bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Second language processing in Japanese scrambled sentences
Authors: Mitsugi Sanako , MacWhinney Brian
Published: March 2014

This study used self-paced reading to examine the processing of Japanese ditransitive scrambling by both native speakers and by second language (L2) learners of Japanese. Because Japanese places the verb at the end of the clause, the impact of verb-based expectations should be less than it is in English (Trueswell, Tanenhaus & Kello, 1993). Instead of the verb-driven processing, Japanese processing relies on case markers, and decisions of structure-building are made locally without any delay (e.g., Miyamoto, 2002). If learners are able to utilize the information encoded by case markers, there should not be any extra processing load involved in scrambled sentences. Fifteen native speakers, 16 first language (L1) Korean intermediate-level learners, and 16 L1 English intermediate-level learners participated in the study. The conditions included canonical order, accusative scramble order, dative scramble order and dative-accusative scramble order. The results demonstrated that there are no significant differences in reading times among word-order types. These findings indicate that (1) Japanese native speakers make use of case-marked arguments as reliable cues for incremental processing, and (2) L2 learners can acquire this processing strategy at native-like levels, regardless of their L1 backgrounds.
The processing of subject-object ambiguities by English and Dutch L2 learners of German
Authors: Jackson Carrie N.
Published: March 2014

This self-paced reading study explored how English and Dutch L2 learners of German process subject-object ambiguities in German and whether the location of the lexical verb influences on-line processing among L2 learners. Reading time results at the disambiguating region revealed a subject-first preference, regardless of the location of the lexical verb, for all three groups. This highlights the potential for native-like L2 processing. At the same time, however, differences emerged in reading times between the two L2 learner groups on later segments, suggesting that the L1 can influence L2 processing, even among advanced learners.
Connections between processing, production and placement
Authors: Malovrh Paul A. , Lee James F.
Published: March 2014

In this paper we examine parallel developments in the input processing and production of grammatical form among intermediate and advanced level second language learners. To do so, we analyze the results gathered from two experiments on the same participants using object pronouns in Spanish as the target structure. Object pronouns in Spanish include information on case, person and number, but vary on gender marking. Although they occur in several word order patterns, we investigate only OV, that is, the preverbal placement of the pronoun with a simple finite verb. The data consist of a study in which learners processed subject/object relations. The sentence set contained 36 target sentences with 4 examples of each of the following pronouns: first person singular and plural, third person singular and plural, second person singular, dative and accusative uses, and masculine and feminine third person accusative case forms. The sentences were constructed such that the target sentence was the second of two and was of the word order pattern OVS. These data are analysed for correctly identifying who performed the action of the verb, that is, for correct OVS processing. The production data consisted of an oral retelling of a silent film that had been designed specifically to elicit object pronouns. The production data contain all of the forms used in the processing data set except second person singular. These data were analysed for accurate production of form and accurate placement of the pronoun in OV contexts. Our results suggest that processing, production and placement develop in parallel ways, not independently. First, as accurate OVS processing increases so does accurate production and placement in OV contexts. Second, the same morphological factors that affect processing also affect production and placement. Third, both processing, production and placement of first person pronouns is more accurate than that of third person pronouns. Fourth, homophonous forms are more difficult to process, produce and place accurately than are non-homophonous forms. We argue that accurate placement, i.e. the syntax of object pronouns, may be the trigger to developing accurate forms. Learners first fully acquire OV placement while still showing morphological variability in production and processing.
The exploitation of fine phonetic detail in the processing of L2 French
Authors: Shoemaker Ellenor M.
Published: March 2014

French is a language that poses particular difficulties for the second language (L2) learner in the processing of continuous speech. The phonological processes of liaison and enchainement (resyllabification), can render syllable and word boundaries ambiguous (e.g. un air ‘a melody’ and un nerf ‘a nerve’, both [oe˜ne˜]). Some research has suggested that speakers of French give listeners acoustic cues to word boundaries by varying the duration of liaison and initial consonants and that access to mental representations in the lexicon is facilitated by these cues (e.g. Spinelli, McQueen & Cutler, 2003); however no study to date has directly demonstrated that durational differences are exploited in the online segmentation of speech. One way to directly test the exploitation of duration as a parsing cue by both native and non-native speakers is to manipulate and exaggerate this single acoustic factor while holding all other factors constant. To this end, the current study employed ambiguous French phrases in which the pivotal consonants (i.e. the /n/ in un air/nerf) had been instrumentally shortened and lengthened while the rest of the phrase remained unaltered. Eighteen native speakers of French and 18 advanced late learners of L2 French were tested on an AX discrimination task and a forced-choice identification task employing these manipulated stimuli. The results suggest that duration alone can indeed modulate the lexical interpretation of sequences rendered ambiguous by liaison in spoken French. In addition, although a good deal of variance was observed in both participant groups, five out of 18 non-native participants scored at or above the native mean on both perceptual tasks. These results are particularly interesting in that they suggest that not only can advanced L2 learners develop native-like sensitivity to non-contrastive phonological variation in a L2, but that these learners can exploit this information in L2 speech processing.
Reading aloud in two languages
Authors: Fernández Eva M.
Published: March 2014

