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According to Hopp’s Lexical Bottleneck Hypothesis, difficulties in second language (L2) lexical processing may lead to non-target syntactic computations. In line with this hypothesis, cognates – which are processed faster than non-cognates, as defined by the cognate facilitation effect – can ease L2 syntactic processing. In order to investigate whether cognates additionally facilitate L2 syntax learning, we had two groups of Spanish natives learn an artificial language drawing on Basque. Each group explicitly learnt a set of either Spanish–Basque cognates or non-cognates and a word order grammatical rule. Then, two sentence–picture matching tasks tested their ability to apply the rule (1) with cognates vs. non-cognates and (2) with novel cognate words. Results showed that, in both cases, cognate learners were better at applying the rule than non-cognate learners. This finding suggests that the cognate facilitation effect and its role in the Lexical Bottleneck Hypothesis can be extended from L2 processing to L2 learning. We end by mentioning possible implications of our results for second language teaching in adulthood.

Recent research indicated the effectiveness of immediate and delayed corrective feedback (CF) on second language (L2) learning. What is little known is the moderating effects of learner individual factors such as foreign language anxiety (FLA) on the efficacy of immediate and delayed CF. The primary aim of the present study is thus to investigate if learners’ FLA can moderate the effectiveness of immediate and delayed feedback. To this end, 82 learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions as well as a control group. During three treatment sessions, the participants performed storytelling tasks in groups of four and received either immediate or delayed metalinguistic feedback for the errors they made. Regarding the immediate feedback condition, each participant received metalinguistic feedback immediately following an error while doing the storytelling task. For the delayed feedback condition, metalinguistic feedback was offered for each error at the end of each storytelling task. Two testing instruments, a writing task and an error correction test were used as pretest, posttest and delayed posttest to measure learners’ development as a result of the treatment sessions. Without considering learners’ FLA, the findings revealed that immediate and delayed CF are equally effective to promote L2 development. However, when taking into consideration learners’ FLA through regression analysis, the results revealed that immediate CF was more beneficial for learners with low FLA compared to high anxiety learners, but no significant associations were found between FLA and delayed CF efficacy.

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Glossing is a widely used and examined vocabulary learning tool, and one of the major branches of glossing research has compared the relative effects of first language (L1) and second language (L2) glosses on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. However, the findings in this literature have not been consistent, calling for a comprehensive and systematic review. To this end, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the relative effects of L1 and L2 glossing on L2 reading comprehension and L2 vocabulary learning. Based on 78 effect sizes gathered from 26 studies representing 30 independent samples (N = 2,189), we found that L1 glossing was more effective than L2 glossing in general (Hedge’s g = .33, SE = .09, p < .001), but the effect size may vary depending on the target outcome measure. The relative effectiveness of L1 glossing was particularly supported by the results of immediate posttests of vocabulary, rather than delayed posttests of vocabulary and reading comprehension tests. Further, among a few selected moderator variables, the results of meta-regression revealed that learners’ L2 proficiency level significantly influenced the average effectiveness, such that L1 glossing is particularly effective for beginner learners compared to those with intermediate or higher L2 proficiency levels.

This study focuses on understanding language teachers’ lived experiences of their stressors and positive uplifts from a holistic perspective covering their professional lives in school, their personal lives beyond, and the connection between the two. The aim was to explore the nature of teachers’ experiences of stress and how they spilled over from work into home domains. We also were keen to understand the dynamics of their experiences of stress and how their perception of daily stressors was related to their overall sense of wellbeing as well as their life and chronic stressors. The data were collected via a specially created app, which collected survey data and experience sampling method (ESM) data from language teachers across the globe. Teachers’ wellbeing was investigated using the PERMA Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016), their personality using Goldberg’s (1992) Big Five measurement tool, and a questionnaire on chronic stressors and stressful life events. From a larger sample (n = 47), a set of 6 case studies of teachers who scored highly for wellbeing and those who scored low on wellbeing was examined to explore in depth and across time, the relationships between overall wellbeing, chronic stressors and stressful life events, the experience of daily stressors, and perceptions of health. The findings point to the complexity of the relationships between stress, wellbeing, and health as well as the dynamism of stress and the relationships between stress experienced in the workplace and at home. The study has important implications for research in this area and reveals the merits of working with this innovative data collection tool.