Accentedness the production of segmental and suprasegmental features in L2 speech that fall outside L1 speaker norms.
Action research teacher conducted research designed to critically and systematically investigate instructional issues within teachers’ own classrooms.
Age of arrival the age at which individuals arrive in the country where the target language is spoken and could in principle start acquiring the target language. Commonly used term as an imprecise proxy for age of onset (see age of onset).
Age of onset the age at which second language learning begins, which may or may not coincide with age of arrival (see age of arrival).
Agency the view that language learners play an active rather than passive role in language learning by self-regulating and making choices in their production of target forms.
Allophone a variant of a phoneme; one of the phonetic realizations in which a phoneme in a language can be pronounced (see phoneme).
Aptitude complexes frameworks to examine how combinations of aptitude components, such as grammatical sensitivity and phonemic coding ability, interact with different learning contexts in a non-linear manner to account for language learning success.
Assessment a systematic and replicable technique that allows researchers to elicit, observe, and interpret indicators of language knowledge and/or ability constructs, with underlying standards of practice that govern its development and use.
Assessment reliability the consistency of the assessment in producing trustworthy findings across different sets or administrations of a test.
Attention (in language processing) the aspect of the cognitive system underlying language processing responsible for the selectivity of processing goals (e.g., focusing on particular words or relations between words).
Automaticity (of language processing) highly efficient processing that, beyond being fast, is unstoppable once triggered and does not require conscious cognitive effort (e.g., recognition of familiar words).
Categorical perception listeners’ ability to discriminate between two stimuli equal to their ability to identify them as belonging to different categories.
Central Executive or Executive Attention a component of the working memory system concerned with the management and control of information, and hence closely related to attentional processes. This component regulates the distribution of attentional resources when more than one cognitive task requires attention (see working memory).
Classroom research research conducted in language classrooms on activities that have an educational purpose.
Co-adaptation a phenomenon that occurs when the language resources of two or more interlocutors are altered in adaptive imitation of one another.
Cognitive and social approaches to SLA theories that focus on understanding how language acquisition takes place in the mind of the learner (cognitive) or as a result of social interaction (social).
Cognitive linguistics a branch of linguistics which analyzes language in terms of the concepts which underlie its forms. It holds that language is learned by general cognitive processes, that grammar can be understood in terms of conceptualization, and that language is learned from usage.
Collocations commonly occurring lexical combinations characterized by restricted co-occurrence of elements and relative transparency of meaning. For example, follow instructions, heavy traffic, and completely satisfied.
Competition a basic cognitive process that takes account of contrasting perceptions and motives to reach optimal decisions in language processing.
Competition model a functional approach that claims sentence-level comprehension occurs through the use of linguistic cues and cue strengths, in other words, the probability with which linguistic cues can be reliably used.
Component skills approach a term used in reading. This approach measures in tandem, closely related mental operations in an attempt to clarify their functional and developmental relationships.
Comprehensible input language exposure that L2 learners can understand.
Comprehensible output learner produced utterances that are understandable to the interlocutor.
Computer-assisted language learning any environment or application in which a learner, alone or collaboratively with peers, uses technology in a second or other language.
Concordancer a computer program that allows learners to encounter and explore words in a variety of contexts by listing segments or lines of texts containing the target word.
Construct validity the extent to which an assessment or a data elicitation procedure provides accurately interpretable evidence about a particular construct.
Construction Grammar a theory that holds that the primary unit of grammar is the grammatical construction (see constructions).
Constructions form-meaning mappings, conventionalized in the speech community, and entrenched as language knowledge in the learner's mind. They are the symbolic units of language relating the defining properties of their morphological, syntactic, and lexical form with particular semantic, pragmatic, and discourse functions.
Contact Hypothesis an hypothesis that states that learners who establish more target language contact (e.g., social networks, opportunities for aural and written second language input) make greater linguistic gains than those who do not.
Context of learning the context in which the second language is acquired (e.g., at home, foreign language classroom, second language naturalistic context, target language domestic immersion program, or study abroad program).
Conversation analysis type of analysis that uses conversation as a medium to describe how patterns of interaction, such as turn-taking or adjacency pairs, relate to changes in the participants’ knowledge.