This paper examines bilingual speech production and constitutes part of an investigation designed to address two separate but interconnected questions. First, do different aspects of prosody relate differently to different syntactic categories? Second, do syntax-prosody correspondences differ between the two languages of a bilingual, and is this modulated by language history? Participants were native speakers of Spanish who were also early acquirers of English, exposed to the language from birth or from between 4 and 6 years of age. They read aloud translation-equivalent passages in English and Spanish. Acoustic analyses of the recorded speech examined phrasing (as indexed in pause durations between words) at key syntactic boundaries throughout the passage. The data demonstrate that early acquirers of English have similar phrasing preferences in both English and Spanish, based on syntactic boundaries. However, reading in Spanish is more disfluent, particularly for participants with less formal exposure to the language.
Near-nativelike processing of contrastive focus in L2 French
Authors: Reichle Robert
Published: March 2014

In this ERP study, native speakers and high- and low-proficiency L2 speakers of French were visually presented with instantiations of informational focus and contrastive focus. 14-channel electroencephalograms were recorded, and mean amplitude was calculated for windows 200–400 ms and 500–700 ms post-target word. For the processing of contrastive focus, native speakers showed a widespread increase in negativity compared to the processing of informational focus. High-proficiency L2 subjects also showed signs of increased negativity; low-proficiency L2 subjects did not. These results suggest the possibility of near-nativelike processing for high-proficiency L2 learners, but not for low-proficiency L2 learners; this finding is consistent with other recent ERP studies of L2 processing (e.g. Osterhout et al., 2006).
Lexico-semantic relations in theory and practice
Authors: Storjohann Petra
Published: March 2014

This paper provides a general overview of the treatment of lexico-semantic relations in different fields of research including theoretical and application-oriented disciplines. At the same time, it sketches the development of the descriptions and explanations of sense relations in various approaches as well as some methodologies which have been used to retrieve and analyse paradigmatic patterns.
Swedish opposites
Authors: Willners Caroline , Paradis Carita
Published: March 2014

This is an investigation of ‘goodness of antonym pairings’ in Swedish, which seeks answers to why speakers judge antonyms such as bra-dålig ‘good-bad’ and lång-kort ‘long-short’ to be better antonyms than, say, dunkel-tydlig ‘obscure-clear’ and rask-långsam ‘speedy-slow’. The investigation has two main aims. The first aim is to provide a description of goodness of Swedish antonym pairings based on three different observational techniques: a corpus-driven study, a judgement experiment and an elicitation experiment. The second aim is to evaluate both converging and diverging results on those three indicators and to discuss them in the light of what the results tell us about antonyms in Swedish, and perhaps more importantly, what they tell us about the nature of antonymy in language and thought more generally.
Using web data to explore lexico-semantic relations
Authors: Jones Steven
Published: March 2014

This paper reports on web-as-corpus research that seeks to explain why some semantically opposed word pairs have special status as canonical antonyms (for example: cold-hot), while other pairs do not (icy-scorching, cold-fiery, freezing-hot, etc.). In particular, it reports on the findings of Jones, Paradis, Murphy and Willners (2007), and extends their retrieval procedure to include the previously overlooked ‘ancillary’ function of antonymy (Jones 2002). The primary assumptions are that a language’s most canonical ‘opposites’ can be reasonably expected to co-occur with highest fidelity in those constructions associated most closely with the key discourse functions of antonymy, and that, given their low frequency in language, an extremely large corpus is needed in order to identify such patterns of co-occurrence.
Antonymy relations
Authors: Proost Kristel
Published: March 2014

Antonymy is a relation of lexical opposition which is generally considered to involve (i) the presence of a scale along which a particular property may be graded, and hence both (ii) gradability of the corresponding lexical items and (iii) typical entailment relations. Like other types of lexical opposites, antonyms typically differ only minimally: while denoting opposing poles on the relevant dimension of difference, they are similar with respect to other components of meaning. This paper presents examples of antonymy from the domain of speech act verbs which either lack some of these typical attributes or show problems in the application of these. It discusses several different proposals for the classification of these atypical examples.
The consistency of sense-related items in dictionaries
Authors: Müller-Spitzer Carolin
Published: March 2014

