L2 Fossilization: A Competence or a Performance Phenomenon

f/sla from learner perspectives: a social activity or a cognitive process

in the past couple of decades sociocultural theory of sla and its implications in efl contexts have attracted attentions of research circles worldwide and aroused some controversies. firth and wagner (1997) have questioned the principles of the cognitive view which gives importance to mental constructs in favor of sociocultural view which highlights social and contextual constructs. but if soci...

Acquisition Performance: Experience or Competence?

In a study of over 10,000 acquisitions between 1991 and 2002, we find evidence that past success raises future performance in private, or semi-private, bids but not in public bids. We also find that past success was not associated with the number of prior acquisitions. We attribute this past success to an unobserved acquisition competence and argue that acquisition competence must be based on s...

Language Learning Strategies: A Strategy-Based Approach to L2 Learning.Strategic Competence, and Test Validation

Pre-emption with or without Pre-task Planning: A Probe into L2 Lexical Diversity

The current study, setting a two-fold goal, attempted to see whether the preemptive focus on form (FonF) under either planned or unplanned conditions could contribute to increasing lexical diversity in written narratives and, second, to find whether there was a trade-off between the lexical diversity and accuracy. To this end, 32 beginner learners were selected following a Quick Oxford Placemen...

Synesthesia - A Real Phenomenon? Or Real Phenomena?

This text comments on Cytowic's recent review on the current knowledge on synesthesia. Recent neurophysiological findings are discussed that suggest crossmodal interference in the mammalian brain. Based on these results, it is proposed that synesthesia may not be restricted to the phenomenologically characterized abnormality described in Cytowic's review, but rather that it may encompass a seri...