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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 · 5,291 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 · 5,224 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 · 3,721 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. Maturational Constraints on Language Development

    Michael H. Long · 1990 · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · 1,085 citations

    This article reviews the second language research on age-related differences, as well as first language work needed to disambiguate some of the findings. Five conclusions are drawn, (a) Both the initial rate of acquisition and the ultimate level of attainment depend in part on the age at which learning begins. (b) There are sensitive periods governing language development, first or second, during which the acquisition of different linguistic abilities is successful and after which it is irregular and incomplete. (c) The age-related loss in ability is cumulative (not a catastrophic one-time event), affecting first one linguistic domain and then another, and is not limited to phonology, (d) Th

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  9. 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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  10. 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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  12. 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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  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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  14. 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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  15. 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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  16. 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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  17. 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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  18. The Effects of Structured Input and Output on the Acquisition of the Accusative Case in L2 German

    Nick Henry · 2025 · Instructed Second Language Acquisition · 1 citations

    Despite a relatively large body of research comparing comprehension- and production-based instruction, instructional treatments have often included different design features (e.g., the presence of explicit information, task-essentialness, attention to meaning) and thus targeted different cognitive processes. The present study focused on a comparison of structured input, structured output, and mixed instruction, all of which are designed specifically to reorient learners’ first-noun strategy and promote the connection between form and meaning. Instruction targeted the processing of nominative and accusative case markers in object-first sentences in German. The outcomes of instruction were in

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  19. Frequency of Input

    Justin P. White, Alessia Martini · 2020 · Instructed Second Language Acquisition

    The present paper examines the effect of input at the macro- and micro-levels on beginning level language learners of Italian. At the macro-level, learners are exposed to Structured Input activities targeting Italian accusative clitics to determine their effect on learners’ default processing strategies. At the microlevel, the effect of the number of target item tokens in the input is measured and subsequently compared: 40 and 80 tokens. This study included pre-test, immediate post-test and delayed post-test measures on interpretation and production to examine the effect of Structured Input activities. Findings reveal that Structured Input activities at varying token frequencies may affect

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  20. What absolute beginners learn from input

    Susanne E. Carroll, Angela George · 2018 · Instructed Second Language Acquisition

    Absolute beginners rapidly solve several word learning problems after minimal exposure to second language speech. In this article, we report on laboratory research that supports this claim. Explaining second language acquisition is a goal of foundational research. While our findings are consistent with the generativist enterprise, generativists have been content to describe what learners have acquired while avoiding discussion of the ‘how’. We describe a specific generativist approach (the Autonomous Induction Theory) that directly addresses the role of specific learning mechanisms proposed by cognitive psychology. In contrast to alternative non-generative approaches, the Autonomous Inducti

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  21. Classroom input to accelerate feature reassembly of English generics

    Mary Abumelha · 2018 · Instructed Second Language Acquisition

    This is an experimental study on the effect of explicit and implicit classroom input on the acquisition of English generics by L1-Najdi Arabic speakers. Following a feature-based contrastive analysis, acquisition difficulties are predicted with indefinite singular and bare plural contexts. The experiment included fifty-four students divided into two experimental groups and one uninstructed control group. One experimental group received implicit input by using genre analysis of texts reinforced with generic noun phrases (NPs), and the other group received explicit grammatical ‘focus on form’ on generics. Two instruments were used: a forced choice task and a sentence repetition task conducted

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  22. The Role and Nature of the Input Processing Theory and Structured Input Practice on the Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Word Order Features

    Alessandro Benati, Amy Kong · 2026 · Instructed Second Language Acquisition

    One common aspect of L1 and L2 acquisition is the acquisition of word order patterns. Subject-verb-object is the so-called canonical word order of English and languages like Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. Passive and causative constructions are noncanonical word order features, and L2 learners must acquire both active and passive sentences to correctly interpret sentences and thematic roles. The input processing theory developed a word order strategy as one of its main principles. This processing strategy, called the first noun principle, affirms that L2 learners assign the thematic role of the subject to the element they encounter in a sentence, regardless of the role that element might pl

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