Consistency of reference structures is an important issue in lexicography and dictionary research, especially with respect to information on sense-related items. In this paper, the systematic challenges of this area (e.g. ‘non-reversed reference’, bidirectional linking being realised as unidirectional structures) will be outlined, and the problems which can be caused by these challenges for both lexicographers and dictionary users will be discussed. The paper also discusses how text-technological solutions may help to provide support for the consistency of sense-related pairings during the process of compiling a dictionary.
Lexical-semantic and conceptual relations in GermaNet
Authors: Kunze Claudia , Lemnitzer Lothar
Published: March 2014

GermaNet is a lexical resource constructed in the style of the Princeton WordNet. Lexical units are grouped in synsets which represent the lexical instantiations of concepts. Relations connect both these synsets and the lexical units. In this paper, we will describe the kinds of relations which have been established in GermaNet as well as the theoretical motivation for their use.
La construction causative en faire et le marquage différentiel de l’objet en français
Authors: Lamiroy Béatrice
Published: March 2014

The aim of the paper is to show that differential object marking, i.e. special marking of a certain type of direct objects, which is not commonly recognized as a typological feature of French, occurs in French with clitics in the causative construction with the verb faire. Several examples of colloquial French thus show that the [+hum] direct object of faire (followed by an intransitive infinitive) occurs as a dative lui and not as an accusative le, as would be expected according to normative French.
L’attribut et la construction impersonnelle en français
Authors: Tsuruga Yoichiro
Published: March 2014

In the binary construction “Subject-Predicate (= Copula-Complement)”: Luc est gai, Subject is presupposed for Complement, while it is not indispensable in impersonal complement constructions. Sembler requires always a complement: *Que Luc chante semble – Il semble que Luc chante, where que Luc chante is a complement. Paraître is intransitive in Un livre paraîtra and has a complement in Il paraît que Luc chante. Être, meaning “to exist”, is exceptional and in Luc est à Paris, the locative is necessary. In cleft sentences, the complement is emphasized: C’est là que Luc habite. The impersonal construction offers a non-binary frame where the complement can function without a syntactic nor semantic subject: Il est tard, Il en est autrement de lui.
Constructions transitives et causative attributive du verbe faire
Authors: Nakamura Takuya
Published: March 2014

French sentence structure N faire de N N is shown to present a three-way ambiguity, according to the use of the verb faire: ordinary transitive and support (or light) faire constitute a transitive structure, but the third one, “causative operator faire”, makes a peculiar one in which a direct nominal (N) functions, not as a direct object, but as a indirect object (de N) complement. As an operator, the verb takes as “operand” a particular type of copular sentence, i.e. identificational type, on the contrary to rendre and mettre, well-known causative verbs, applied only to predicational type. faire, rendre and mettre are in complementary distribution. Different possibilities of causative operators for different types of copular sentences are also discussed.
Defining a verb taxonomy by a decision tree
Authors: Laporte Éric
Published: March 2014

How useful can be decision trees for the construction, update and use of taxonomies of verbs? They are supposed to make the definition of classes more accurate. They are still little used in practice: devising and handling them involves formal logic and Boolean reasoning, which do not belong to a background in humanities. However, a better organization of interdisciplinarity in linguistic research might actually overcome such reluctance. We exemplify how the decision tree of the Lexicon-Grammar of French verbs led us to revise this taxonomy. We resolved an internal contradiction in eight classes: with some locative verbs, a content clause can occupy the theme argument, and we made the formalization of this feature consistent with the definitions of classes.
Les déverbaux dans les tables du Lexique-Grammaire
Authors: Leclère Christian
Published: March 2014

The Lexicon-Grammar, first developed at LADL (Laboratoire d’Automatique Documentaire et Linguistique, CNRS) by Maurice Gross and his team, is organised in a series of tables. Each table groups lexical items with related behaviour (in the structure of basic sentences, in the distribution of arguments, in terms of semantics). Each table includes a set of properties (in columns) and a flag of “+” and “−” indicating whether or not the item has this property. Part of these properties concerns nouns (called V-n) morphologically related to a verb, (chanter/chanteur/chant/chanson) and their semantic interpretation. This article focuses on verbal constructions (about 5,000 verbs have been examined) and various syntactic positions that deverbal nouns could occupy in these different constructions.
Les tables du LADL et la sémantique
Authors: Gross Gaston
Published: March 2014

