Recent research in linguistics singles out emotion words as different from other abstract words. The goal of this article is to examine five factors that may impact the use of L2 emotion vocabulary. The first study considers the impact of language proficiency, gender, and extraversion on the use of emotion words in the advanced French interlanguage of 29 Dutch L1 speakers. The second examines t...

Syntactic violations in speech and music have been shown to elicit an anterior negativity (AN) as early as 100 ms after violation onset and a posterior positivity that peaks at roughly 600 ms (P600/LPC). The language AN is typically reported as left-lateralized (LAN), whereas the music AN is typically reported as right-lateralized (RAN). However, several lines of evidence suggest syntactic proc...

the literature has already been a basic component in teaching foreign / second languages curriculum in comparing with other materials, therefore, this forces instructors to use literature for two purposes: first, teaching literature for literature and second , use of literature as a linguistic resource in order to improving language skill of learners, and this is important issue in applied ling...

This study analyzes the extent to which dictation performance and linguistic features (linguistic difficulty of sentences during dictation) can predict general proficiency in English as a second language (ESL) learners. To this end, constructed multiple linear non-linear regression models that ESL (in independent variables were scores sentences) verified correlation between predicted observed p...

This study examined the predictive role of several learner factors in second language (L2) incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading: L2 proficiency, motivation, anxiety, and mastery of strategies. Participants were 129 English learners in a comprehensive university in China. Participants read two English texts and were given an unannounced vocabulary test to assess their incidental voc...

This study introduces and evaluates a computerized approach to measuring Japanese L2 oral proficiency. We present a testing and scoring method that uses a type of structured speech called elicited imitation (EI) to evaluate accuracy of speech productions. Several types of language resources and toolkits are required to develop, administer, and score responses to this test. First, we present a c...

Current neuroimaging and neurophysiologic techniques have substantially increased our possibilities to study processes related to various language functions in the intact human brain. Learning to read and write influences the functional organization of the brain. What is universal and what is specific in the languages of the world are important issues. Most studies on healthy bilinguals indicat...

Elicited imitation (EI) is a testing method for learners’ oral language proficiency. One common criticism aimed at EI is that performance might not require linguistic knowledge, but mere rote memorization. This study explores the issue by administering two tests to the same group of students studying English as a second language: (1) a working memory test, and (2) an English EI test. Participan...

Automatic estimation of pronunciation proficiency has its specific difficulty. Adequacy in controlling the vocal organs is often estimated from spectral envelopes of input utterances but the envelope patterns are also affected by alternating speakers. To develop a good and stable method for automatic estimation, the envelope changes caused by linguistic factors and those by extra-linguistic fac...