In our modern technological world, Computer-Assisted Language learning (CALL) is a new realm towards learning a language in general, and learning L2 vocabulary in particular. It is assumed that the use of multimedia annotations promotes language learners’ vocabulary acquisition. Therefore, this study set out to investigate the effects of different multimedia annotations (still picture annotatio...

This corpus-based study compares the use of the alternating ditransitive verb TELL by native speakers and Chinese learners of English. The corpora used are the written sub-corpus of ICE-GB (the British component of International Corpus of English) and CLEC (the Chinese Learner English Corpus). CLEC consists of both lowand high-proficiency L2 learners’ writing. By incorporating corpus contrastiv...

This paper reviews current research findings on how specific learning difficulties (SLDs) impact on the processes of multilingual language development. The review includes studies of young language learners in instructed classroom settings as well as of multilingual children in second language contexts. The paper starts with a definition of the concepts of disability and SLDs. Next, it discusse...

Despite the growing number of heritage language (HL) learners in courses, interaction between second (L2) and HL has not been fully explored research, thus, it still remains unclear whether mixed (L2-HL) or matched (L2-L2, HL-HL) dyads are more beneficial for learning. This study investigates three possible dyad types differ terms form-focused episodes (FFEs) that arose while worked together, a...

Whether there is an absolute critical period for acquiring language is a matter of continuous debate. One approach to address this issue is to compare the processes of second language (L2) learning after childhood and those of first language (L1) learning during childhood. To study the cortical process of postchildhood L2 learning, we compared event-related brain potentials recorded from two gr...

It has become a multidisciplinary research area to overcome cognitive decline caused by aging. Many factors can affect cognitive aging and the influence of second language learning (L2 learning) cannot be ignored. The recent decade has witnessed much pathological, behavior and neuroimaging research that L2 experience may help maintain the cognitive function in the elderly, resist cognitive decl...

This study aims at investigating the effect of dynamic assessment (DA) on L2 writing achievement if applied via blogging as a Web 2.0 tool, as well as examining which pattern of interaction is more conducive to learning in such an environment. The results of the study indicate that using weblogs to provide mediation contributes to the enhancement of the overall writing performance, vocabulary a...

Advanced second language (henceforth L2) learners in a formal setting can suppress many first language (henceforth L1) processes in L2 pronunciation when provided with sufficient exposure to L2 and meta competence (see Sect. 4 for a definition of this term). This paper shows how imitation in L2 teaching can be enhanced on the basis of current phonetic research and how complex allophonic process...

This study explores how Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) can be used as a method to examine the lexical development of second language (L2) speakers. This year long longitudinal study with six English learners demonstrates that semantic similarity (using LSA) between utterances significantly increases as the L2 learners study English. The findings demonstrate that L2 learners begin to develop tig...