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Research papers on Second language acquisition

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  1. Visual Genome: Connecting Language and Vision Using Crowdsourced Dense Image Annotations

    Ranjay Krishna, Yuke Zhu, Oliver Groth, et al. · 2017 · International Journal of Computer Vision · 5,292 citations

    Despite progress in perceptual tasks such as image classification, computers still perform poorly on cognitive tasks such as image description and question answering. Cognition is core to tasks that involve not just recognizing, but reasoning about our visual world. However, models used to tackle the rich content in images for cognitive tasks are still being trained using the same datasets designed for perceptual tasks. To achieve success at cognitive tasks, models need to understand the interactions and relationships between objects in an image. When asked “What vehicle is the person riding?”, computers will need to identify the objects in an image as well as the relationships riding(man, c

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  2. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching

    Alice S. Horning, H. Douglas Brown · 1981 · Modern Language Journal · 5,225 citations

    Preface to the Fifth Edition Chapter 1 Language, Learning, and Teaching Questions about Second Language Acquisition Learner Characteristics Linguistic Factors Learning Processes Age and Acquisition Instructional Variables Context Purpose Rejoicing in Our Defeats Language Learning and Teaching Schools of Thought in Second Language Acquisition Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology Constructivism: A Multidisciplinary Approach Nineteen Centuries of Language Teaching Language Teaching in the Twentieth Century Topics and Questions for Study and Discussion Suggested Readings Language Learning Experience: Journal Entry Guidelines for Entry 1

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  3. Large language models encode clinical knowledge

    Karan Singhal, Shekoofeh Azizi, Tao Tu, et al. · 2023 · Nature · 3,729 citations

    Abstract Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated impressive capabilities, but the bar for clinical applications is high. Attempts to assess the clinical knowledge of models typically rely on automated evaluations based on limited benchmarks. Here, to address these limitations, we present MultiMedQA, a benchmark combining six existing medical question answering datasets spanning professional medicine, research and consumer queries and a new dataset of medical questions searched online, HealthSearchQA. We propose a human evaluation framework for model answers along multiple axes including factuality, comprehension, reasoning, possible harm and bias. In addition, we evaluate Pathways Lan

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  4. Automatic acquisition of hyponyms from large text corpora

    Marti A. Hearst · 1992 · 3,311 citations

    We describe a method for the automatic acquisition of the hyponymy lexical relation from unrestricted text. Two goals motivate the approach: (i) avoidance of the need for pre-encoded knowledge and (ii) applicability across a wide range of text. We identify a set of lexico-syntactic patterns that are easily recognizable, that occur frequently and across text genre boundaries, and that indisputably indicate the lexical relation of interest. We describe a method for discovering these patterns and suggest that other lexical relations will also be acquirable in this way. A subset of the acquisition algorithm is implemented and the results are used to augment and critique the structure of a large

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  5. The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science

    Nicholas Evans, Stephen C. Levinson · 2009 · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · 2,658 citations

    Talk of linguistic universals has given cognitive scientists the impression that languages are all built to a common pattern. In fact, there are vanishingly few universals of language in the direct sense that all languages exhibit them. Instead, diversity can be found at almost every level of linguistic organization. This fundamentally changes the object of enquiry from a cognitive science perspective. This target article summarizes decades of cross-linguistic work by typologists and descriptive linguists, showing just how few and unprofound the universal characteristics of language are, once we honestly confront the diversity offered to us by the world's 6,000 to 8,000 languages. After surv

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  6. FREQUENCY EFFECTS IN LANGUAGE PROCESSING

    Nick C. Ellis · 2002 · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · 2,215 citations

    This article shows how language processing is intimately tuned to input frequency. Examples are given of frequency effects in the processing of phonology, phonotactics, reading, spelling, lexis, morphosyntax, formulaic language, language comprehension, grammaticality, sentence production, and syntax. The implications of these effects for the representations and developmental sequence of SLA are discussed. Usage-based theories hold that the acquisition of language is exemplar based. It is the piecemeal learning of many thousands of constructions and the frequency-biased abstraction of regularities within them. Determinants of pattern productivity include the power law of practice, cue competi

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  8. Pragmatic Development in a Second Language