Verb tables are based on the simple sentence, made up of a predicate, its arguments, their actualization and the various transformations the sentence may undergo, all presented in binary table form. What though is the theoretical basis? Since the predicate is determined by the nature of its arguments, the first step is to identify these. An evaluation is then made of the concepts of human and non-human nouns, suggesting that these features are too general or inappropriate for identifying usages, relying too much on syntax and too little on semantics. Yet semantics allows for precise descriptions, providing that different levels are not kept separate, since syntax and semantics are so closely interwoven that it is impossible to separate them.
Predicational forms in English
Authors: Guenthner Franz
Published: March 2014

This paper takes its start from a not so well-known 1984 paper by Henry Kučera “Computational Analysis of Predication Structures in English” which examines the expression of predication in the Brown corpus. We review the observations and insights in this paper and present a general analysis of the structure of predication forms in English, where we distinguish between three types of predication in terms of how the predicate of the sentence is expressed.
Le complément indirect en de
Authors: Ogata Kozué
Published: March 2014

We discuss the syntactic properties of N0 V de N1 of changer, in opposition to N0 V N1, from a corpus analysis. In N0 V N1 (Max a changé sa voiture), the referent of N1, direct object, changes, whether modified or replaced. In N0 V de N1 (Max a changé de voiture), on the other hand, N1, which does not admit a determiner, does not refer to a specific entity and indicates a category. Thus the referent of N1 is not affected by the change. The indirect object de N1 of changer is distinguished from de N1 of other verbs which admits determiners and answers the question: “De quoi V N0 ?”, such as parler, traiter, servir, etc
Remarques sur un type d’emploi de la construction du verbe pronominal passif
Authors: Yamada Hiroshi
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses the French pronominal passive construction (PPC) which is frequently used with judgement verbs in scientific articles. After examining the difference between PPC and the periphrastic passive, we focus on the inherent prescriptive sense of PPC. We assume that by using PPC, authors present their judgements as already established in the society in order to render their arguments more persuasive. We then highlight another pragmatic usage of PPC, considering as examples sentences used as instructions. PPC exhibits subtle semantic differences according to context, which enables us to consider the relationship between the fundamental function of the construction and its pragmatic interpretations.
La description morphosyntaxique à l’épreuve des textes
Authors: Tronci Liana
Published: March 2014

This paper deals with Italian impersonal constructions featured by the clitic si, such as Si è scoperto (gli untori) ‘one has found out the plague-spreaders’, Si sono scoperti (gli untori) ‘the plague-spreaders have been found out’, Si è scoperti (come untori) ‘they have been found to be plague-spreaders’, and suggests a description of them from the point of view of both their argumental configurations, and their syntactic processes. At the surface, these constructions appear to have a non-argumental, unspecified and human subject (“dummy” or “null” final subject). This subject, however, correlates with an initial function which (a) may be a subject or a direct object, (b) may belong to a transitive or intransitive level. The verb morphology reflects both the paradigmatic and the syntagmatic relationships of the final subject.
Étude contrastive du présent dans un récit au passé en français et en japonais
Authors: Imoto Hidetake
Published: March 2014

This paper is intended as an contrastive study of present narrative in French and in Japanese within the framework of Mental Space Theory. In French the so called “historical present” is a metaphorical use of present tense intending to convey past events as if it were now present before the speaker’s eye. But in Japanese the present tense is used to describe the state of past situations without any stylistic effects. The difference comes from the different tense systems of the two languages. In French all events must be indicated from the speaker’s position, but Japanese tense indicate only the relation between the event and the v-point spaces. This may account for the use of the present tense in Japanese.
Pragmatics and speech act performance
Authors: Martínez-Flor Alicia , Usó-Juan Esther
Published: March 2014

Pragmatics, a branch of linguistics which studies communicative actions in their sociocultural context, has been the focus of attention of a number of scholars over the last few decades (Rose & Kasper, 2001). Given the importance of this area of research to develop competent users of a given language, the present chapter first outlines its main defining characteristics. Then, among the different subareas included within this field, a detailed description of speech act theory is provided. The reminder of the chapter addresses the theoretical conditions needed for the learning of particular speech acts in instructed settings, namely exposure to pertinent input, opportunities for communicative practice and feedback.
The effect of individual-level variables on speech act performance
Authors: Kuriscak Lisa M.
Published: March 2014

Many factors affect the realisation of speech acts, including sociocultural norms, being a native or nonnative speaker, situational parameters of the exchange, and individual differences in personal characteristics. This chapter focuses on findings related to the last set of factors and specifically on personality (extraversion), aptitude (and its related construct, proficiency), and motivation. These multicomponent traits are distinct constructs but are not entirely discreet from each other. In a review of literature that incorporates second language acquisition and interlanguage pragmatics, their dynamic relationship and their effects on speech acts are described, with an eye toward discerning the relative contributions of these variables to the expression (and interpretation) of second-language speech acts and to offering suggestions for future research.
Data collection methods in speech act performance
Authors: Félix-Brasdefer J. César
Published: March 2014

