The conditions (implicit or explicit) under which exposure to L2 input takes place and thelevel of awareness raised while processing input may be strongly related to the learning process.This study investigates how intake was affected both by awareness and by the conditions underwhich a problem-solving task was performed. Spanish conditional sentences were presented tolearners through five different degrees of explicitness, which were the result of combining thefactors [±formal instruction] and [±directions to search for rules]. Intake wasmeasured through a multiple-choice recognition test administered immediately after theexperimental task. Level of awareness was assessed by means of think-aloud protocols collectedduring input processing. Results indicate that (a) the degrees of explicitness had a differentialeffect on intake, (b) the higher the level of awareness demonstrated, the stronger the effect onintake, and (c) the conditions under which the task was administered influenced the wayinformation was processed.

This article surveys the development of second language acquisition research in the area oftense and aspect. Research in the area has grown from the incidental investigation of tense-aspectmorphology as part of the morpheme-order studies to investigations of the construction ofinterlanguage temporal semantics. Going beyond verbal morphology, many studies investigate afull range of temporal expression, including the use of pragmatic and lexical means. Much recentresearch also draws on theories of inherent, or lexical, aspect. An emphasis on the relation ofform and meaning characterizes both the form-oriented approach and the semantic-orientedapproach, the competing research paradigms that currently guide our work. The increase inscholarly activity in this domain of second language acquisition, as reflected not only in thenumber of studies undertaken but in the number of target languages investigated, bodes well forthe understanding of temporality in second language.

Three experiments investigated the relationship between memory for input andinductive learning of morphological rules relating to functional categories in a semiartificial formof Italian. A verbatim memory task was used as both the vehicle for presenting sentences and as acontinuous measure of memory performance. Experiments 2 and 3 introduced increasinglyexplicit manipulations of attention to form compared to Experiment 1. In all experiments therewere strong relationships between individual differences in memory for input as measured earlyin the experiment and eventual learning outcomes, and in Experiments 2 and 3 learningform-form (but not form-function) rules was related to vocabulary learning efficiency (taken as ameasure of phonological long-term memory ability). These relationships along with the lack ofan effect of feedback in Experiment 3 suggest that subjects tended to adopt a data-driven, asopposed to conceptually driven, mode of learning. However, the fact that the introduction ofhighlighting and vocabulary pretraining in Experiment 2 had a large impact on learning withoutimproving early memory is taken to suggest that knowledge of distributional rules does notsimply emerge out of memory encodings of the relevant forms but depends upon the appropriateallocation of attention over relationships between input elements at the time of encoding.

In the 12 years since Studies in Second Language Acquisition published its firstthematic collection on L2 lexical issues, “The use and acquisition of the second languagelexicon,” edited by S. Gass (1987), the centrality of lexical development in secondlanguage acquisition has received ever increasing recognition from researchers (see, for example,volumes by Arnaud & Béjoint, 1992; Coady & Huckin, 1997; Haastrup, 1991;Haastrup & Viberg, 1998; Harley, 1995, 1996; Hatch & Brown, 1995; Huckin, Haynes,& Coady, 1993; Meara, 1992; Nation, 1990; Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997; Schreuder& Weltens, 1993; Tréville, 1993; Tréville & Duquette, 1996). The1987 collection was a leading foray into new territory, following a period of relative neglect ofthe lexicon in SLA. The issues taken up by its authors were quite diverse, ranging from theorganization and components of the L2 lexicon, to aspects of acquisition such as cross-linguisticinfluence, restructuring, and rate, to L2 lexical-use issues such as retrieval and access. Since thattime, a large body of L2 research and theory has developed around these and other topics, and ithas become possible to deal comprehensively with single core issues in L2 lexical acquisitionfrom multiple perspectives. The current collection is one such attempt, offering a set of relatedpapers on the topic of incidental L2 vocabulary acquisition. Unlike the 1987 collection, whichargued for recognition of the importance of the lexicon in a field dominantly concerned with theacquisition of syntax, the authors of the present collection assume the central importance oflexical acquisition.

