such as L2 motivation. Results of generalized additive mixed models and qualitative content analyses showed, inter alia, that L2 variability—rather than inconsistency or dispersion—had a (nonlinear) effect on L2 growth, being especially large during periods of rapid development. The qualitative analyses revealed a blended operation of internal and external states being associated with periods of significant L2 growth.

Widespread use of the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) in L2 studies of individual differences implicitly assumes that L2 aptitude is a distinct cognitive facet. There is considerable evidence for prediction from L1 abilities to L2 learning. In this longitudinal study, L1-MLAT-L2 relations were examined in 307 US secondary students based on six L1 and six L2 measures of language and literacy, and the MLAT. Mediation and regression analyses revealed that each L1 measure individually predicted all L2 scores and MLAT; the L1 measures collectively substantially predicted MLAT scores; MLAT is a significant but moderate mediator of prediction from L1 to L2 scores; and prediction from MLAT to L2 scores is significantly and substantially due to variance in L1 abilities captured by MLAT. Overall, prediction from MLAT is due primarily to its functioning as a measure of L1 abilities, although substantial L1 variance which predicts L2 scores is not captured by the MLAT.

The current study examined the effects of task condition (TC; single vs. dual) and proficiency level (PL) on self-monitoring of second language (L2) speakers. Data were collected from sixty-six female L2 learners of English performing two speaking tasks under two task conditions. While performance in the single-task condition involved only narrating a picture-based oral narrative, the dual-task condition involved performing the same oral narrative as well as a secondary task. Factor analysis, MANOVA, and two-way ANOVAs were used to examine the effects of PL and TC on a range of self-monitoring measures. The results indicated that the higher proficiency learners made significantly fewer filled pauses, repetitions, and hesitations, and a higher ratio of error correction and error-free clauses than the lower proficiency learners. These results suggest that with the development of proficiency L2 learners’ performance becomes more fluent, and a more active and effective monitoring process seems to be at work. Compared to the single-task condition, performance in the dual-task condition led to significantly more repetitions implying the increased demand of TC triggers more dysfluency. These results are discussed in relation to the L1 monitoring models.

Network analysis is a method used to explore the structural relationships between people or organizations, and more recently between psychological constructs. Network analysis is a novel technique that can be used to model psychological constructs that influence language learning as complex systems, with longitudinal data, or cross-sectional data. The majority of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) research in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) to date has been time-intensive, with a focus on analyzing intraindividual variation with dense longitudinal data collection. The question of how to model systems from a structural perspective using relation-intensive methods is an underexplored dimension of CDST research in applied linguistics. To expand our research agenda, we highlight the potential that psychological networks have for studying individual differences in language learning. We provide two empirical examples of network models using cross-sectional datasets that are publicly available online. We believe that this methodology can complement time-intensive approaches and that it has the potential to contribute to the development of new dimensions of CDST research in applied linguistics.

This study explored the effect of speaking task on midclause pausing characteristics in the L1 and L2 speech of the same speakers to gain further insights into the potential relationship between pause location and stages of speech production. Participants included English L1 learners of L2 French (n = 29) or Spanish (n = 27) from the publicly available, longitudinal LANGSNAP corpus. Participants completed two oral tasks in their L1 and L2: a picture-based narrative and a semistructured interview. The rate, duration, and proportion of midclause pauses were compared between tasks in the L1 as well as in the L2 before and during residence abroad. In the L1, results indicated more fluent performance in the narrative task except for rate. When speaking in their L2, participants showed improvement on each measure in the narrative task but ultimately remained less fluent in their L2 in comparison to their L1. In the interview task, the only measure of midclause pausing that consistently differentiated L1 from L2 speech was midclause pause rate. The findings call for a nuanced interpretation of connections between midclause pausing and formulation and suggest that midclause pause rate is least influenced by speaking task.

The Elicited Imitation Task (EIT) is a popular technique for efficiently measuring global proficiency in multiple languages, and accumulated evidence indicates high reliability and strong relationships with other proficiency measures. Nevertheless, several dimensions of EIT design remain open to investigation, including the assumption that a pause is required in between the aural stimulus and oral response, to ensure processing of the input and prevent so-called parroting. This study investigated the relationship between three poststimulus pause conditions, learners’ proficiency and working memory, and their EIT scores as well as their perceptions of task difficulty, mental effort, focus, and interest. Findings indicated no differences in performances or perceptions between the 0-second pause, 2-second pause, and 5-second pause conditions, and a weak relationship between EIT performance and working memory. Across all conditions, the EIT distinguished consistently among proficiency levels, correlated strongly with a criterion proficiency measure, and produced remarkably reliable scores.

Whereas many scholars have emphasized the relative importance of comprehensibility as an ecologically valid goal for L2 speech training, testing, and development, eliciting listeners’ judgments is time-consuming. Following calls for research on more efficient L2 speech rating methods in applied linguistics, and growing attention toward using machine learning on spontaneous unscripted speech in speech engineering, the current study examined the possibility of establishing quick and reliable automated comprehensibility assessments. Orchestrating a set of phonological (maximum posterior probabilities and gaps between L1 and L2 speech), prosodic (pitch and intensity variation), and temporal measures (articulation rate, pause frequency), the regression model significantly predicted how naïve listeners intuitively judged low, mid, high, and nativelike comprehensibility among 100 L1 and L2 speakers’ picture descriptions. The strength of the correlation (r = .823 for machine vs. human ratings) was comparable to naïve listeners’ interrater agreement (r = .760 for humans vs. humans). The findings were successfully replicated when the model was applied to a new dataset of 45 L1 and L2 speakers (r = .827) and tested under a more freely constructed interview task condition (r = .809).