This chapter takes a speech-act perspective and examines the degree of validity and reliability of three data collection methods used in speech act research: discourse completion tasks, role plays, and verbal reports. Various formats of these instruments and the type of data they produce under experimental conditions are reviewed and illustrated with examples taken from learners and native speakers. In addition, ways for refining the instrument by focusing on the contextual information of the situation are discussed. This chapter shows how role-play data can be analysed sequentially and across multiple turns in controlled settings. It also highlights the significance of using verbal reports as a means of validating experimental data by gaining access to the learners’ cognitive and sociocultural perceptions during speech act performance. It concludes with practical recommendations for refining the instruments used in speech-act research.
Conversation analysis and speech act performance
Authors: González-Lloret Marta
Published: March 2014

Conversation analysis offers the potential for useful contribution to the study of speech act performance by microanalysing the sequential organisation of natural data of participants carrying out social action through talk. This paper outlines some of the similarities and main differences between speech act theory and conversation analysis, focusing mainly on the concept of speakers’ intent, the importance of the sequential organisation of data, and the value of naturally occurring data. The chapter presents previous research which has studied speech act sequences form a conversation analysis perspective in a variety of settings and contexts, including the second/foreign language classroom. Finally, the chapter proposes lines of investigation of speech act performance that could benefit from a conversation analysis approach.
Culture and its effect on speech act performance
Authors: Meier Ardith J.
Published: March 2014

The premise that underlying cultural values and beliefs play an important role in speech act performance as mediated by perceptions of context forms the foundation of this chapter. The relationship between culture, context, and speech act performance is explained. Where there is less overlap between interactants’ underlying cultural values and beliefs, misunderstandings are more apt to arise. In order to identify cross-cultural differences that have the potential to cause such misunderstandings, relevant speech act studies are presented and their findings examined in terms of cultural dimensions and orientations used as heuristic tools. It is argued that an awareness of underlying cultural variables and their potential influence on speech act performance will contribute to more effective negotiation of meaning and identity.
Study abroad and its effect on speech act performance
Authors: Schauer Gila A.
Published: March 2014

Although the effect of the study abroad environment on foreign language learners’ speech act performance had been underexplored for many years, a number of studies have been published in the last decade that help to shed light on the impact of study abroad sojourns on language learners’ pragmatic competence. In this chapter, I will review and discuss investigations examining the effect of study abroad on language learners in a variety of study abroad contexts (e.g. Canada, United States of America, Latin America, France, Germany, Great Britain) and involving a variety of native and target language combinations (e.g. Chinese – English, English – French, English – German, English – Spanish, German – English, German – French, Japanese- English). The speech acts investigated are: advice, apologies, leave-taking, offers, refusals, requests and suggestions.
The effect of pragmatic instruction on speech act performance
Authors: Takahashi Satomi
Published: March 2014

This chapter reviews previous research on pragmatic intervention by exploring the extent to which the teachability of second-language speech acts is constrained by the nature of intervention and learner-attributable factors. The superiority of explicit pragmatic intervention over implicit treatment is confirmed overall, particularly in the teaching of the sociopragmatic features of speech acts. However, evidence suggests that such positive effects of explicit intervention are not always assured; moreover, some forms of implicit intervention are equally effective. Such variations in the findings are best explained in terms of an explicit/implicit continuum rather than a dichotomous explicit versus implicit framework. The current review also suggests that higher levels of linguistic proficiency and learner motivation may be prerequisites for maximally enhancing pragmatic teachability.
Apologies
Authors: Kondo Sachiko
Published: March 2014

The present paper focuses on teaching the speech act of apologising based on previous research findings on the use, acquisition, and teaching of this particular speech act. The paper provides practical suggestions as to how pragmatic awareness can be raised by first presenting apology strategies and then showing how learners can be engaged in analysing their own performance, and comparing it with that of speakers of the target language. Suggestions will also be made about ways of providing learners with authentic input, a variety of pragmatic options and with ample opportunity to practice in various apology situations. Such training will allow learners to develop their own interlanguage through optimal convergence to target language norms rather than total convergence (Kasper, 1997).
Complaints
Authors: Boxer Diana
Published: March 2014

