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Keynote speakersXavier Aparicio (INSPE, Université de Paris-Est-Créteil) Xavier Aparicio is Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, and a member of the Human and Artificial Cognition Laboratory (CHArt). He is attached to the INSPE of the Académie de Créteil, where he teaches the psychology of learning to students enrolled in the Master MEEF (Métiers de l'Enseignement, de l'éducation et de la Formation) first and second degree courses, as well as to in-service teachers in the context of continuing education. His research focuses on the cognitive processes involved in visual word recognition and reading comprehension activity in monolinguals and bilinguals (children and adults), integrating behavioral, oculomotor and electrophysiological data. He has published a number of experimental articles on the organization and functioning of the multilingual mental lexicon, as well as on the reading/comprehension processes involved in screen and paper-based reading. Xavier Aparicio is currently coordinating the scientific component of the PIA4 project "Towards a new academic equation". He also participated in the creation and implementation of UPEC's "Savoirs et Pratiques en éducation et en formation" strategic axis, of which he is still a member of the steering committee. Xavier Aparicio is currently Deputy Director of Inspé de Créteil, in charge of Research and Internationalization, and Deputy Director of CHArt laboratory for UPEC. He also co-directs, with Ugo Ballenghein, the "Cognitive Sciences and Education, Digital Learning" theme within the CHArt Lab. Examining the role of control processes in reading comprehension in second language In cognitive psychology, the activity of reading is the subject of a great deal of research aimed at understanding the cognitive processes underlying it (Ferrand, 2007). This involves looking at reading at different levels, from surface levels such as identifying letters and words, to more complex levels linked to understanding texts and sentences. From a school point of view, the successful acquisition of reading is central, as success in reading is closely linked to success in school learning. A number of studies have shown that learning to read in a second language is comparable in many respects to learning to read in the first language (see August & Shanahan, 2006, for a review). However, many researches have shown that pupils from minority backgrounds, or more generally those whose mother tongue is different from the language of schooling, often have difficulty learning to read in their second language, especially when the latter is opaque. Indeed, given that reading development relies heavily on the mastery of oral language, children who speak a second language may face a performance gap compared with their monolingual peers. The aim of the conference will be to present the different predictors that can influence decoding and comprehension activities, in both first and second languages, focusing on the control processes that monitor comprehension activity. Indeed, some studies have shown that regular use of a second language may be associated with greater efficiency of executive functions (see Aparicio et al., 2017; Heidlmayr et al., 2016; Köpke et al., 2021), and therefore of the control processes associated with reading comprehension, with contrasting results. In order to explain this heterogeneity of results, we will present various factors likely to influence the control of processes involved in word recognition and text comprehension. These factors concern both the linguistic level (phonological awareness, lexical frequency, interlangual proximity) and the cognitive level (executive functions, inhibition mechanisms, working memory). The way in which this research can be applied, particularly to teachers, will also be discussed.
Joan C. Mora (University of Barcelona) Joan C. Mora is an associate professor in the department of Modern Languages and Literatures and English Studies in the University of Barcelona (UB), Spain. His research has examined the role of contextual and individual factors in the development of L2 speech and oral fluency, and the acquisition of L2 phonology. He is a member of the GRAL research group currently investigating the acquisition of English as a foreign language through multi-modal input exposure. He coordinates the L2 Speech Research Group, a group of researchers investigating the acquisition of second language (L2) speech in all of its perceptual and productive dimensions. His current research interests focus on the effect of cognitive and emotional individual differences on L2 speech learning, phonetic training methods, multimodal pronunciation training, phonological learning and the mental lexicon, and task-based pronunciation teaching and learning in instructedSLA.
Phonological acquisition in instructed SLA: individual differences and L2 pronunciation training in and beyond the classroom
Learning and teaching L2 pronunciation is a major challenge in instructed SLA. Not only do many learners struggle with pronunciation, but often teachers lack the methodological resources and training to effectively integrate pronunciation tasks into communicative language instruction (Darcy et al., 2021; Mora & Mora-Plaza, 2023). A puzzling characteristic of language development in FL instruction contexts is the extent to which many learners’ pronunciation appear to be underdeveloped compared to vocabulary acquisition and overall L2 proficiency, while only a few achieve outstanding pronunciation skills (Moyer, 2014). This suggests that, besides teaching methodology factors, learners’ individual differences (experiential, psycho-social, cognitive and aptitude-related) may play an important role in shaping pronunciation development (Mora, 2022), and need to be considered when researching pronunciation training and assessment. In addition, the relationship between L2 perception and lexical representations, including the processes that modify learners’ developing L2 phonolexical representations and its consequences for L2 production, are still not well understood (Darcy et al., 2013; John & Frasnelli, 2022; Llompart, 2021). Therefore, current pedagogical challenges in pronunciation instruction and training involve developing novel integrated approaches to teaching pronunciation communicatively as well as novel training methods that can help learners establish precise phonological representations in their mental lexicon. Efforts to overcome such pedagogical challenges, in line with the current focus of pronunciation instruction on speech intelligibility (Levis, 2020), should be guided by the overall aim of accomplishing global benefits in speech comprehensibility, rather than in nativelikeness. The overall aim of this talk is to contribute to bridge the gap between L2 phonology acquisition research and L2 pronunciation instruction research in FL classroom learning contexts. In this talk I will first present a succinct overview of key principles and predictions on L2 phonological acquisition by current L2 speech learning models (PAM-L2, Best & Tyler, 2007; SLM-r, Flege & Bohn, 2021) and I will discuss how they might be applied to pronunciation learning and teaching in the FL classroom (Piske, 2007; Tyler, 2019). Based on our own work and the work of others, here I will focus on individual differences factors, cross-language perceptual similarity (Cebrian, 2022), the notion of phonetic category precision (Kartushina et al., 2016) and the relationship between phonological processing and L2 learners’ phonolexical updates in the mental lexicon (Darcy & Holliday, 2019; Llompart & Reinisch, 2021). Then, I will establish a link between the key issues identified above and current pronunciation teaching and training methods for pronunciation development. These include integrated approaches to pronunciation teaching that combine explicit pronunciation instruction with communicative tasks (Darcy & Rocca, 2022; Gordon, 2021) and task-based pronunciation teaching (Mora-Plaza, 2023) as well as complementary pronunciation training techniques. Such techniques include, among others, high-variability phonetic training, shadowing, multimodal pronunciation training through captioned video, embodied pronunciation training, foreign accent imitation and L2 speech self-assessment, which support L2 pronunciation learning by enhancing attention to phonetic form and cross-language phonological awareness. I will conclude by outlining future directions in L2 pronunciation acquisition research and pronunciation training and teaching.