Corpora a collection of more than one corpus consisting of written and/or oral data of native speakers and/or language learners (see corpus).
Corpus a systematic collection of naturally occurring spoken or written language that is selected to be a balanced representation of a particular type of language (e.g., American or British English), genre (e.g., academic writing or conversation), or population (e.g., native speaker or language learners).
Corrective feedback (negative feedback) information provided to learners about the illformedness of their L2 production. Feedback may supply the correct form or it may prompt learners to try to do so on their own (see also feedback).
Cortex (cerebral) the layer of neural tissue (“gray matter”) that covers the cerebrum and plays a role in higher-level cognitive functions.
Critical period the age where language is claimed to be learned easily, through input and interaction with native speakers, followed by marked decline (maturational in nature and only modulated, not caused, by contextual factors) of this learning ability and eventual stabilization at a lower level.
Critical Period Hypothesis an hypothesis that proposes there is an age-related barrier to achieving native-like ultimate proficiency in a second language. During the critical period, learners are claimed to be able to readily acquire a second language and attain native-like performance, while after this period acquisition becomes more difficult.
Cue validity a measure of the extent to which a given linguistic form leads uniformly to the correct interpretation.
Declarative memory the memory system for knowledge of facts and personal experiences. Evidence suggests that this knowledge is largely, though not completely, available to conscious awareness.
Design-based research a research methodology that addresses the complexity of learning processes and learning environments rather than simply outcomes. Design and theory are developed simultaneously and revised continuously throughout the research process.
Dialectic the necessary unity or synthesis of two interacting opposites to form a whole. For example, a tapestry is held together by threads running in opposite directions.
Discourse completion task (DCT) usually written, an indirect means for assessing spoken language through written production; if oral, also called a closed role play. Often used in pragmatics research, DCTs are frequently designed to elicit specific speech acts, such as compliment responses, by describing the situation and asking learners to imagine what they might say.
Dyslexia a reading disability that occurs when the brain does not properly recognize and process certain symbols. Also known as developmental reading disorder.
Educational level a characteristic of adult language learners that is often associated with low levels of print literacy. Educational level may play a role in how learners process oral language, including feedback.
EEG (Electroencephalogram) scalp-based recording of the brain's ongoing electrical activity.
Emergentism an approach proposing that language is a complex adaptive system which emerges from usage.
Entrenchment a basic neuronal process operating across development that leads to the proceduralization and speeding-up of specific linguistic forms.
ERP component a characteristic ERP wave form (e.g., the N400) that is found consistently under particular experimental conditions.
Explicit knowledge knowledge of a language that a learner is aware of and can articulate.
Factor analysis a statistical procedure to identify patterns and underlying constructs in large datasets which cannot otherwise be identified.
Feature unification one of the key processes in Lexical-Functional Grammar utilized in Processability Theory. The process ensures that the features of two constituents match (see Processaility Theory).
Feedback information that is provided to a learner that a prior utterance is correct or incorrect (see also corrective feedback).
Focus on form the allocation of focal attention to language form during an otherwise meaning-focused interaction.
Formant a concentration of acoustic energy corresponding to the resonating frequency of the air in the vocal tract (e.g., vowels are distinguished by three formants).
Fossilization the phenomenon of learning stagnating permanently in spite of abundant exposure to input, adequate motivation to learn, and plentiful opportunity for communicative practice.
Functional category A formal grammatical feature or bundle of features that participates in a system of grammaticalized contrasts in a language, such as case, number, gender, definiteness, tense, aspect, mood, voice, etc. and that may also play a role in syntactic relations (such as agreement) and operations (such as movement).
Fundamental Difference Hypothesis the hypothesis that second language acquisition is fundamentally different from first language acquisition.
General nativism this approach holds that general cognitive processes, such as those used for pattern detection, probabilistic inference and category formation, subserve the process of language acquisition as well as the child's development in other cognitive domains (see nativism and specific nativism).
Genre used variably in such traditions as New Rhetoric, language for special purposes, and literacy education to capture qualities of particular texts; also used to refer to recurrent configurations of meanings that enact social practices in a given culture.
Grammatical meanings (of function words or affixes) a concept that has to do with basic ontological categories such as number, tense, aspect, or pointing to the word's function in the sentence, for example, case. These are more abstract and general compared to lexical meanings.