    Gabriele Kasper, Kenneth R. Rose · 2003 · Medical Entomology and Zoology · 979 citations

    1. Introduction: Interlanguage Pragmatics in Developmental Perspective. 2. Theories of Second Language. Pragmatic Development. Descriptive Studies. Theories and Constructs. Explaining Pragmatic Development. Chapter Summary. 3. Methods in Pragmatics Research. Approaches to Pragmatics across the Social Sciences. Spoken Interaction. Questionnaires. Oral and Narrative Self-reports. Chapter Summary. 4. Patterns of Second Language Pragmatic Development. Pragmatic Comprehension. Pragmatic and Discourse Ability. Speech Acts. Pragmatic Transfer and Development. Chapter Summary. 5. The Development of Pragmatics and Grammar. Re-opening the Research Agenda. Pragmatics Precedes Grammar. Grammar Precedes

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  9. Group Work, Interlanguage Talk, and Second Language Acquisition

    Michael H. Long, Patricia A. Porter · 1985 · TESOL Quarterly · 901 citations

    The use of group work in classroom second language learning has long been supported by sound pedagogical arguments. Recently, however, a psycholinguistic rationale for group work has emerged from second language acquisition research on nonnative speaker/non-native speaker conversation, or interlanguage talk. Provided careful attention is paid to the structure of tasks students work on together, the negotiation work possible in group work makes it an attractive alternative to the teacher-led, "lockstep" mode, and a viable classroom substitute for individual conversations with native speakers.

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  11. Input, Interaction, and Second Language Production

    Susan M. Gass, Evangeline Marlos Varonis · 1994 · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · 630 citations

    The role of conversational interactions in the development of a second language has been central in the recent second language acquisition literature. While a great deal is now known about the way in which nonnative speakers interact with native speakers and other nonnative speakers, little is known about the lasting effects of these interactions on a nonnative's linguistic development. This paper specifically investigates the relationship among input, interaction, and second language production. Through data from native–nonnative speaker interactions in a direction-giving task, we show that both modified input and interaction affect task performance. However, only interaction has an effect

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  12. Interaction and instructed second language acquisition

    Shawn Loewen, Masatoshi Sato · 2018 · Language Teaching · 366 citations

    Interaction is an indispensable component in second language acquisition (SLA). This review surveys the instructed SLA research, both classroom and laboratory-based, that has been conducted primarily within the interactionist approach, beginning with the core constructs of interaction, namely input, negotiation for meaning, and output. The review continues with an overview of specific areas of interaction research. The first investigates interlocutor characteristics, including (a) first language (L1) status, (b) peer interaction, (c) participation structure, (d) second language (L2) proficiency, and (e) individual differences. The second topic is task characteristics, such as task conditions

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  13. Comprehensible Input and Second Language Acquisition

    Lester Loschky · 1994 · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · 100 citations

    This study attempts to test aspects of the input hypothesis (Krashen, 1980, 1983, 1985) and Long's modification of it (Long, 1980, 1983a, 1985). Specifically, it experimentally tests the hypothesis that both input and interactional modifications facilitate second language acquisition, using Japanese as the target language. Three experimental groups were differentiated in terms of input and interaction conditions: (1) unmodified input with no interaction, (2) premodified input with no interaction, and (3) unmodified input with the chance for negotiated interaction. The groups were compared in terms of (a) their degree of comprehension of the input and (b) their subsequent retention of vocabul

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  15. Age and input in the acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch

    Sharon Unsworth · 2008 · Second Language Research · 53 citations

    This article investigates the effect of age of first exposure and the quantity and quality of input to which non-native acquirers (L2ers) are exposed in their acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch. Data from 103 English-speaking children, preteens and adults were analysed for gender agreement on definite determiners. It was observed that although most learners regularly overgeneralized the common gender definite determiner de to neuter nouns, there also existed child and adult L2ers who consistently produced the target neuter determiner het with these nouns ( contra Carroll, 1989; Hawkins and Franceschina, 2004; Franceschina, 2005). Participants in all three groups produced het equally

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  16. Praxeology, humanism, equity, and mixed methods: Four pillars for advancing second language acquisition and teaching