This paper has two main objectives: (a) to put the vast body of research on Swedish as asecond language (SSL) into one coherent framework; and (b) to test the predictions derivingfrom processability theory (Pienemann, 1998a, 1998b) for Swedish against this empiricaldatabase. We will survey the 14 most prominent research projects on SSL covering wide areas ofsyntax and morphology in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. This survey is the first to becarried out for Swedish, and it will bring the body of two decades of research into one unifiedframework. We proceed in the following steps: First, a brief summary of processability theory isgiven. Then the theory is used to generate a unifying framework for the development of thespecific L2 grammatical system (Swedish). Finally, the new framework is tested in theabove-mentioned empirical studies.

It is widely agreed that much second language vocabulary learning occurs incidentally whilethe learner is engaged in extensive reading. After a decade of intensive research, however, theincidental learning of vocabulary is still not fully understood, and many questions remainunsettled. Key unresolved issues include the actual mechanism of incidental acquisition, the typeand size of vocabulary needed for accurate guessing, the degree of exposure to a word needed forsuccessful acquisition, the efficacy of different word-guessing strategies, the value of teachingexplicit guessing strategies, the influence of different kinds of reading texts, the effects of inputmodification, and, more generally, the problems with incidental learning. This article brieflysurveys the empirical research that has been done on these issues in recent years.

This study examines the relationship between different types of conversational interactionand SLA. Long's (1996) updated version of the interactionist hypothesis claims thatimplicit negative feedback, which can be obtained through negotiated interaction, facilitatesSLA. Similar claims for the benefits of negotiation have been made by Pica (1994) and Gass(1997). Some support for the interaction hypothesis has been provided by studies that haveexplored the effects of interaction on production (Gass & Varonis, 1994), on lexicalacquisition (Ellis, Tanaka, & Yamazaki, 1994), on the short-term outcomes of pushedoutput (see Swain, 1995), and for specific interactional features such as recasts (Long, Inagaki,& Ortega, 1998; Mackey & Philp, 1998). However, other studies have not foundeffects for interaction on grammatical development (Loschky, 1994). The central questionaddressed by the current study was: Can conversational interaction facilitate second languagedevelopment? The study employed a pretest-posttest design. Adult ESL learners (N =34) of varying L1 backgrounds were divided into four experimental groups and one controlgroup. They took part in task-based interaction. Research questions focused on thedevelopmental outcomes of taking part in various types of interaction. Active participation ininteraction and the developmental level of the learner were considered. Results of this studysupport claims concerning a link between interaction and grammatical development andhighlight the importance of active participation in the interaction.

This paper explores the relationship between formulaic language and creativeconstruction in SLA by examining the production of interrogatives in an extensive naturalisticcorpus of L2 French produced by early classroom learners. The paper first analyzes theproduction and breakdown of such formulaic language over time, before exploring thedevelopment of more creative structures. The interaction between the two processes “rotelearning of formulas and creative construction” is then investigated. This interaction isshown to be a dynamic two-way process, with learners being driven forward in the developmentof their L2 system by their attempts to resolve the tension between structurally complex butcommunicatively rich formulas on the one hand, and structurally simple but communicativelyinadequate creative structures on the other hand.

This study addresses one of the functions of output proposed by Swain (1993, 1995, 1998).In particular, the activity of producing the target language may, under certain circumstances,prompt L2 learners to recognize some of their linguistic problems and bring to their attentionsomething they need to discover about their L2. Two research questions were posed: (a) Doesoutput promote noticing of linguistic form? and (b) Does output result in improved performanceon the target form? In treatment phase 1, participants reconstructed a short passage after beingexposed to it, followed by a second exposure to the same input material and a secondreconstruction opportunity. In phase 2, participants wrote on given topics, followed by thepresentation of a model written by a native speaker. Participants wrote a second time on the sametopic. To test the noticing function of output, participants underlined parts of the sentences theythought were “particularly necessary” for subsequent (re)production. The controlgroup was exposed to the same input materials but was not required to produce any output.Although phase 1 tasks resulted in noticing and immediate incorporation of the target form, theposttest performance failed to reveal their effects. In contrast, phase 2 tasks resulted inimprovement on posttest 2. The results are discussed in terms of the efficacy of output inpromoting noticing and learning and the conditions that may be required for output to be usefulfor SLA.

