We present a new feedback strategy implemented in a natural-language-generation-based e-learning system for German as second language (L2). Although the system recognizes a large proportion of the grammar errors in learner-produced written sentences, its automatically generated feedback only addresses errors against rules that are relevant at the learner’s current L2 acquisition stage. This app...

Pedagogically, the issue of similarities and/or differences between mother tongue and foreign language is one interesting areas second/foreign acquisition learning. Therefore, this study aims at exploring in which way Turkish (L1) influences English (L2) learning through perspectives EFL undergraduate students, whereby main focus on extent possible effects (L2). A qualitative approach was emplo...

This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner's first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that...

The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Science and Technology (MEXT) are facing a plethora of pressures to become more global. This has led MEXT to draw up the ‘English Education Reform Plan Corresponding to Globalization.’ This education reform plan calls for a move away from grammar translation in favor of a communication based classroom. These reforms are to be implemented b...

In this paper we report on the ASR-based CALL system DISCO: Development and Integration of Speech technology into COurseware for language learning. The DISCO system automatically detects pronunciation and grammar errors in Dutch L2 speaking and generates appropriate, detailed feedback on the errors detected. We briefly introduce DISCO and present the results of a first evaluation of the complet...

Past approaches to translate a phrase in a language L1 to a language L2 using a dictionarybased approach require grammar rules to restructure initial translations. This paper introduces a novel method without using any grammar rules to translate a given phrase in L1, which does not exist in the dictionary, to L2. We require at least one L1–L2 bilingual dictionary and n-gram data in L2. The aver...

Following several decades of research on native language (L1) processing, psycholinguists have more recently begun to investigate how non-native language (L2) speakers comprehend and process language in real time. Regarding the traditional assumption that L2 learners have 'difficulty with grammar', this new research has revealed some unexpected similarities and differences between L1 and L2 pro...

Studies of language development suggest that child learners nearly always reach an error-free stage in the acquisition of grammar whereas adult learners who reach an error-free proficiency level are rare. Moreover, children achieve this “perfect” stage seemingly effortlessly and quickly unlike adults. One explanation for these differences comes from an idea of an innate language device which is...