Lexicalization-patterns, the way words are mapped onto concepts, differ from one language      to another. This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) lexicalization patterns on the processing of second language (L2) words in sentential contexts by both less proficient and more proficient Persian learners of English. The focus was on cases where two different senses of a polys...

the idea is growing among educators that thinking skill needs to be given a direct attention. on one hand, critical thinking is supposed to broaden students’ thinking in all regards (schafersman, 1991); and on the other hand learners’ attitudes towards the second language can affect both their performance in the class and their final accomplishment. to this end, the present study started with t...

Speaking a second language (L2) means having acquired a new inventory of phonemes (speech sounds), new words, and new inflectional and syntactic rules. Because this new knowledge must be stored somewhere in the brain, it does not require neuroimaging experiments to conclude that a bilingual speaker’s brain must be in some way different from that of a monolingual speaker. The question is rather:...

Growing migration and mobility have led to an increased demand for linguistic research over the past few decades, initiating the rapid growth of most subdisci' plines in the field, especially sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and psycholinguistics. There is particularly intense research activity in the interdiscipline of second language acquisition, which occupies a position at the crossroads of li...

The study of second langiage (L2) speech production has a long history in second language (SLA) research, both for what it can tell us about the development of the specific skill and how it might illuminate the general processes of SLA. Over time, studies in L2 phonological attainment have become a battleground for perennial issues in SLA research encompassing cognitive, psychological, and soci...

Bilingualism has two possible cognitive outcomes. One is that the very knowledge and use of two languages affects cognition, regardless of the languages involved -the macro level. An example of this may be increased metalinguistic awareness (Bialystok, 2001) or delayed onset of Alzheimer’s (Bialystok, Craik, Klein, & Viswanathan, 2004). Another outcome is that the learning of two languages affe...