Stéphanie Roussel (Université de Bordeaux) Stéphanie Roussel is a full professor in German studies and language sciences at the University of Bordeaux. As the head of the Department of Languages, co-director of the French-German law program and of the LACES laboratory (a multidisciplinary research center in education sciences), she has a keen interest in second language acquisition. Stephanie Roussel teaches German for specific purposes to law and economics students at the University of Bordeaux. Additionally, she teaches Language and Cognition to students who major in linguistics. Stephanie Roussel's research work is structured around three main axes: legal German, digital technologies for second language teaching and learning, and second language teaching and learning through the lens of cognitive psychology. https://laces.u-bordeaux.fr/membres/roussel-stephanie/ Guiding Attention, Guiding Learning: "Attention" in Second Language Teaching and Learning Attention is a multifaceted concept that captivates the interest of cognitive psychologists (Posner & Snyder, 2004; Baddeley, 2012; Sweller, Ayres & Kalyuga, 2011) and researchers in second language acquisition (Schmidt, 2001; Gass & Mackey, 2012; Robinson, 2016), with important implications for second language teaching and learning (Wallace, 2022). Attention encompasses various aspects, including concentration, selection of information, inhibition, and alertness. This presentation aims to explore attention and to show its importance for SLA research for two main reasons: the first pertains to theory, while the second addresses practical applications. On a theoretical level, attention can be considered as a pivotal construct at the heart of classical conceptual dichotomies in language acquisition (Roussel, 2021), such as input/intake, implicit/explicit learning (Hulstijn, 2005) or automatic/controlled processes (McLaughlin, Rossman & McLeod, 1983). In parallel, the field of cognitive psychology also focuses on the allocation of learners' attentional resources in learning situations. As an instructional theory based on our knowledge of human cognition, Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, Ayres & Kalyuga, 2011) has, over the past thirty years, generated instructional effects that account for learners' limited attentional resources and are also applicable to second language teaching and learning. On a practical level, understanding the polysemy of attention helps in analyzing, designing, and optimizing second language learning environments. To illustrate this standpoint, this presentation relies on empirical studies and research findings examining listening comprehension processes, including watching videos in L2 with or without subtitles. The implications for attentional resources in learning academic content in a second language (Roussel et al., 2017), or writing with AI ChatGPT in a second language, will also be discussed.
Nicole Tracy-Ventura (West Virginia University) Nicole Tracy-Ventura is associate professor of applied linguistics specializing in second language acquisition, study abroad, task-based language teaching, and corpus linguistics. She is a founding member of the Languages and Social Networks Abroad Project (LANGSNAP), which began in 2011 to investigate individual, linguistic, and social benefits of study abroad, and has since evolved to explore the variables contributing to long-term retention of foreign/second languages. She is co-author of the book Anglophone Students Abroad: Identity, Social Relationships, and Language Learning (with Rosamond Mitchell and Kevin McManus – Routledge 2017), and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Corpora (with Magali Paquot – 2021). Her work can also be found in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Applied Psycholinguistics, International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, The Modern Language Journal, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, among others. Due to West Virginia University deciding to eliminate its Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Nicole will be starting a new position at Oklahoma State University in August 2024. The immediate and long-term effects of study abroad on L2 learning Study abroad is often considered an ideal context for second language (L2) learning due to the expectation that sojourners will be exposed to large amounts of authentic input and have ample opportunities for interaction with expert speakers of the target language, thus leading to large gains in L2 development. However, SLA research focusing on study abroad has shown it to be more complex and that immersion in the target language and culture(s) is not guaranteed. High amounts of individual variation have been found, and it has been challenging from a methodological standpoint to identify those variables that contribute most to the immediate and long-term effects of study abroad. Nonetheless, SLA research on study abroad has continued to evolve to better investigate this diverse and ever-changing context. In this talk, I will discuss recent developments in the research on L2 learning during study abroad highlighting major findings related to immediate and long-term effects. I will provide some examples from my collaborative research on the longitudinal Languages and Social Networks Abroad Project (LANGSNAP), along with other recent research. I will conclude with suggestions for future research, emphasizing the need for collaboration across different subfields of SLA, the importance of mixed-methods research designs in study abroad research, and the value of embracing open science practices to deepen our understanding of the role that study abroad plays in second language learning. |
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