Grammatical metaphor form of semiosis that involves a shift from direct (i.e., “congruent”) forms of meaning-making to more indirect (i.e., “non-congruent”) or metaphorical forms of meaning-making. Nominalization of more “normal” verbal processes involves grammatical metaphor in the ideational realm.
Hemodynamic related to blood circulation. Certain functional neuroimaging techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) are based on the hemodynamic response to neural activity in particular experimental conditions.
Heritage language (HL) a language other than a country's official or dominant languages that speakers have been exposed to at home, but have not fully acquired because of their switch to another more dominant language, usually the one in which they are educated.
Heritage language acquisition (HLA) heritage language speakers’ re/acquisition of their home language.
Heritage language learner (HLL) a heritage language speaker who studies the home language formally, typically in a community school or in K-16.
Heritage language speaker An individual who was exposed to a language at home but did not fully acquire it because of a switch to another language.
Hypothesis Space a metaphor illustrating the constraints that Processability Theory places on development and variation in SLA. These constraints create a space within which the learner can entertain hypotheses about the L2 (see Processability Theory).
Ideal L2 self the L2-specific facet of one's ideal self, that is, the possible future self one desires to become.
Identity personalized aspects that make up an individual language learner (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age).
Implicational scaling a statistical technique which assumes that success at one level implies success at lower levels of the scale (e.g., active word knowledge presupposes passive word knowledge).
Implicit knowledge knowledge of a language that a learner is unaware of and cannot articulate.
Input the language that is available to learners; that is, exposure.
Input processing making a connection between form and meaning/function during comprehension.
Instrumental orientation reasons for learning the L2 pertaining to the potential pragmatic benefits and value of being proficient in the language, such as a higher salary or improved employment opportunities.
Integrative orientation a positive disposition toward the L2 group reflecting a desire to interact with and even integrate into their community.
Intelligibility the ability of the listener to decode the form of words or utterances and understand their meaning in a given context.
Interaction approaches approaches that consider conversational interaction as a locus of learning.
Interlanguage the linguistic system a learner creates in the course of developing a second language.
Internalization the process of learning to use a second language in one's own inner speech and thinking.
Interphonology the sub-system of the interlanguage that governs the L2 learner's production and perception of the TL sound patterns.
Introspective methods research methods that ask study participants to reflect on their own experiences, responses or feelings. For example, think-alouds or language diaries.
Language related episodes (LREs) any part of an interactional dialog in which learners talk about or monitor their production and use of the L2.
Learner characteristics (individual variables) characteristics of learners that can affect their second language acquisition (e.g., age, sex, social and physical characteristics, personality, learning styles, attitudes/motivation, pre-departure language levels for study abroad learners).
Lexical meaning the idiosyncratic denotation of a word as an entry in the mental lexicon. Words may either be taken to denote things in the world, or concepts, depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.
Lexicon an inventory of the words and morphemes of a language; in most linguistic discussions a lexicon refers to a mental inventory of words and morphemes.
Markedness a relationship used to show that a linguistic feature is in some way privileged or preferred relative to other features in that it is more widely distributed, both within a language and cross-linguistically.
Mediation the central concept of sociocultural theory, which holds that mental functioning is organized in accordance with the signs created by a culture.
Meta-analysis a statistical technique that combines the results of multiple studies that all have similar or related hypotheses. The goal is to make a more robust claim than is possible with a single study.
Metafunctions of language the most general functions served by language, typically broken down into the ideational (with their experiential and logical subtypes), the interpersonal, and the textual metafunctions.
Metalinguistic knowledge knowledge about language itself. Metalinguistic abilities relate to the ability to talk about, analyze, and even manipulate this knowledge.
Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) an assessment designed to predict a learner's likelihood of ease and success at learning a foreign language.
Modified output the learner's production of rephrased or reformulated original utterances.
Motivation the attribute that explains the direction and magnitude of human behavior, that is, the choice of a particular action, its instigation, and the persistence with which it is sustained, as well as the effort expended throughout the process.
Nativism the view that children are genetically predisposed to acquire language (see specific nativism and general nativism).
Natural language processing a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with automated understanding and generation of natural human languages.
