This study investigated the effects of processing three types of texts, namely expository texts, narrative texts, and a combination of both known as twin texts, on incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention in L2 learners. College freshmen (N = 109), who were lower to upper intermediate learners of English, were assigned into a control group and three experimental groups representing different reading conditions. Over a period of seven weeks, the experimental groups engaged in two reading sessions to read their assigned texts accompanied by output tasks and input enhancement. The participants’ receptive and productive vocabulary gains were measured with an immediate posttest and a delayed posttest to assess retention. Results revealed significant impacts of text genres on L2 incidental vocabulary learning and retention. Processing twin texts and expository texts yielded significantly greater vocabulary gains than processing narrative texts alone. These effects might be due to different processing mechanisms required for texts structured in distinct ways. Expository texts are informative and explanatory in nature, providing explicit and contextually rich information for word comprehension and retention.

This study examined how L2 learners of English process morphologically complex words (e.g., bareness) and psuedowords (e.g.,*boilness) to investigate if the L2 processing of derivational morphology is subject to critical period effects. It has been claimed that native speakers rely on procedural memory to process morphologically complex words, while L2 learners tend to utilize declarative memory to process them (Ullman, 2001, 2004, 2005). According to Ullman, L2 learners’ reliance on declarative memory for processing morphologically complex words is due to maturational changes in procedural memory. Two related experiments with a masked priming lexical decision task were conducted with two groups of Korean learners: early and late L2 learners. With regard to the results, early L2 learners showed stem priming effects for morphologically related prime-target pairs, which is indicative of morphological decomposition. On the other hand, late L2 learners did not provide any evidence of stem priming, indicating that they might have processed the morphologically complex word/pseudoword as a whole unit. These data suggest that the L2 processing of late learners is different from that of early learners.

This study investigated the relative contributions of linguistic knowledge and strategy use to L2 listening success, especially in bottom-up and top-down dominant listening tasks. Participants (n = 130) were Korean college students in a required listening course. The tested variables for linguistic knowledge were sentence processing speed, grammar, receptive vocabulary, and productive vocabulary. Listening strategy use was measured with a metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire. We hypothesized that linguistic knowledge will make greater contributions to Bottom-Up-Listening-Comprehension (BULC) than to Top-Down-Listening Comprehension (TDLC), and different aspects of strategies will be accessed in each comprehension type due to different psycholinguistic features of the tasks. A series of stepwise multiple regressions were conducted and confirmed our prediction. The unique variance explained by linguistic knowledge was 27.8% in BULC, but 22.4% in TDLC. Strategy items that address problem solving and mental translation were significantly related to BULC, while items dealing with directed attention and person knowledge had significant explanatory power for TDLC.

As a replication study of Hanaoka and Izumi (2012), the present research investigated the process of learners’ noticing of problems in their interlanguage (IL) while they were producing the second language (L2) and their process of relevant input provided in the form of two types of feedback (i.e., reformulation and a model text) in L2 writing. The data were collected from twenty-five university students in Korea, and they engaged in a four-staged picture description task consisting of the writing stage (Stage 1), the comparison stage (Stage 2), the immediate revision stage (Stage 3), and the delayed revision stage (Stage 4). It was found that output triggered learners’ noticing of problems; however, the problems did not always show up overtly in their writing. Some problems were manifested in writing (i.e., overt problems), while some were hidden (i.e., covert problems). A model text and reformulation played somewhat different roles in offering the solutions to the problems: a model text provided more solutions to covert problems while reformulation provided more solutions to overt problems. And, the extent of learners’ noticing was associated with the types of problems (overt vs. covert problems) and feedback (i.e., models vs. reformulation). However, the types of problems and feedback were not related to the rate of incorporation of feedback into subsequent writing.

