The present article provides a review of results from electrophysiological studies of the neurocognition of second language. After a brief introduction to event-related potentials (ERPs), the article explores four sets of findings from recent second language (L2) ERP research. First, longitudinal L2 ERP research has demonstrated that L2 neurocognitive processing changes qualitatively with time. Second, research has shown that L2 learners can evidence nativelike ERP effects for L2 grammatical features that are present in their first language (L1) as well as for features that are unique to their L2 but may have more difficulty processing features that are present in their L1 but that are instantiated differently in their L2. Third, emerging research has revealed that individual differences in ERPs can be accounted for by linguistic and nonlinguistic factors. Finally, recent empirical studies have shown that explicit and implicit training contexts can lead to nativelike ERP effects at high levels of proficiency, but that implicit contexts may lead to the development of a fuller nativelike processing signature, at least for syntactic processing. With continued interdisciplinary approaches and sophisticated research designs, L2 ERP research is only beginning to reach its potential and promises to uniquely inform central questions of second language acquisition.

On the basis of our examination of L2 writing scholarship published between 2000 and the present, we describe and reflect on developments relating to the teaching of L2 writing. While our primary focus is applied research, we have also addressed basic research that has clear implications for pedagogy. The paper includes an overview of relevant basic research (i.e., research on the phenomenon of second language writing), a discussion of relevant applied research (i.e., research on second language writing instructional principles and practices), an examination of some general issues and concerns that have important implications for second language writing instruction, and an assessment of the current status of the field along with our thoughts on where it might go in the future.

Computer technology provides learners with new and varied options for language learning through interactive tasks delivered through CD-ROMs, Web pages, and communications software on the Internet. Researchers need to reconsider any approach to second language acquisition (SLA) concerned with explaining how language development is prompted by exposure to the target language in view of the dramatic differences in language experience learners engage in due to computer technology. Virtually all theories are concerned with the role of linguistic input or the environment (VanPatten & Williams, 2007), and therefore technology needs to be considered.

These are exciting times for research into the psychological processes underlying second language acquisition (SLA). In the 1970s, SLA emerged as a field of inquiry in its own right (Brown 1980), and in the 1980s, a number of different approaches to central questions in the field began to develop in parallel and in relative isolation (McLaughlin and Harrington 1990). In the 1990s, however, these different approaches began to confront one another directly. Now we are entering a period reminiscent, in many ways, of the intellectually turbulent times following the Chomskyan revolution (Chomsky 1957; 1965). Now, as then, researchers are debating basic premises of a science of mind, language, and learning. Some might complain, not entirely without reason, that we are still debating the same issues after 30–40 years. However, there are now new conceptual and research tools available to test hypotheses in ways previously thought impossible. Because of this, many psychologists believe there will soon be significant advancement on some SLA issues that have resisted closure for decades. We outline some of these developments and explore where the field may be heading. More than ever, it appears possible that psychological theory and SLA theory are converging on solutions to common issues.

In the past two decades, there has been a major shift in language testing towards the development and use of performance tests. The basis for this shift is the expectation that such tests would assess a more valid construct of what it really means to know a language. The purpose of this chapter is to review th topic of performance testing by focusing on its definitions, theory, development, and research. The chapter will begin with a review of the different definitions of performance testing and provide examples of the types of performance tests that have been developed and used. The chapter will then examine the extent to which performance tests have drawn upon the theoretical discussions of competence and performance. The next section will describe the research that has been carried out on performance tests. The chapter will end with an agenda for development and research on the manyu unanswered questions concerning performance testing.

Language teachers actively seek to provide their students with classroom opportunities to engage in collaborative interactions. Similar opportunities for such interactions can also be created within the context of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and, in particular, in the area of computer-mediated communication (CMC)—whether in real time (synchronous, SCMC) or deferred time (asynchronous, ACMC)—working together with other nonnative- (NNS) or native-speaker (NS) partners. Recent advances in intelligent CALL (iCALL) are also beginning to empower students to engage in online activities with computer applications that provide at least limited levels of feedback, if not some palpable degree of interactivity. This article will review the reported benefits of online language study with particular emphasis on the importance of providing a sound pedagogical framework for the tasks and activities that students are asked to accomplish. In pursuit of effective CALL, researchers have previously stressed the role of online negotiations of meaning via CMC, intercultural communicative competence, and electronic literacy and identity. Although these topics continue to be of great interest for the CALL field, other areas are attracting attention as well: iCALL, distance learning, and teacher training. CALL researchers are increasingly finding that teachers' lack of experience with using technology—that is, their inability to take into account its affordances as well as its engrained cultures of use—can often present the most serious barrier to its successful integration into the language curriculum.

The notion that attitudes and motivation would be implicated in second language acquisition is not a new one. As early as 1941, Jordan investigated the relation between attitudes toward a number of school subjects and grades in those subjects, and found the relationships for French to be among the highest. A number of later studies by other researches also showed relationships between attitudes towards learning languages and proficiency in the language (see Gardner 1985 for a review). The first reference to a possible relationship between attitudes toward the other language community and achievement in that language, however, appears to have been made by Arsenian (1945). One of the many relevant questions he raised, for example, was, “In what way do affective factors, such as social prestige, assumed superiority, or—contrariwise—assumed inferiority, or enforcement of a language by a hated nation affect language learning in a child?” (Arsenian 1945:85).