Negative feedback (see corrective feedback).
Neural plasticity ability of the brain to change to adapt to new conditions.
Obstruent a consonant whose salient phonetic characteristic is that its production involves a partial or complete obstruction of the airstream.
Operationalize to provide a concrete definition of a construct so that it can be measured.
Orality a way of thinking and communicating in societies where verbal expression prevails over print-based expression; a reliance on oral over written language often occurring in societies where writing and print are uncommon.
Ought-to L2 self the L2-specific facet of one's ought-to self, that is, the possible future self one ought to become to meet others’ expectations and avoid negative consequences.
Output learner's production of forms and utterances in the target language.
Output Hypothesis a hypothesis stating that the production of language, particularly that which results from the learner being “pushed” to produce output in order to make themselves understood, is a necessary condition for SLA (see comprehensible output).
Parameters a set of innately pre-specified grammatical options whose values are fixed by learners on the basis of exposure to utterances in the language being acquired.
Parsing (in processing) the moment-by-moment syntactic processing of sentences during comprehension.
Phoneme an abstract unit of phonology that functions to distinguish the pronunciation of words or morphemes in a language; as an abstract construct, a phoneme in a language is always pronounced as one or more variants, known as allophones (see allophone).
Phonological awareness phonological awareness refers to the ability to analyze a word into its phonological constituents. The ability is one of the most powerful predictors of reading development.
Phonological processing the way in which individuals process auditory language, including phonemes, syllables, words, and rhymes. Phonological processing may be influenced by alphabetic print literacy.
Phonological short-term memory a component of the working memory system specialized for the short-term storage of phonological information. Implicated mainly in vocabulary learning, but also in grammar learning.
Poverty of the stimulus the claim that language learners end up with knowledge of language (especially complex formal knowledge of what is not possible in the language they are acquiring) that could not have been learned from the utterances they are exposed to in the linguistic environment.
Pragmalinguistic (competence) the strategies and linguistic forms used to realize communicative acts, including making a statement vs. asking a question, grammatical knowledge (e.g., question formation, modals, imperative, subjunctive), lexicon and conventional expressions.
Pragmatic competence The knowledge of how to say what to whom, when.
Pragmatics the study of situated uses of language, the study of language in relation to the users of language, and the study of linguistic communication as a social activity.
Praxis the dialectic unity of theory and practical goal-directed activity whereby each component depends necessarily on the other.
Private speech derived from interaction in social communication, speech directed at the self that mediates an individual's mental activity.
Procedural memory rooted in brain circuits passing through the basal ganglia and frontal cortex, this memory system underlies the learning and control of motor and cognitive skills such as riding a bicycle. The knowledge stored in procedural memory seems to be entirely implicit.
Processability Theory a theory that posits that learner comprehension and production can take place only when the linguistic processor is ready. There exists a hierarchy of activation in processing procedures that leads to implicational sequencing in the acquisition of forms.
Processing (of language) the cognitive activities that underlie different aspects of language learning and use (e.g., retrieving or recognizing the meaning of a word or producing a sentence).
Processing instruction a particular type of pedagogical intervention that attempts to alter learner strategies for processing input.
Processing research (on language) behavioral/neurocognitive research aimed at uncovering the mental activities and procedures—and supporting brain mechanisms—underlying language learning and use, typically using the techniques of experimental psychology.
Prompt also known as elicitation, this type of corrective feedback indicates that an error has occurred, but it requires learners to produce the correct form on their own.
Psycholinguistics a branch of cognitive science which draws upon the experimental methods and findings of cognitive psychology to explain the mental processes that underlie the acquisition, representation, and processing involved in the production and understanding of spoken and written language.
Pushed output learner output that is at the limits of their linguistic abilities (see comprehensible output and output hypothesis).
Rapid profile a computer-based procedure that permits a trained analyst to rapidly determine the developmental features of a given sample of learner language.
Reading universals properties of reading that are shared across languages.
Recast a type of corrective feedback that reformulates a learner's erroneous L2 utterance while maintaining the meaning of the utterance.
Register a variety of language that is closely associated with a particular social setting and its common functions and forms of language use (e.g., academic register, formal/informal register).