This experimental study investigated whether language anxiety differentially influences the extent to which two corrective feedback (CF) techniques of recasts and prompts affect the L2 learning process and its outcome. Four experimental groups were formed according to their anxiety level and the type of CF received during question recall tasks they completed: the high-anxiety recasts-receiving group, the low-anxiety recasts-receiving group, the high-anxiety prompts-receiving group, and the low-anxiety prompts-receiving group. Two high- and low-anxiety control groups were additionally formed, who did not engage in the tasks. Learners’ anxiety level was judged based on their responses to a language anxiety questionnaire. CF efficacy in processing L2 was measured by examining the extent to which CF induced modified output and repair. Learners’ L2 knowledge was assessed at explicit and implicit levels on pretests, immediate posttests, and delayed posttests. Results revealed that language anxiety had no impact on prompts’ efficacy but displayed some influence on recasts’ efficacy. Recasts were more effective in promoting repair and L2 explicit knowledge for low-anxiety learners. It was also found that the differential effects of learner language anxiety were closely related to the level of anxiety aroused by the way the tasks were implemented. The finding highlights the significance of considering both learner language anxiety and task anxiety in providing CF.

This study examined processing of L2 English relative clauses by testing the Filler-Gap Hypothesis (Hawkins, 1999; O"Grady 1997). For that goal, we partially replicated Diessel and Tomasello (2004), who examined L1 acquisition of relative clauses by English-and German-speaking children. The Filler-Gap Hypothesis states that the structural distance between head and gap determines the processing difficulty pertained within relative clauses. Taking this hypothesis as a theoretical starting-point, we used an elicited imitation task to tap 48 L2 learners" knowledge of English relative clauses. The results of the study demonstrated that subject relatives retained greater accuracy scores than object relatives, which in turn retained greater accuracy scores than indirect object and oblique relatives. These results were largely consistent with the predictions made by the FGH, but only partially consistent with Diessel and Tomasello"s L1 data.

This study investigated the family size effect on English word processing via visual lexical decision task with three different groups of speakers, i.e., L1 English speakers, Korean L2 English learners, and English bilinguals. For English simple nouns, verbs, and adjectives, we examined the effects of the type count of morphologically related members and the surface base-frequency on lexical processing. First, results showed that the family size effect emerged in Korean L2 learners, but it was mostly inhibitory. To be specific, words with a large family size elicited slower response latencies than those with a small family size. However, the facilitatory effect arose for bilinguals and native speakers of English. Second, it was exhibited that high-frequency base words were recognized more quickly than low-frequency counterparts, confirming that token frequency as well as type frequency codetermines their recognition latency. These findings suggest that L1, bilinguals, and L2 learners' mental lexicons are organized by morphologically related words along with surface frequency although their effect size differs depending on the amount of language exposure. Finally, building on the results in the current experimental study, we propose a formal account for the processing advantages of words with a large family size under a psycholinguistic model and processing constraints.

This study probes whether relative frequency is a potential factor which can determine Korean L2 speakers' access to morphologically complex words and whether their processing pattern varies according to affix type and participants' L2 proficiency. A processing experiment was conducted whereby Korean L2 speakers rated English affixed words as more complex and measured their percentages and reaction time. Our results exhibited that subjects judged as more complex the forms where the whole derived words were less frequent than their embedded base forms and that the words which were more frequent than their base forms were judged as less complex in a robust manner like L1 speakers. Further, such a trend did not vary according to their proficiency level and affix type. These findings provide supportive evidence that relative frequency facilitates L2 speakers' processing of morphologically complex words. Additionally, they imply that they access L2 derived words through decomposition to constituents such as base forms, supporting dual-route model. Finally, the relative frequency might emerge from an earlier stage of L2 development, coupled with the possibility that affixed words are represented along with frequency of the whole words and their constituents.

This study examines whether formulaic sequences might be stored and retrieved as wholes in a holistic fashion rather than analytically. Another goal is to see whether the processing of L2 sequences is affected by L2 proficiency, grammaticality and length of expressions. Grammaticality judgment task was conducted and data was collected from Korean L2 English learners of low- and intermediate-level of proficiency. First, results showed that formulaic sequences were responded more rapidly and accurately than nonformulaic sequences. This provides additional support for the claim that formulaic sequences are stored and processed as single lexical units even in L2 speakers' mental lexicon. Second, the formulaicity effect was constant at both levels, indicating that formulaic sequences are acquired and processed from the early stage of L2 development. Finally, it was found that grammatical sequences were processed more quickly and accurately than ungrammatical ones and that shorter expressions were judged faster and more accurately than longer ones, implying more efficient processing and less memory load for shorter and grammatical expressions. Building on the results in the present study, we propose a formal account for the quicker and accurate processing of formulaic sequences with reference to psycholinguistic model and processing constraints.