Language learning
Language Learning strategies in Kuwait: links to gender, language level, and culture in a hybrid context and a comparison of form-focused activities.
Abstract
This article presents a case study of a Russian-Hebrew bilingual transcortical sensory aphasic. In general, apha-sic symptoms are similar in the two languages, with Hebrew being somewhat more impaired. However, the patient reveals a difference in her ability to perceive phonemes in the context of Hebrew words that is dependent on whether they are presented in a Russian or a native accent. This finding is interpreted as showing that a mediating mechanism which assimilates second language phonemes to native language phonological categories is differentially damaged. Implications for models of speech perception in general and second language phonetic perception in particular are dis-cussed. 51-64. This study examines orthographic sensitivity among adult second language (L2) learners with diverse first language (LI) backgrounds. The specific purposes are threefold: (a) to determine whether there are differences among adult learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) with alphabetic and non-alphabetic LI backgrounds in their intraword structural sensitivity; (b) to explore specific ways in which such sensitivity differs among LI and L2 readers of English; and (c) to examine the extent to which the sensitivity affects decoding performance among ESL participants. The findings suggest that (a) LI alphabetic experience promotes L2 intraword structural sensitivity; (b) ESL learners, regard-less of their LI backgrounds, are strongly inclined to use visual familiarity as a primary cue during orthographic processing; (c) the ability to detect orthographic constraint violations separates L2 from LI readers; and (d) qualitative differences in LI processing experience are directly associated with procedural variations in L2 decoding, but such variations do not always result in quantitative differences in decoding performance.