Hong Kong has a population of 5,902,100 people crowded into its land area of 1076 sq. kms. In broad terms, 98 percent of its population are Chinese.1 They speak Cantonese among themselves and English in dealing with expatriates. The expatriate community, once predominantly British, now reflects the full range of national and multinational commercial and banking interests, including those of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. Luke and Richards (1982) described Hong Kong as having diglossia without bilingualism.

This chapter surveys developments in language revitalization, a movement that dates approximately from the 1990s and builds on prior work on language maintenance (see Fishman, 1991; 2001) and language death (Dorian, 1981; 1989). Focusing on indigenous languages, it discusses the role and nature of appropriate linguistic documentation, possibilities for bilingual education, and methods of promoting oral fluency and intergenerational transmission in affected languages. Various avenues for language revitalization, a proactive approach to the continued use of a particular language, are then described (see Hinton & Hale, 2001). In contrast to the smaller minority languages of Europe that have long literary traditions, many indigenous languages in the Americas and elsewhere are solely or primarily oral languages; thus, revitalization efforts aim to promote conversational fluency among speakers in a community. Related literature falls into four main categories: (a) theoretical and empirical works on language revitalization; (b) applied works on revitalization in practice; (c) pedagogical and reference publications; and (d) legal documents that support or impede revitalization of languages. Recent examples of current literature in each category are reviewed.

Getting to know a second language is an act of cognition par excellence. Yet 'Cognitive Approaches to SLA' implies something more than the general research enterprise of SLA. It highlights the goals of cognitive psychologists who search for explanations of second language cognition in terms of mental representations and information processing. It places SLA within the broader remit of cognitive scientists, who—influenced by Marr (1982) to seek understanding at all three levels of function, algorithm, and hardware—work in collaborations involving cognitive psychology, linguistics, epistemology, computer science, artificial intelligence, connectionism, and the neurosciences. It implies the empiricism of cognitive psychology, searching for truths about the world through observation and experimentation and, at times, the rationalism of cognitive scientists who theorize through the construction of formal systems such as those in mathematics, logic, or computational simulation. Much of the research is purely theoretical, but, as in applied cognitive psychology, pure theory can often spin off into important applications, and applied research using longitudinal or training designs in field situations can often advance theory.

Ethnic identity refers to the subjective experience embracing the feelings, experiences, and behaviors through which people position their membership in a single or multiple ethnic groups. The goal of this article is to integrate evidence from social psychology and applied linguistics, by focusing on the identity–language link from the perspective most relevant to second language (L2) development, namely, by considering how ethnic identity might be implicated in L2 learning. We first define and contextualize ethnic identity and its possible relationships to language. We then review recent empirical evidence for the link between ethnic identity and L2 measures, and we speculate on whether this link represents a bidirectional relationship whereby ethnic identity and language are interlocked through self-reinforcing processes and mediated through language users’ experience with language. We conclude by framing research on ethnic identity within sociocognitive views of L2 learning and describe several possible avenues for advancing this area of research.

Conversational alignment (i.e., the automatic tendency of interactants to reuse each other's morphosyntactic structures and lexical choices in natural dialogue) is a well-researched phenomenon in native (Pickering & Ferreira, 2008) and to a smaller extent in second language (L2) speakers (Jackson, 2018) as confirmed by many highly controlled lab-based experimental studies investigating face-to-face oral interaction. Only a few studies have explored alignment in more naturally occurring L2 interactions (e.g., Dao, Trofimovich, & Kennedy, 2018), some of them extending the context to written computer-mediated communication (SCMC) (e.g., Michel & Smith, 2018).

The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a closer look at alignment in L2 conversations mediated by two different types of SCMC (videoconference vs. text chat). We explored lexical as well as structural alignment in three target languages (Chinese, French, and German) involving interactional partners of different status (L2 peer, L1 peer, and L1 tutor).

Results revealed that lexical and structural alignment are both present and observable in different SCMC contexts. From a methodological point of view, we discuss how different analyses suit the data generated by the affordances of the different SCMC contexts in the target languages and argue for a more dynamic and pervasive perspective on interaction.

This article reviews current research findings on how specific learning difficulties (SLDs) impact on the processes of multilingual language development. The review includes studies of young language learners in instructed classroom settings, as well as of multilingual children in second language (L2) contexts. Starting with a definition of the concepts of disability and SLDs, it next discusses the interaction of cognitive factors with first language (L1) and L2 literacy development and L2 learning. Also outlined are possible ways in which SLDs can be identified in different L2 learning contexts. A detailed analysis of how cognitive factors influence the development of L2 skills of young learners with learning difficulties is given in the last part of the article.