The speech act of complaint actually consists of two very different types of speech behaviours. While direct complaints are usually face threatening acts, indirect complaints typically serve to establish solidarity in social interaction. Little attention has been paid in the literature to indirect complaints, despite the fact that they are ubiquitous in ordinary social conversation in many English-speaking communities. This chapter focuses on the teaching of indirect complaints and outlines methodological issues in amassing data on complaining that can be put into use for effective language teaching. To date, few teaching materials have been based on ethnographic, empirical data. Based on this data, new ways of teaching complaints and their responses are suggested in a sample lesson plan.
Compliments and responses to compliments
Authors: Ishihara Noriko
Published: March 2014

This chapter focuses on the speech acts of giving and responding to compliments, including its multiple functions and discourses that expand beyond single-statement compliments. First, specific linguistic realisations of these speech acts are summarised, in addition to a discussion of cross-linguistic differences in pragmatic norms. Interlanguage pragmatics research is also reviewed in which compliments were taught in English as a second/foreign language and Japanese as a foreign language. The majority of the chapter is devoted to a pedagogical proposal that shows how these speech acts in English can be taught and how learners’ pragmatic development may be assessed in the classroom. Because learners’ subjectivities are closely intertwined with their pragmatic use, the instruction and assessment procedures facilitate learners’ negotiation of identities through giving and responding to compliments.
Disagreement
Authors: Malamed Lewis H.
Published: March 2014

This chapter will consider research findings related to the speech act of disagreement with the aim of supporting students in developing effective strategies to improve both receptive and productive skills in this area. Although some communicative behaviours may be effective in both the first language and the second language, students who carry over an inappropriate strategy run the risk of an unexpected reaction, including situations in which their intention to disagree will not be noted (Beebe & Takahashi, 1989a). This section will focus upon practical ways to raise students’ awareness of strategies for disagreement in English, and provide support for the use of mitigating expressions appropriate in various communicative situations.
Refusals
Authors: Eslami Zohreh R.
Published: March 2014

Refusal can be a difficult speech act to perform. As a disprefered response, it is complicated in form and it usually involves various strategies to avoid offending one’s interlocutor. For second language learners with linguistic limitations, performing refusals successfully may require a higher level of pragmatic competence than other target language speech acts. Thus there is a need for pragmatic instruction in order to help learners interpret and realise this speech act successfully. Based on previous research on the speech act of refusal and studies in instructional pragmatics, this chapter proposes a teaching approach that includes both awareness raising and production activities. The instructional strategies involve learners in translation, data collection, data analysis, reflection, and role-play activities.
Suggestions
Authors: Martínez-Flor Alicia
Published: March 2014

Suggestions are acts in which the speaker asks the hearer to perform an action that will potentially benefit the hearer (Rintell, 1979). Despite this fact, they have been regarded as face-threatening acts, since the speaker is in some way intruding into the hearer’s world by performing an act that concerns what the latter should do (Brown & Levinson, 1987). For this reason, formulating pragmatically appropriate suggestions that do not result in impolite or rude behaviour may be especially difficult for second language learners whose contact with the target language is very limited. With that aim in mind, and based on previous studies on this speech act, this chapter proposes a pedagogical approach that ranges from awareness-raising to production activities.
Chapter 2. Acquiring second language vocabulary through the use of images and words
Authors: Altarriba Jeanette , Knickerbocker Hugh
Published: March 2014

Two experiments explored the relative benefits of learning vocabulary in a second language by varying the learning formats both within and between participants. English monolingual speakers were taught vocabulary words in Spanish by pairing those words with their English translations, black-and-white pictures, or color pictures. Testing of those newly acquired words occurred via the use of a Lexical Decision Task (LDT) wherein participants were shown letter strings and were asked to identify them as either real words or nonwords in English (i.e., a word priming procedure). Letter strings were paired with either their correct Spanish translations or an unrelated Spanish word. In Experiment 1, all three learning conditions produced significant priming effects indicating that all the methods used to teach these words yielded similar success in their retrieval. Additionally, the black-and-white picture condition speeded up responses, as compared to the color picture condition. Experiment 2 presented the three learning conditions within subjects and revealed significant priming in the word-word condition and the black-and-white image condition. However, response times were significantly faster in the word-word condition overall supporting the notion of transfer appropriate processing. Results are discussed with regards to this theory of processing.
Chapter 3. Some costs of fooling Mother Nature
Authors: Barcroft Joe , Sommers Mitchell S. , Sunderman Gretchen L.
Published: March 2014