The present study is a follow-up to a classroom experiment with university ESL students thatdemonstrated incidental acquisition of new lexical knowledge through the reading of thematicallyrelated texts. Introspective data from similar students using the same materials are analyzed in thisstudy to explore how vocabulary knowledge may be acquired as a by-product of reading forcomprehension. The researchers sought to identify the strategies and the kinds of knowledge andinformation learners used when dealing with new L2 words they encountered while reading.Learners tended to ignore a large proportion of the words. For those words they attended to,inferencing was the main strategy employed. A taxonomy of the knowledge sources they used ininferring word meanings from various textual and other cues was developed, which provided aframework for describing learners' inferencing behavior. Findings are interpreted in termsof existing research and theory on incidental vocabulary acquisition within an input-processingframework. Pedagogical implications are drawn.

Within both first andsecond language acquisition research, a critical or sensitive period for complete attainment haslargely been substantiated in phonological studies, although it is questionable whether age shouldbe examined in isolation from sociopsychological influences and the extent of exposure to thesecond language. This study sets out to challenge the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) byexamining phonological performance among highly motivated subjects who use German daily asgraduate student instructors and who have been immersed in the language through in-countryresidence, augmented by years of instruction in both language- and content-based courses. Themethodology developed seeks to expand the realm of factors that are potentially conflated withage, such as instruction, motivation, suprasegmental training, and self-perception of productiveaccuracy, and other factors that have not been addressed in previous studies on ultimateattainment. Production tasks target sounds difficult for nonnative speakers (NNSs) according tocontrastive analysis, and task types range in complexity from isolated words to sentences,paragraphs, and free speech. A mean rating was computed for each speaker, including nativespeaker controls, according to native speaker judgments. When averaged across all tasks,nonnative speaker performance did not overlap with native performance. However, severalvariables correlated significantly with outcome, including suprasegmental training, whichindicated performance closer to native level.

Research has been investigating the role of reading, as one source of input, in languagelearners' vocabulary development. The present study was designed to examine whetherintermediate learners incidentally (a) acquire and (b) retain unknown vocabulary as a result ofreading. The study further assessed (c) the effect of the text variable of exposure frequency.Learners were exposed to unfamiliar words either two, four, or six times during reading.Vocabulary acquisition and retention measured productive and receptive knowledge gain.Results indicated that only two encounters with unfamiliar words during reading significantlyaffected learners' vocabulary growth. Moreover, two or four exposure frequencies resultedin fairly similar word gain, but six exposures produced significantly more vocabulary knowledge.Retention measures showed mixed results: On productive vocabulary knowledge only half of thesubjects displayed a significant rate of retention. On receptive knowledge all but oneexperimental group retained vocabulary over 4 weeks.

Previous research on the impact of pretaskplanning on interlanguage development (e.g., Crookes, 1989; Ellis, 1987; Foster & Skehan,1996) has focused solely on the linguistic quality of planned output, leaving the cognitive andattentional processes engaged during planning time unexplored. Drawing on recent research onfocus on form (Doughty & Williams, 1998a) and on retrospective methodologies used instrategy use research (e.g., O'Malley & Chamot, 1990), the study reported hereinvestigated whether planning opportunity results in an increased focus on form at the level ofstrategic attention to form during planning time, as well as at the level of production outcomesduring task performance. The results provide support for the claim that planning before doing anL2 task can promote an increased focus on form by providing space for the learner to devoteconscious attention during pretask planning to formal and systemic aspects of the languageneeded to accomplish a particular task.

In SLA research, dependence in frequency data is a prevalent problem (Hatch &Lazaraton, 1991). Researchers usually regard the data as being independent and subject them tostatistical analyses. Another problem in frequency data analysis in SLA research is the exclusionof interaction terms. This is the case because of the use of chi-square analysis or the unpopularityof multifactorial frequency data analyses. This study investigates the violation of the“independent observation” assumption as well as the effect of includinginteraction terms in frequency data analysis. Reanalyzing a couple of published data sets, thepaper argues in favor of using multifactorial frequency data analyses over multiple chi-squares inorder to take into account dependence and interaction of the frequency data. A set ofrecommendations for SLA researchers will be provided when statistically analyzing frequencydata in SLA research.