Second language acquisition (SLA) methodologies the combination of research designs (e.g., ethnographic case studies, experimental), instruments, and qualitative and/or quantitative data analyses used to carry out empirical SLA studies
Selective Fossilization Hypothesis this hypothesis highlights the nature of fossilization as being local and selective, pertaining to certain interlanguage subsystems only, and attributes fossilization or acquisition to an interaction between native language and target language input characteristics (i.e., frequency and variability).
Self-organization a process whereby order emerges from the interaction of components of a system without guidance from an external source or any innate plan.
Semantics the study of literal, context-independent meaning in language; the constant meaning that is associated with a linguistic expression in all of its occurrences.
Semiosis activity involving the use of signs, in particular the ways in which signs carry meaning by establishing relationships between different systems of signs. Language is often taken to be the prototypical sign system.
Sociolinguistic variable a variable linguistic form that is systematically constrained by features of the linguistic environment, the social situation, and the characteristics of the speaker, such as age, gender, or socio-economic status.
Sociopragmatic (competence) knowledge linking cultural and contextual information to language use; allows speakers to recognize culturally determined contexts. For example, knowing in which situations it is appropriate to thank vs. apologize, complain vs. request.
Soft-assembly an individual's real-time response to the variable and dynamic features of a particular task.
Specific nativism this approach holds that some kinds of linguistic knowledge (e.g., attunement to possible feature contrasts and/or constraints that are exclusively dedicated to language) are available to the child in advance of experience (see nativism and general nativism).
Stabilization the phenomenon of learning that reaches a temporary plateau (hence distinct from fossilization). Often a product of development in which L2 learning incubates, and then continues to develop at a later point.
Study abroad (SA) a context in which learners are exposed to a combination of formal second language instruction and naturalistic second language input/interaction while living in the target culture.
Study abroad programmatic variables characteristics of study abroad programs that may affect second language acquisition (e.g., length of stay, living conditions [homestays/dorms/ apartments], opportunities to form social networks with native speakers, and cultural travel).
Style-shift movement from one style of speech (e.g., careful to casual). Styles can be represented on a continuum ranging from casual speech to interview style to reading passage style to word lists and finally to minimal pairs.
Suprasegmental features features whose domain extends beyond the individual segment. Also described as prosodic features, they typically include pitch, stress, and pause structure.
Systematic variation variation in linguistic form that is correlated with linguistic and/or social factors.
Teachability Hypothesis an hypothesis that states that the effect of teaching is constrained by the learner's current level of acquisition.
Threshold Hypothesis an hypothesis that states that those learners with a well-developed cognitive, lexical, and grammatical base will be best able to process and produce grammatical forms more accurately after a study abroad experience.
Truth value judgment task a psycholinguistic task in which participants judge the truth or falsity of a test sentence with respect to a context acted out with toys or described in a story.
Ultimate attainment often interchangeable with “end state,” the term refers to the final, steady state of the interlanguage system. The term is neutral in the sense that the final state can be target-like, non-target-like, or a combination of both.
Unmarked alignment the process which permits language learners to align the intended message (argument structure) and its grammatical form at the initial state, resulting in canonical word order.
VARBRUL a specialized application of the statistical procedure of logistic regression, designed to analyze variable linguistic data. VARBRUL allows the researcher to consider all of the potential influences on variable simultaneously, even in cases where the numbers of tokens are highly unbalanced.
Voice onset time (VOT) the interval between the release of a closure (e.g., release of a stop consonant) and onset of vocal cord vibration.
Word family a base word with its inflected forms and regular, transparent and productive derived forms (e.g., avoid, avoids, avoided, avoiding, avoidance, avoidable, unavoidable).
Working memory a system that is used for the temporary maintenance and storage of task-relevant information whilst performing cognitive tasks.
Working memory capacity the ability to both retain and manage information in short-term memory in the face of potential interference from other cognitive tasks.
Zipf's law describes how the highest frequency words account for the most linguistic tokens. The frequency of words decreases as a power function of their rank in the frequency table, with the most frequent word occurring approximately twice as often as the second most frequent word, which occurs twice as often as the fourth most frequent word, etc.
Zone of Proximal Development the difference between what an individual or group can accomplish alone versus what they can do with mediation. It is the mechanism of psychological development.