This study compared the effects of the Keyword Method and rote rehearsal on the quality of developing second language (L2) lexical representations. We assessed accuracy and latency of English-to-Spanish translations provided by English-speaking absolute beginning learners of Spanish after each of three learning phases. Each translation was primed by either a keyword used during the learning phase (dad for dado “dice”) or an unrelated word (book for dado “dice”). Keyword primes, which are similar in form to the target L2 words, speeded recall for the rote-rehearsal group but slowed recall for the keyword group. These findings demonstrate clear differences in the quality of developing L2 lexical representations between the two groups, disfavoring the Keyword Method of L2 vocabulary instruction.
Chapter 4. Using priming to explore early word learning
Authors: Williams John N. , Cheung Amanda
Published: March 2014

Current views of vocabulary learning imply that second language (L2) words initially inherit the meaning of their first language (L1) translation equivalents. We describe a series of experiments that test this idea by examining semantic priming from newly learned words. The aspects of meaning that these words automatically activate were probed by manipulating the nature of the prime-target relationship. Although there were clear semantic priming effects, not all types of semantic relationship supported priming. The effects of variations in study conditions lead us to suggest an episodic view of word learning in which newly learned words do not simply inherit L1 meanings, but rather are associated with the aspects of meaning that were active at the time they were learned. We discuss the implications for teaching vocabulary, especially through the use of translation equivalents.
Chapter 5. When three equals tree
Authors: Trofimovich Pavel , John Paul
Published: March 2014

In this study, we used auditory priming to examine the phonological content of lexical entries for adult second language speakers. In particular, we investigated whether, for native speakers of Quebec French, words like they and day as well as three and tree have identical (i.e., homophonous) phonological forms in these speakers’ lexicons, which would explain these speakers’ difficulty producing and perceiving words containing difficult /ð/ and /θ/ consonants. We found that our participants did not distinguish between these pairs of words in their lexicons, but were able to produce at least some of the words containing English /ð/ and /θ/ accurately. We discuss both theoretical and pedagogical implications of these findings.
Chapter 6. Eliciting wh-questions through collaborative syntactic priming activities during peer interaction
Authors: McDonough Kim
Published: March 2014

Recent research has indicated that L2 learners who carry out collaborative syntactic priming activities with trained interlocutors or their peers subsequently produce target constructions rather than interlanguage forms. However, studies to date have not explored whether certain types of syntactic priming materials are more useful for eliciting such constructions. The current study compares four collaborative syntactic priming activities in terms of their effectiveness at eliciting wh-questions with supplied auxiliary verbs. Thai English as a foreign language (EFL) university students (N = 33) carried out the activities as part of their required integrated skills English class. The learners’ interaction was audio-recorded and transcribed, and the transcripts were analyzed in terms of the amount and type of wh-questions produced during each activity. Results indicate that activities with lexical repetition elicited a significantly greater proportion of target wh-questions than activities without the lexical boost. Pedagogical considerations and future research involving the design and implementation of collaborative syntactic priming activities in L2 classrooms are discussed.
Chapter 8. Task effects in second language sentence processing research
Authors: Leeser Michael J. , Brandl Anel , Weissglass Christine
Published: March 2014

This chapter explores the ways in which secondary tasks utilized in on-line sentence processing experiments can influence second language (L2) learners’ processing behavior. After a brief introduction to sentence processing and the self-paced reading methodology, we present data from a self-paced reading study that investigates how task type (comprehension questions vs. grammaticality judgment tasks) affect intermediate L2 Spanish learners processing of two types of grammatical violations: noun-adjective gender agreement and subject-verb inversion in wh-questions. Our findings suggest that, for some structures, certain secondary tasks commonly used in sentence processing research can indeed influence how L2 learners’ process morpho-syntactic violations during comprehension. We discuss the implications of our findings for L2 learning research, as well as for L2 instruction.
Chapter 9. Semantic integration in listening comprehension in a second language
Authors: Guiling Hu  , Jiang Nan
Published: March 2014

A cross-modal priming task was used to examine listening comprehension by second language speakers. Participants were asked to perform a written lexical decision task on targets that were presented in different auditory sentential contexts. The context and the target were congruent (i.e., the target being highly predictable), neutral (i.e., possible but not predictable), or incongruent (i.e., inappropriate), as in “The girl mailed the letter without a stamp/sticker/stone.” Native speakers showed a priming effect for both congruent and neutral conditions in relation to the incongruent condition, but nonnative speakers showed a priming effect only for the congruent condition. No difference was observed between the neutral and incongruent conditions. Explanations of these findings and possible implications for language teaching are discussed.
Chapter 10. Conceptual mediation in second language learners
Authors: Sunderman Gretchen L.
Published: March 2014

