Abstract This study investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of a constraint on definiteness in Japanese floating numeral quantifiers (NQs) by native English and Korean speakers. The arises because specific structural relation between NQ its associated noun, resulting an obligatorily indefinite interpretation. indirect – or, covert encoding this structure allows investigation predictio...

In this paper, we evaluate for the first time the use of Machine Translation technology to repair general errors in second language (L2) authoring. Contrary to previously evaluated approaches which rely exclusively on unilingual models of L2, this method takes into account both languages, and is thus able to model linguistic interference phenomena where the author produces an erroneous word for...

The study explores first language (L1) influences on the mechanisms of spelling in English as a foreign language (EFL). We hypothesized that the transparency of L1 orthography influences (a) the amount of hesitation associated with spelling irregular English words, and (b) the size of units EFL spellers operate. Participants were adult speakers of three languages differing by the degree of tran...

Abstract In multilingual people, semantic knowledge is predominantly shared across languages. Providing semantic-focused treatment to people with aphasia has been posited strengthen connectivity within association cortices that subserve knowledge. such should result in within- and cross-language generalisation all languages, although not equally. We investigated effects two participants who rec...

Converging evidence suggests that understanding our first-language (L1) results in reactivation of experiential sensorimotor traces in the brain. Surprisingly, little is known regarding the involvement of these processes during second-language (L2) processing. Participants saw L1 or L2 words referring to entities with a typical location (e.g., star, mole) (Experiment 1 & 2) or to an emotion (e....

Utilizing eye-tracking technology and focusing on the “rapid”, “purposeful” and “comprehending” attributes of fluent reading, this study investigated first language (L1) and second language (L2) readers’ online reading patterns and comprehension. Eye movement data from nine L1 readers and nine L2 readers were collected, analyzed and compared. Post-experiment interviews were conducted to obtain ...

The present study investigated how learners’ knowledge of a second language (L2) can influence the processing of their first language (L1). The study recorded the eye movements of 47 L1 Chinese participants with different L2 English proficiency levels as they read and judged the grammaticality of 240 Chinese sentences (60 anglicized ungrammatical relative clauses, 90 non-anglicized ungrammatica...

Investigating transfer of one’s pragmatic knowledge of first language to his second or foreign language has been one of the areas of interest for researchers. However, there are contradictory results even within the scarce studies which have addressed transferability. This study was an attempt to investigate perceived pragmatic transferability of L1 refusal strategies by Persian EFL learners. S...

Speaker accent influences the accuracy of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. Knowledge of accent-based acoustic variations can therefore be used in the development of more robust systems. This paper investigates the differences between first language (L1) and second language (L2) English in South Africa and is specifically aimed at L2 English speakers with a native African mother tongu...

The present study examines the effects of 3 kinds of glosses—first-language (L1) Chinese glosses plus second-language (L2) English example sentences, L1 in-text glosses, and L1 marginal glosses—in comparison with a no-gloss condition in reading an English passage, to explore whether providing glosses can facilitate reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. A total of 135 undergraduate b...