    Yongyan Zheng, Lourdes Ortega, Simona Pekarek Doehler, et al. · 2025 · The Modern Language Journal · 43 citations

    In this article, we present our vision of a transformed second language acquisition and teaching (SLA/T) disciplinary community that approaches second language (L2) education through four pillars. The first pillar is praxeology (i.e., the study of human action) to highlight the sociocontextually emergent nature of L2 competence. It locates the emergence of L2 grammar and interactional competence in humans acting conjointly with others with and through their L2 across a large variety of social situations and transnational, transcultural, and translingual spaces. The second pillar, humanism, calls for a complex dynamic systems theory–informed understanding of individual differences, with learn

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  17. Home language environment and children's second language acquisition: the special status of input from older siblings.

    Tamara Sorenson Duncan, J. Paradis · 2020 · Journal of child language · 40 citations

    Previous research suggests that increased second language (L2) input at home may not support L2 acquisition in children from migrant backgrounds. In drawing this conclusion, existing work has largely aggregated across family members. This study contrasts the effect of L2 input from older siblings with that from mothers. Participants were 113 child L2 learners of English (mean age = 5;10 [range 4;10-7;2]; mean exposure to L2 in school = 16.7 months [range 2-48 months]). All children had at least one older sibling. Using hierarchical linear regression modelling with controls for age, non-verbal reasoning and phonological short-term memory, we found that greater L2 input from siblings - but not

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  18. INPUT, NEGOTIATION, AND AGE DIFFERENCES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION<sup>1</sup>

    Robin C. Scarcella, Corrine Higa · 1981 · Language Learning · 32 citations

    This paper examines input and negotiation in child and adolescent second language acquisition. Two hypotheses are tested: first that adult native speakers provide more simplified input to younger learners than to older learners; and second. that older learners use more conversational negotiation devices and techniques than younger learners. To test these hypotheses fourteen Spanish speakers oust beginning to acquire English). seven children and seven adolescents were paired with fourteen adult native English speakers in such a way that fourteen conversational dyads were formed lo provide baseline data an additional fourteen native English speakers were matched with each other. Each dyad was

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  19. THE ROLE OF INPUT VARIABILITY AND LEARNER AGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING

    Ruta Sinkeviciute, Helen Brown, Gwen Brekelmans, et al. · 2019 · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · 24 citations

    AbstractInput variability is key in many aspects of linguistic learning, yet variability increases input complexity, which may cause difficulty in some learning contexts. The current work investigates this trade-off by comparing speaker variability effects on L2 vocabulary learning in different age groups. Existing literature suggests that speaker variability benefits L2 vocabulary learning in adults, but this may not be the case for younger learners. In this study native English-speaking adults, 7- to 8-year-olds, and 10- to 11-year-olds learned six novel Lithuanian words from a single speaker, and six from eight speakers. In line with previous research, adults showed better production of t

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  20. Language acquisition in the digital age: L2 English input effects on children’s L1 Icelandic

    Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir, Iris Nowenstein · 2021 · Second Language Research · 23 citations

    This article reviews prominent research on non-English-speaking children’s extramural acquisition of English through digital media, and examines the understudied scenario of possible effects of such second language (L2) English input on domestically dominant but globally small first languages (L1s), with Icelandic as the test case. We outline the main results of the children’s part of the Modeling the Linguistic Consequences of Digital Language Contact (MoLiCoDiLaCo) research project, which targeted 724 3–12-year-old Icelandic-speaking children. The focus is on English input and its relationship to the children’s Icelandic/English vocabulary and Icelandic grammar. Although a causal relations

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  23. Eye-tracking research in instructed second language acquisition

    Aline Godfroid, Bronson Hui · 2025 · Language Teaching · 6 citations

    This was the first study to use the visual world eye-tracking paradigm as a pretest and posttest measure to gauge the effects of an instructional intervention. In two experiments, the researcher showed that intermediate L2 German learners can be trained to engage in gender-based predictions (through lexical training on gender assignment), whereas L1 German learners can be trained not to make predictions based on gender if the gender cue in the input is made unreliable. Together, the results show that robust knowledge of lexical gender assignment is a prerequisite for predictive processing of gender agreement.

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