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Theories of multimedia learning suggest that learners can form better referential connections when verbal and visual materials are presented simultaneously. Furthermore, the addition of auditory input in reading-while-listening conditions benefits performance on a variety of linguistic tasks. However, little research has been conducted on the processing of multimedia input (written text and images) with and without accompanying audio. Eye movements were recorded during young L2 learners’ (N=30) processing of a multimedia story text in reading-only and reading-while-listening conditions to investigate looking patterns and their relationship with comprehension using a multiple-choice comprehension test. Analysis of the eye-movement data showed that the presence of audio in reading-while-listening conditions allowed learners to look at the image more often. Processing time on text was related to lower levels of comprehension, whereas processing time on images was positively related to comprehension.

The present study examines the impact of learning context and age on learners' degree of foreign accent. Participants of two different age groups (children vs. adults) learning English in two different contexts (at home vs. study abroad) were interviewed and asked to narrate a story and to fill out a questionnaire about their language use while abroad. A group of listeners rated the degree of perceived foreign accent of the oral productions of each of the groups. It was found that learning context played a significant role, with participants in the study abroad setting having a significantly milder foreign accent in the posttest. Although age did not influence the results statistically, child participants abroad experienced the greatest improvement and also spent more time speaking with native speakers than adult participants abroad. These results shed light on the characteristics of the study abroad experience that are beneficial for learners and on learner characteristics that optimize such an experience.

The present study explores the development of pragmatic marker (PM) use by children and adult L2 English learners in two learning contexts: study abroad (SA) and at home (AH). The study involved a group of 35 Catalan/Spanish girls (aged 11 to 13) learning English AH (n = 16) and abroad in Ireland (n = 19), and a group of 16 adult students aged 19–31 learning English in the UK and Ireland (n = 10) and at their home university in Barcelona (n = 6). To test their pragmatic development, the use of PMs was prompted through pre-test and post-test semi-structured interviews. The results indicated an effect of both age and context on PM development. Children in the SA context increased their use of some PMs, whereas their peers who remained at home did not show any development. Regarding the adults, both SA and AH participants increased their use of specific PMs. These findings shed some light on a topic that has not received scholarly attention in the field of L2 pragmatics: the development of PM use by children. Additionally, they contribute to the very small body of longitudinal studies on the development of PM use during SA.

The goal of the reported study is to investigate the impact of manipulating the cognitive complexity of three different types of oral tasks on interaction. The study first considers the concepts of task complexity and interaction and then examines the specific studies that have looked at the effects of increasing task complexity on conversational interaction. In the experiment, learners of English as a foreign language organized into 27 dyads carry out three different types of tasks: a narrative reconstruction task, an instruction-giving map task, and a decision-making task. Two different versions of each task, one simple and one complex, are presented to learners in different sequences. Task complexity is manipulated along the degree of displaced, past time reference, the number of elements, and the reasoning demands. Audio recordings are transcribed and coded for interactional feedback, which is measured in terms of negotiation of meaning (i.e., confirmation checks, clarification requests, and comprehension checks), recasts, language-related episodes (LREs), and repairs, all of which have been described in the literature as being conducive to acquisition. Both parametric and non-parametric statistical tests are used. Results are discussed in the light of previous studies that have looked at the specific relationship between task complexity and interaction, attention models (Robinson, Applied Linguistics 22: 27-57, 2001a, Second Language Studies 21: 45-105, 2003, International Review of Applied Linguistics 55: 1-32, 2005, International Review of Applied Linguistics 45: 193-213, 2007b; Skehan and Foster, Cognition and tasks, Cambridge University Press, 2001), and how different task types may variously affect the way interaction proceeds during task performance. (Verlag, adapt.).

Reading-while-listening may be especially well suited for young language learners because of the multimodality provided in many graded readers aimed at this age group (ie., the presence of oral and written text and illustrations). This study compares a group of students who were exposed to 18 sessions of reading-while-listening with a group exposed to the same number of sessions through reading-only, and a control group. Linguistic outcomes show that students in the two intervention groups obtained higher vocabulary gains than those in the control group but did not present superior scores in reading or listening comprehension or reading fluency. Non-linguistic outcomes showed a clear preference on the part of the students for the reading-while-listening mode of input. The study concludes that the lack of differences in comprehension and fluency gains may be due to the fact that graded readers for children are too short; the input they offer is too limited to make a difference in areas other than attitudes and vocabulary learning.

The need to function in multilingual environments and the fact that study abroad (SA) is believed to be one of the most efficient language learning contexts (Collentine, 2009) have boosted the popularity of SA programs. While numerous recent studies have examined the SA impact on oral fluency, vocabulary or writing, among others, certain areas, such as listening skills (Llanes, 2011), have yet to receive substantial attention. In an attempt to address this issue, a pretest-posttest design study was conducted to gauge the listening skills of 12 college students at the beginning and the end of a 5-week SA experience in Costa Rica. Results from non-parametric tests revealed that despite the brief duration of the program, participants’ overall listening comprehension improved significantly. Individual analysis revealed that significant gains emerged in exit tasks in which the topic of conversation was kept consistent, suggesting that contextualization plays a crucial role in input comprehension.

The effects of learning context on second language (L2) development is a topic of growing interest in second language acquisition (Collentine, 2009; Freed, 1995; Llanes, 2011). Most of the research on study abroad (SA) has focused on documenting the progress of an L2 as a result of the experience abroad and has sometimes compared such development across other learning contexts such as an at-home (AH) institution or an immersion (IM) setting. These three learning contexts differ in several aspects, of which the intensity of exposure to the L2 and the opportunities participants have to practice the L2 are probably the

This chapter reviews research into language awareness in a study abroad (SA) context and tries to answer the some questions. The questions are \"What is the theoretical and/or practical impact of the research carried out on the topic?\" and \"What further theoretical and/or practical developments can be envisaged?\" The chapter explores previous studies that directly or indirectly examine the role of awareness when second or foreign language (L2) learning occurs in an SA setting, in order to shed some light on the under-researched and inconclusive relationship between SA and awareness. Research has been classified regarding the type of awareness being considered: language awareness, cognitive individual differences concerning awareness, and language learning awareness. Like studies focusing on language awareness, those centred on the role of cognitive capacities also highlight the crucial role that cognitive capacities play when learning in an SA context given that they seem to determine the amount of attention learners need to allocate on the L2.

Theories of multimedia learning suggest that learners can form better referential connections when verbal and visual materials are presented simultaneously. Furthermore, the addition of auditory input in reading-while-listening conditions benefits performance on a variety of linguistic tasks. However, little research has been conducted on the processing of multimedia input (written text and images) with and without accompanying audio. Eye movements were recorded during young L2 learners’ (N = 30) processing of a multimedia story text in reading-only and reading-while-listening conditions to investigate looking patterns and their relationship with comprehension using a multiple-choice comprehension test. Analysis of the eye-movement data showed that the presence of audio in reading-while-listening conditions allowed learners to look at the image more often. Processing time on text was related to lower levels of comprehension, whereas processing time on images was positively related to comprehension.