The identification of the cognitive, affective, social and even physiological factors affecting second or foreign language learning routes and rate has for long been a challenging aspiration for second language researchers. However, a recent preoccupation of the researchers in this area has been the study of the combinatorial impacts of such factors on second or foreign language learning proces...

The acquisition of a second language (L2) is clearly somehow different from that of a first language (L1): adult second language learners rarely (if ever) achieve the same native competence that children do learning their first language and, conversely, children never experience the degree of difficulty that L2 learners do. This disparity between L2 and L1 acquisition is perhaps most apparent w...

Literature is replete with the studies focusing on the role of vocabulary knowledge in second language receptive skills. However, the relationship between the aspects of vocabulary knowledge and productive skills in general, and the speaking performance in particular has remained scanty in the related literature. This paper examined the relationship between knowledge of L2 vocabulary size at di...

This study examined the interrelationships of first language (L1) literacy, second language (L2) proficiency, and L2 reading comprehension with 246 Chinese college students learning English. L1 literacy and L2 proficiency were measured with college admission exams in Chinese and English. L2 reading comprehension was measured with the reading comprehension section of a TOEFL and a researcher-dev...

teachers can influence the complex process of learning in education, in general, and in second/foreign language (l2) learning in particular. in this light, understanding the factors influencing teachers’ pedagogical success can help l2 teachers achieve more effective teaching. this study then investigated the role of spiritual intelligence (si) in l2 teachers’ pedagogical success. in so doing, ...

One of the basic questions of bilingual research is to what extent the bilingual’s two phonetic systems influence each other, a question that has occupied a prominent place in bilingual research almost from the outset of the field (see, for example, Weinreich, 1953). Recent studies in bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA) demonstrate that, at least in simultaneous bilingual acquisition, i...