Languages, Literatures, & Cultures
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Item DO MEASURES OF INDIVIDUAL WORDS AND FORMULAIC SEQUENCES TAP INTO THE SAME TRAIT: THE PERSPECTIVE OF ASSESSMENT AND THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHONOLOGICAL SHORT-TERM MEMORY AND EXPOSURE(2024) Deng, Zhiyuan; Hui, Bronson; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Nativelike language use is characterized by a high level of formulaicity (Pawley & Syder, 1983; Sinclair, 1991), and formulaic sequences are often believed to be building blocks of language acquisition (Christiansen & Arnon, 2017) and crucial to language fluency (Saito, 2020). Although they consist of multiple words and are analyzable, some researchers argued that the knowledge of formulaic sequences is largely lexical in nature, i.e., stored and processed holistically without recourse to analysis (Wray, 2002). Wray (2008) further proposed a heteromorphic view of mental lexicon, pushing the boundary of vocabulary to encompass not only individual words but also larger-than-word units such as formulaic sequences. The main purpose of the present study was to empirically test this proposal from the perspective of assessment, i.e., see if measures of formulaic sequences tap into the same latent construct underlying measures of individual words. In addition, the present study also investigated the contributions of phonological short-term memory (PSTM) and exposure to the knowledge of formulaic sequences and individual words. The study was carried out in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, and 136 Chinese participants of intermediate to advanced proficiency completed a battery of nine linguistic measures assessing their receptive and controlled productive knowledge of collocations, phrasal verbs, and individual words. In addition, their capacity of PSTM was measured by a non-word span test, and their engagement in various types of English-medium activities was measured by an exposure questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis and model comparisons were conducted to examine the factor structure of nine linguistic measures, and a bi-factor solution with a single latent trait factor underlying all nine linguistic measures and a method-specific grouping factor for all six receptive measures was selected as the best-fitting model in terms of fit and parsimony. In addition, structural equation modeling revealed that PSTM, exposure, and length of learning English were all significant predictors for the knowledge of formulaic sequences and the knowledge of individual words. The three predictors combined explained about 33.4% of variance in the knowledge of formulaic sequences and 30.9% of the variance in the knowledge of individual words. However, the contributions of PSTM and exposure to the knowledge of formulaic sequences and to the knowledge of individual words were not significantly different in magnitude. The results provided psychometric evidence supporting the legitimacy of conceptualizing a heteromorphic mental lexicon showing that measures of formulaic sequences and individual words tapped into the same latent trait.Item DOES MODALITY MATTER? AURAL AND WRITTEN VOCABULARY IN SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENING AND READING COMPREHENSION(2024) Iizuka, Takehiro; Hui, Bronson; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the significance of the mode of delivery—aural versus written—in second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge and L2 comprehension skills. One of the unique aspects of listening comprehension that sets it apart from reading comprehension is the mode of delivery—language input is delivered not visually but aurally. Somewhat surprisingly, however, this difference has not always been considered, and in fact L2 listening studies are more often accompanied by written tests (of, e.g., vocabulary knowledge) than by aural tests. Few studies have systematically examined the impact of modality on comprehension skills and linguistic variables such as vocabulary either, despite the long-standing view of language skills being multimodal. In this study, therefore, I first examined the degree to which aural and written vocabulary is separate constructs. Then I examined how each of those constructs explains listening and reading comprehension skills differently. By using latent variable modeling, I also addressed limitations in previous studies, including undue influence from measurement error and unique characteristics of particular tests.One hundred eighty-five adult Japanese learners of English took four aural and four written English vocabulary tests, with parallel test formats across the modalities to allow for comparison. The effect of words was averaged out by counterbalancing eight property-matched sets of words. The participants also took listening and reading comprehension tests. The dimensionality of vocabulary knowledge was examined by comparing one-factor and multi-factor models. The unique contribution of aural and written vocabulary knowledge to listening and reading comprehension was evaluated by latent variable path analysis. The difference in the sizes of aural and written vocabulary knowledge was examined by latent means modeling. The results of the study were nuanced. Modality effects were observed in the sense that (1) a two-factor model of vocabulary knowledge with aural and written vocabulary had a significantly better fit to the data than a one-factor model, (2) aural vocabulary knowledge uniquely explained some variance in listening comprehension skills, and (3) the participants’ aural vocabulary size was significantly smaller than their written vocabulary size. However, the effects of modality were limited in the sense that (1) the aural and written vocabulary knowledge factors were very highly correlated and (2) the common part of the two factors—general vocabulary knowledge—explained much more variance in each of listening and reading comprehension skills than modality-specific knowledge. These results suggest that, although aural versus written test modality effects do seem to exist in L2 vocabulary knowledge and comprehension skills, its practical impact is small compared with