The following study uses a bilingual version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm (Deese 1959; Roediger & McDermott 1995) to investigate conceptual mediation in second language (L2) learners. In this paradigm, participants are exposed to a list of words (e.g. bed, rest, dream, etc.) that are highly associated to a critical lure word that is not presented (e.g. sleep). Later, when asked to recall the words presented, participants will often falsely recall the critical lure that was implicitly generated in memory during encoding. Participants were native English-speaking learners of Spanish (N = 241) with varying proficiency in Spanish. The results suggest that proficiency constrains conceptual mediation. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.
Chapter 4. Writing to learn the language
Authors: Manchón Rosa M.
Published: March 2014

This chapter offers an overview of several strands of existing research addressing various aspects of L2 writing and SLA so as to be able to trace signs, both overtly provided by the authors or implicitly emerging from their arguments, of a shared interest in what I call the language learning potential of writing. I review theoretical frameworks informing this body of research, the most prominent themes investigated, and its main research methodology characteristics. Key findings of the studies reviewed are then synthesized and critically discussed from the perspective of the light they shed on the relationship between written output practice and second language development. The chapter concludes with a call for research into the writing-to-learn the language dimension of L2 writing.
Chapter 5. Learning to write in a second language
Authors: Leki Ilona
Published: March 2014

This chapter reports on empirical research intended to gauge the type, extent, and source of genre knowledge of international students newly arrived at an English medium university and to trace these students’ reliance on and evolving assumptions about those genres and about the constraints and affordances of the novel genres they face. Data for the study came from surveys and text-based interviews. Results suggest that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students have experience with and understanding of a wide range of genres in English and are able to adapt to new genre demands flexibly. Key issues include how and what knowledge is transferred, or not, to these new settings and how learning to write intersects with writing to learn.
Chapter 6. Writing to learn and learning to write by shuttling between languages
Authors: Canagarajah Suresh
Published: March 2014

This chapter considers how multilingual students might learn to write in different genres for different audiences and write to learn different ways of exploring and representing knowledge by shuttling between languages. It illustrates this possibility by analyzing how an advanced scholar from Sri Lanka switches discourses in recognition of the context of writing in his published research articles in both the vernacular and English, in local and foreign publishing contexts. The switches have implications for the knowledge represented in these articles. The author moves between different levels of descriptiveness, reflexive awareness, and analytical explicitness by moving between the genres and languages. He also adopts different ideological positions in these articles to critically negotiate the expectations of the respective audience and context, demonstrating his agency and voice.
Chapter 7. Beyond writing as language learning or content learning
Authors: Byrnes Heidi
Published: March 2014

The chapter argues that one way to advance the L2 writing agenda is to conceptualize learning-to-write and writing-to-learn as inseparable. The paper draws on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as developed by Halliday for its conceptual and analytical apparatus. In particular, it highlights the construct of grammatical metaphor (GM) to elucidate how L2 writers can develop advanced L2 textual abilities. To illustrate evolving ways of knowing through languaging, the paper presents a single-case study of a curriculum-embedded task of summary writing at the early advanced stage of learning L2 German. Through diverse forms of GM use the writer is able to capture the multivoicedness  of the source text and recreate it in the multivoicedness of her own authoritative summary.
Chapter 8. The language learning potential of form-focused feedback on writing
Authors: Hyland Fiona
Published: March 2014

This chapter uses a case study approach to look at students’ and teacher’s perceptions of the language learning potential of form-focused feedback on writing. It explores the ways in which motivated students used form-focused feedback on their writing by purposefully exploiting the opportunities for consciousness-raising, noticing and further practice that it provided. It is argued that feedback use was not a passive process of teachers giving feedback and students using it to correct their papers. Instead students were actively engaged in defining their own learning needs and deciding how the feedback could best be utilised to achieve their language learning goals. It is suggested that such active student participation and engagement is crucial if the language learning potential of feedback is to be fully exploited in learning-to-write contexts.
Chapter 9. Writing to learn in FL contexts
Authors: Manchón Rosa M. , Roca de Larios Julio
Published: March 2014

The study reported in this chapter set out to investigate 18 EFL learners’ own perceptions of the language learning potential of L2 writing, and the actions they reported taking to make the most of the learning opportunities afforded by their engagement with writing. Data for the study came from self-reflection journals and in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted at two points in time 9 months apart. Our results shed light on the role played by self-initiated and teacher-led noticing processes and associated learning actions, extensive and challenging output practice, and the availability of tailor-made form-­focused instruction in bringing about learning through writing. The participants’ own perceptions of the language learning potential of writing was also found to be both a powerful motivating factor in their literacy experience and one of the goals that guided their writing activity. Several implications of these findings for future research will be discussed.