This article discusses methods used in second language (L2) research to analyze quantitative longitudinal data. Longitudinal studies are experimental and nonexperimental studies that collect repeated measures of the same variable(s) from the same participant(s) at two or more time points. Three challenging areas in longitudinal L2 research are first discussed: study design, measurement, and data analysis and modeling. Next, various traditional and recent quantitative approaches for analyzing longitudinal data are discussed, including difference or gain scores, repeated measures univariate and multivariate analysis of variance (RM ANOVA, MANOVA), multilevel modeling (MLM), autoregressive models and latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) within the structural equation modeling (SEM) framework, item response theory (IRT), single-case research designs and time series analysis (TSA), and event history analysis (EHA). Longitudinal L2 studies published in the last 10 years are reviewed to identify trends and patterns in the use of different quantitative approaches for analyzing longitudinal L2 data, describe best data analysis practices in such research, and provide recommendations for future longitudinal L2 studies. It is argued that, when feasible and appropriate, recent approaches (e.g., MLM, LGCM) have several conceptual, methodological, and practical advantages and can stimulate the development and empirical examination of more complex questions and models concerning L2 development over time than is possible with traditional techniques.

This chapter reviews the literature on psycholinguistic aspects of language attrition over the past half decade. Descriptive data-based studies have continued to dominate during this time, providing needed groundwork for the emerging discipline. A few studies have continued theoretical threads from previous work, however, by examining attrition data from the perspectives of the regression hypothesis and markedness theory. We have also seen the beginnings of promising new lines of research which draw theoretical underpinnings from neighboring disciplines, most notably from the savings paradigm in cognitive psychology and from theories of codeswitching in bilingualism studies. Evidence on the effects in attrition of non-linguistic variables such as age, proficiency level, and literacy has continued to accumulate. Hesitation phenomena in attriter speech have begun to receive serious attention. Relearning, one of the main areas to potentially benefit from language attrition studies, is also gaining new research impetus at the turn of the century.

This article provides an overview of recent studies in second language acquisition that use tasks that elicit learners' judgments about the grammaticality of language or learners' interpretation of language. We discuss acceptability judgment tasks, preference tasks, truth-value judgment tasks, and other types of interpretation tasks. For each task type, recent studies that use that task are briefly summarized, with a focus on advantages and disadvantages of the methodology in relation to the study's objectives. A variety of topics related to task administration are covered, including (but not limited to) different types of rating scales; presentation of target sentences in isolation versus in the context of other sentences, stories, and/or pictures; visual versus auditory modality of presentation; and timed versus untimed tasks.

In this article, we propose to follow up on the most recent ARAL survey article on trends in computer-based second language assessment (Jamieson, 2005) and review developments in the use of technology in the creation, delivery, and scoring of language tests. We will discuss the promise and threats associated with computer-based language testing, including the language construct in relation to computer-based delivery and response technologies; computer-based authoring options; current developments; scoring, feedback, and reporting systems; and validation issues.

An early start of foreign language (FL) teaching has been encouraged on the basis that the main gains in this period lie in the development of positive attitudes and motivation. But the view that those positive effects will remain unchanged over learners’ language-learning trajectories is at odds with the currently prevailing notion that motivation is a complex and evolutionary process that fluctuates over time. In fact, research has shown that the positive attitudes attested in the first years of primary school wane after a while. But we still know very little about young learners’ motivational development, and longitudinal studies are very scarce. This 10-year longitudinal study looked at the trajectories of a group of young learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) from age 6 to age 16 using a mixed-methods design. It examined their outcomes in relation to their language-learning aptitude and motivation, and it observed the ways in which their levels of motivation rise and fall over time. The triangulation of data from different sources, and principally from yearly individual interviews, provided us with insights to better understand the role played by internal and external factors in those trajectories and some of the challenges for FL teaching to young learners.

Much recent work on optimal conditions for the teaching of speaking in second and foreign language classrooms has been grounded in educational psycholinguistics or in cognitive and social psychology. Theoretical constructs for language pedagogy have been drawn extensively from empirical studies, underpinned by the central notions of second language acquisition: communicative competence (Canale and Swain 1980); comprehensible input (Krashen 1985), negotiated interaction (Ellis 1990, Gass and Varonis 1994, Long 1983, Pica, et al. 1989), input processing (VanPatten and Cadierno 1993), developmental sequences and routes of acquisition (Meisel, Clahsen and Pienemann 1981), and communication strategies (Faerch and Kasper 1983). Such constructs are widely taught in teacher preparation programs in second and foreign language teaching and clearly have relevance to oral language instructional practice.

There is now a substantial body of research that has investigated the role of form-focused instruction in assisting learners to learn the grammar of a second language (L2). Recent comprehensive surveys of this research have been provided by N. Ellis (1995), R. Ellis (1990; 1994; 1997), Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991), Long (1988), Spada (1997), and Williams (1995a). However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to draw clear conclusions given the sheer amount of research now available, the problems of comparing results across studies, and the interactivity of the variables involved. Spada, for example, identifies seven questions that the research has addressed but acknowledges that “we do not yet have clear answers to any of these questions” (p. 74). One way of achieving a clearer understanding of how form-focused instruction contributes to acquisition might be to examine in detail studies that have investigated the effect of specific instructional options. This article will follow such an approach by examining one particular option–input–based grammar teaching.