This study investigates whether (a) Cantonese and (b) English listeners integrally or independently perceive Thai tone and segmental information. Listeners completed a modified AX discrimination task that contained a control block (without segmental variation) and an orthogonal block (with segmental variation). Relative to their own performance in the control block, the Cantonese listeners showed increased response time, decreased proportion of accuracy, and decreased sensitivity index in the orthogonal block. By contrast, the English listeners showed similar response time, proportion of accuracy, and sensitivity index across the two blocks. These reflect integral processing among the Cantonese but not the English listeners. This finding motivates the dimensional transfer hypothesis. The hypothesis posits that L1 perceptual experience shapes the perceptual integrality (or nonintegrality) of foreign suprasegmental and segmental information.

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), an instantiation in applied linguistics of complexity epistemology that transcends disciplinary boundaries, has gained much traction and momentum over the last decade, finding expressions in a fast-growing number of empirical second language developmental studies. However, the literature, while rapidly expanding, has displayed much confusion, notably oscillating between invoking CDST as a metatheory and as an object theory. Then, too, the metaphorical genesis of CDST—the metaphorical adoption of complexity epistemology from physical sciences—has seemed to invite miscellaneous interpretations, rendering CDST an ostensibly all-in-one conceptual prism. This article explores the epistemology of CDST, tracing its ontology and examining its role in second language developmental research. This enables a more nuanced understanding of CDST, while at once surfacing critical issues and directions for future research, as it moves toward a pluralistic approach to investigating CDST as a potentially unique lens on second language development.

The study investigates how psychological and social factors relate to productive collocation knowledge in late L2 learners of Swedish (French L1) (N = 59). The individual factors are language aptitude (measured through the LLAMA aptitude test), reported language use, social networks, acculturation, and personality. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that positive effects were found for LLAMA D (phonetic memory), LLAMA E (sound-symbol correspondence), reported language use, and length of residence (LOR). Furthermore, a negative effect was found for the personality variable Open-mindedness. These variables explained 63% (adjusted R²) of the variance, which represents large effects compared to other studies on individual factors. In sum, the findings confirm earlier results on the importance of language aptitude and language use for productive collocation knowledge. They also add evidence of the importance of personality and LOR. In sum, cognitive and social factors combine to explain different outcomes in adult L2 acquisition.

This study presents a conceptual replication of Birulés et al.’s (2020, Experiment 2) investigation of native and nonnative listeners’ selective attention to a talker’s mouth with the goal of better understanding the potentially modulating role of proficiency in listeners’ reliance on audiovisual speech cues. Listeners’ eye gaze was recorded while watching two short videos. Findings from one of the videos replicated results from the original study, showing greater attention to the talker’s mouth among L2 than L1 listeners. In both videos, L2 proficiency modulated attention, with more fixations on the mouth among lower proficiency listeners, an effect predicted but not observed in the original study. Collectively, these laboratory-based findings highlight the role of visual speech cues in L2 listening and present evidence that listeners with more limited proficiency may be especially reliant on such cues. These observations warrant future investigations of the benefits of visual speech cues in instructional and assessment contexts.

Second language (L2) researchers have long acknowledged the role of language anxiety in communication processes, such that learners with greater language anxiety tend to be less willing to engage in communication. However, little research has explored links between L2 speakers’ perceptions of conversation and dynamic measures of anxiety. Therefore, this study measured 60 L2 English speakers’ galvanic skin response (a physiological index of anxiety) during conversation. After the conversation, speakers evaluated themselves and their partner in terms of speech fluency and comprehensibility, engagement, and anxiety, and responded to trait-anxiety and social network questionnaires. Correlational analyses explored relationships between speakers’ trait-anxiety, social network characteristics, self- and peer-perceptions and five levels of physiological response during conversation. Findings revealed that high arousal during interaction was related to speakers’ negative self-perceptions of speech fluency and negative perceptions of their partner’s engagement. Implications are discussed regarding state-anxiety as triggered by partner- or task-specific experiences.

Previous research identified that studying texts in a second language (L2) as opposed to the first (L1) results in substantially weaker recall. We hypothesized that use of advance organizers (AOs) might attenuate this L2 recall cost by supporting L2 users in the construction of more solid memory representations. One hundred Dutch-English bilinguals studied two texts in either L1 or L2, and with or without the help of a mind map. The previously reported L2 cost was replicated, with lower recall scores in L2 relative to L1. Whereas L1 and L2 students were equally aided by AO use, the initial cost dissipated when comparing L2 test scores in the AO condition with those of L1 in the non-AO condition. We therefore conclude that employing AOs does not entirely diminish L2 disadvantages but brings L2 students up to the initial level of L1 students.