that of general vocabulary knowledge at least in the context where words are presented in isolation as in the present study.Item THE CROSS-LANGUAGE ACTIVATION OF FIRST LANGUAGE (L1) HOMONYMS TRANSLATIONS IN SECOND LANGUAGE (L2) PROCESSING: AN INVESTIGATION OF WHETHER L1 TRANSLATION ARE ACTIVATED IN L2 SENTENCE CONTEXT(2024) Alsalmi, Mona Othman; Jiang, Nan; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A present study aimed to investigate the role of a first language (L1) translation on a second language (L2) word processing in a sentential context by relatively advanced Arabic learners of English. The focus is on cases where a homonymous word in the L1 is realized by independent words in the L2, (e.g. Arabic قرش realized by English shark and coin). Using the visual-world paradigm, Arabic-English bilinguals and English native participants were auditorily presented with English sentences that are predictive of a target word (e.g., “shark” in Scuba divers saw the sharp teeth of a giant shark yesterday) while looking at a visual screen. The screen contained one of the three critical objects: a target object whose English name corresponded to the target word (shark; Arabic: قرش) in the target condition, an Arabic competitor object whose Arabic name shared the same Arabic translation with the target word (coin; Arabic: قرش) in the Arabic condition, or an object that was unrelated to the target word (drums; Arabic طبل) in the control condition.Compared to native speakers of English, relatively advanced Saudi learners of English made more fixations on the critical objects in the Arabic condition compared to the control condition. This study supports the potential automatic activation of L1 translations when processing sentences in L2, even in relatively proficient learners and suggests evidence for the verification model in L2 word recognition.Item Moderating Effects of Difficulty on Individual Differences' Prediction of Intensive Second Language Proficiency Attainment(2024) Pulupa, Catherine Maria; Hui, Bronson; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The United States government is perennially in need of employees with proficiency in critical foreign languages to communicate with foreign counterparts and maintain relationships worldwide. In order to fulfill this need, the government devotes significant resources training federal employees to advanced levels of language proficiency through intensive courses aimed at developing communicative language skills that reflect the work that employees will perform in their work advancing the interests of the United States abroad. Notable proportions of employees fail to meet proficiency goals at the end of training, and little is known about what learner individual differences drive whether or not employees will meet their proficiency goals in order to perform their work on behalf of the United States. To this aim, the current investigation utilizes multiple analyses to explore and explain the interrelationships between learner individual differences, language difficulty, and proficiency attainment throughout training. The investigation constitutes two related analyses. First, a path-analytic approach examines associations between a cognitive (aptitude) measure and non-cognitive (motivation, familiarity with curricula, previous advanced second language learning) measures with student proficiency achievement throughout training. A second analysis builds on the first: the path-analytic model incorporates a measure of difficulty of the language studied by the students to determine how difficulty influences language learning and ultimate attainment within the context of individual differences in L2 speaking and reading. Results demonstrated consistent influence of language aptitude on proficiency attainment, and notable influences of previous L2 acquisition and the alignment of training to individuals’ language use goals. L2 difficulty moderated the relationships between individual differences and proficiency assessment scores during several points in training. The findings support an understanding of adult L2 acquisition that more fully considers learners’ goals and previous L2 experiences and consideration of the impact that difficulty can have on individual learners’ abilities to achieve target proficiency goals.Item TOWARD A THEORY-BASED ACCOUNT OF THE L2 VOCABULARY PROCESSING AND LEARNING BENEFITS OF READING WHILE LISTENING(2024) Malone, Jonathan; Gor, Kira; Hui, Bronson; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The tantalizing prospects of learning benefits from multimodal conditions on second language (L2) learning in general, and L2 vocabulary development in particular, have important implications. Indeed, opening a language learning app on any device provides the immediate experience of simultaneous input modalities, and a wide range of input types. But how helpful is multimodality to vocabulary learning, especially when the focus of the learner is on the meaning of a text? Researchers have manipulated input to compare a variety of learning conditions and examined vocabulary learning gains. However, relatively few within second language acquisition (SLA) have utilized real-time monitoring of learner behavior to examine how learners encounter new words over multiple exposures during a reading task, and how the quality of these encounters may or may not influence explicit learning outcomes. Even fewer have mapped differences in the developmental trajectory of form-form and form-meaning mapping for new words at the group level, comparing reading only (RO) with reading while listening (RWL). Crucially, to my knowledge, none have made or tested predictions within RWL on possible psycholinguistic source(s) of reported benefits. Our understanding of outcome benefits, along with implications for optimizing input in classroom or individual instructed contexts, is thereby quite limited. My dissertation study was designed to address each of these issues. 