This article reports on a strategy training study that investigated the lexical processingstrategies (LPSs; ignore, consult, infer) used by L2 learners when they encounter unfamiliarvocabulary while reading and the impact of these strategies on vocabulary learning. A time-serieswith repeated-measures design was used. Introspective data were gathered from eight participants(Francophone university students, intermediate ESL proficiency) on eight texts over 5 months toelicit LPS use on self-identified unfamiliar words. Then, 1 week after each reading, participantscompleted a cued recall task to measure their learning of these words. An analysis of overall LPSuse (changes in patterns and effectiveness of strategy use with LPS-focused instruction) and wordretention rates demonstrates the potential for vocabulary learning through reading and indicatesthat some LPSs lead to higher retention rates than others. This research increases ourunderstanding of the role of LPS use in vocabulary learning and suggests some reevaluation ofcurrent pedagogic practice.

The field of language acquisition is divided over the question of whether the inbornmechanisms underlying linguistic development include actual grammatical categories andprinciples or are of a more general character. Recent proposals suggest a possible convergence ofviews on this matter, with implications for the study of both first language acquisition andsecond language learning. This paper explores this possibility by examining the evolution ofgrammatical nativism with particular emphasis on a radical shift in the generality of the inbornprinciples that have been posited in recent work. The nature and implications of this shift areillustrated with the help of developmental data involving gap-containing structures in first andsecond language acquisition.

This essay defends the idea that language is a unique, genetically underwritten(informationally encapsulated) “module of the mind” and considers someconsequences such a stance holds for the psycholinguistic study of nonnative language (L2)acquisition. As is well known, language as conceived within the tradition of generative grammar(e.g., Chomsky, 1965, 1975, 1980, 1986) is unlike other types of cognition and its basis (viz.,Universal Grammar) is innately given; this is the position I support in this paper. Specifically, Ibegin by summarizing the main arguments for this position, after which I discuss (followingSegal, 1996) four different conceptions of what a module is and then devote particular attentionto the theory developed by Fodor (1983, 1985) on the architecture of mind (his“modularity thesis”). There follows a comparison between the distinct views heldby Chomsky and by Fodor on the conception of “the language module” and on thestructure of mind more generally. Arguing that the two views are not inherently incompatible, Ioffer a speculation on how to begin to reconcile them, which leaves me well positioned toadvance three specific implications for the theoretical study of L2 acquisition within theframework of generative grammar, couched within a theory of the modular mind.

Interaction and grammar is a valuable addition to the Cambridge “Studiesin Interactional Sociolinguistics” series. The book is a collection of papers that all, in oneway or another, and within the frameworks of linguistic anthropology, functional grammar, orconversation analysis, investigate the interface, or rather the essential interrelatedness, oflanguage and real-time social interaction. The value of the book for the L2 researcher orpractitioner is perhaps not direct; however, because much of L2 research focuses on interactionand draws its data from naturally occurring discourse, the indirect contribution is notable. Inparticular, the chapter by Fox, Hayashi, and Jasperson beautifully underscores those typologicaldifferences between English and Japanese that lead to different interactionalstrategies—an issue of direct relevance to L2 studies.

This paper is based on ongoing research on a recent low-dose, late partial Englishimmersion (IM) program in Germany. The evaluation compares English language outcomes ofIM groups, groups from non-IM schools, and non-IM groups from the same school as the IMgroups, at various points of their development. This paper focuses on whether Englishvocabulary learning occurs incidentally while students are learning history or geography, or both,taught in English and whether there is evidence to suggest that the learning abilities activated inthe IM classroom are the same as those found in traditional foreign language teaching and innaturalistic (untutored) L2 acquisition. The data derive from a communicative group test. It isshown that some of the lexical items cannot have come from the textbook or from other kinds ofteaching materials used during regular foreign language instruction in the program. This leavesthe teacher's oral use of English as the most likely source. Several implications for L2acquisition theory and teaching practice are discussed.

We are grateful to Hidetoshi Saito for his careful and reasoned critique of theVARBRUL procedure in his article, “Dependence and Interaction in Frequency DataAnalysis in SLA Research” (this issue). Saito reanalyzes Young's (1988, 1991)study of -s plural variation in the English interlanguage of native speakers of Chinese.He raises two criticisms of the statistical analyses in the original work: (a) data from allparticipants were lumped together, resulting in an analysis that ignores possible variation acrossparticipants; and (b) interaction between independent variables was not investigated, whereasSaito finds that an interaction term contributes to a statistical model that fits the data better thanthe original analysis.