Volume 46, Issue 2

This study investigates whether L2 instruction on the Spanish aspectual system containing a recognition task of the learners' L1 (Dutch) aspectual system helps the learner to understand and interiorise the L2 system. Second year Dutch university students (N=20) took part in the experiment. In weekly groups of two to four, the students received the experimental instruction and completed three tests with standardised exercises and eight weekly compositions. Results on both the tests and the compositions show that experimental instruction positively affects the performance of the students. Instruction involving a recognition task where Dutch students of Spanish are made aware of how the aspectual system works in their own language allows them to understand the L2 aspectual system better than if the differences and similarities between the two languages are not presented.

This study investigated three of the issues recently raised in connection with the traditional concept of foreign language aptitude: the relationship between foreign language aptitude and working memory and phonological short-term memory capacity, the role of foreign language aptitude in predicting success in the framework of focus-on-form foreign language instruction, and the stability of language aptitude and phonological short-term memory in the course of language learning. The participants of our research were 40 students of an English-Hungarian bilingual secondary school and 21 students in a regular Hungarian secondary school. Language aptitude was assessed both at the beginning and the end of the academic year. Our results support the existence of an effect of language learning experience on language aptitude. We also concluded that foreign language aptitude does not play a highly important role in communicative language teaching combined with focus-on-form instruction.

This article compares spoken discourse models in Spanish as a second language textbooks and online language learning resources with naturally occurring conversations. Telephone service encounters are analyzed from the point of view of three different dimensions of authenticity: linguistic, sociolinguistic, and psycholinguistic. An analysis of 20 scripted dialogs and 20 genuine NS–NS/NS–NNS conversations reveals differences in length, sequence structure, linguistic complexity, and interactional modifications. It is argued that the typical focus in language teaching and learning materials on grammatical features comes at the expense of simplification of conversational features essential for the psycholinguistic authenticity of the materials.