119 advanced English learners read or read while listening to a 7,400-word short story under incidental conditions (time pressure, focus on comprehension, and unannounced posttest outcomes). The text was embedded with 25 target pseudoword items 10 times each, with target items replacing real nouns in object positions. Measures of real-time form learning were defined as faster reading times and fewer total visits to the new words across encounters (Godfroid, 2020b), and there were three post-exposure measures of explicit word knowledge (form recognition, meaning recognition, meaning recall). New to this area of vocabulary research, outcome items were presented in randomized item modality (visual or auditory), to ensure congruence between treatment and test items and reducing modality-specific testing bias (Jelani & Boers, 2018). Group-level comparisons examined differences in (1) developmental trajectory of form familiarity and meaning integration for RO and RWL groups, (2) learning outcomes, and (3) effects of multi-componential L2 proficiency and phonological short-term memory (PSTM) skills on processing and learning outcomes. Within-RWL analyses operationalized a theoretical source of benefit (reading slightly ahead of the audio) and its impact on reading time and posttest learning gains. Findings indicated differences between RO and RWL across three measures of eye movements: (1) gaze duration (GD), a measure of form familiarity with new words; (2) total reading time (TRT), a measure of meaning integration; and (3) visit count, or the total number of encounters looking at the words. The overall pattern for RWL indicated longer initial reading times for new words, fewer re-readings, and steadier decrease in GD and TRT across encounters. Additionally, differences in learning outcomes were most clearly revealed through auditory test items, with RWL superior to RO across all three posttest outcome measures, and a group by item modality interaction. In other words, RWL indicated superior overall effects compared with RO across all items in form recognition and meaning recall, across all three posttests in auditory items, and better scores on visual than auditory items in RO (but equal across test item modality in RWL). Within-RWL analyses revealed that reading ahead of the audio was a positive predictor of TRT, as well as the most difficult of the three outcome measures (meaning recall). While PSTM predicted processing of new words, it did not predict outcomes for any of the three measures of vocabulary learning gains for advanced-level L2 readers. In sum, this study provides convergent evidence that process (form-form / form-meaning acquisition) and product (learning gains) are both positively impacted for new words under multimodal incidental conditions for advanced L2 learners, along with an initial indication that audiovisual asynchrony may play a role in RWL benefits in learning new words above and beyond L2 proficiency or memory skills.Item TRADUCCIÓN LITERARIA PARA LA EXPLORACIÓN DE LA IDENTIDAD EN HABLANTES DE HERENCIA DEL ESPAÑOL(2023) Torrubia-Gortari, Isabel; Gironzetti, Dr. E; Demaria, Dr. L; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)El campo del español como lengua de herencia (ELH) en los Estados Unidos se ha construido a partir del reconocimiento de las diferencias entre hablantes de herencia (HH) del español y hablantes del español como segunda lengua o lengua extranjera (EL2/LE). Esta diferenciación se concreta tanto en rasgos y fenómenos lingüísticos propios de los HH, como en las conexiones históricas y socioafectivas con la lengua y cultura de herencia. En suma, se trata de una diferencia de relación entre hablantes, lengua y cultura. El cómo se trazan estas relaciones pasa por procesos de identificación, definición, exploración y explicación. Es decir, es preciso saber quiénes son los hablantes de herencia del español y, después, es necesario elaborar una definición de referencia, que en la actualidad se despliega en dos direcciones: hacia atrás, al capturar la identidad en los rasgos que conforman la definición, y hacia delante, al orientar la investigación y la interpretación de los distintos fenómenos y prácticas que se registran en los hablantes. El objetivo principal de esta tesina es explorar el concepto identitario que se ha capturado y negociado en la definición de HH y, de ahí, observar cómo se ha trasladado a las propuestas y prácticas pedagógicas dentro del campo de ELH. A partir de estas mismas propuestas, se quiere proponer un concepto identitario como herramienta operacional, es decir, que pueda facilitar la integración de los diversos rasgos identitarios de los HH y, a la vez, de otras dimensiones más universales de su multiculturalidad; que permita abarcar dimensiones locales y específicas (como las que señala y sobre las que trabaja el campo de ELH) y también otras más amplias, específicas a cada hablante y mediadas por otras dimensiones de subjetividad. Para ello, en esta tesina se lleva a cabo en primer lugar un análisis del concepto de identidad de los HH actual, de las disciplinas que han contribuido a su articulación y de sus logros y limitaciones. Después, a partir de los trabajos de Taylor (1995) y Levinás (1963), se propone un giro interpretativo y ético para llevar el concepto del plano teórico al operativo a través de un propuesta que incluye la personalidad y la afectividad como dimensiones subjetivas esenciales y de una orientación del concepto identitario hacia el exterior para destacar sus dimensiones relacionales. Se revisan algunas de las propuestas más populares dentro del campo de ELH para el desarrollo identitario (Critical Language Awareness y traducción pedagógica) y se plantea la traducción literaria como otra propuesta que integra la práctica y conciencia crítica de las otras, y permite aplicar el concepto identitario planteado en esta tesina. Luego se presentan los resultados de un estudio exploratorio basado en un protocolo verbal y una tarea de traducción literaria, cuyo objetivo es la observación del concepto identitario propuesto de forma aplicada, registrando múltiples dimensiones de forma indirecta, sin que los participantes sepan la relación entre la meta del estudio y la tarea. Finalmente, con base en todo lo anterior, se plantean propuestas y direcciones de trabajo que permitan incorporar la traducción literaria en el proceso del desarrollo identitario de los HH en Estados Unidos.Item Individual Variables in Context: A Longitudinal Study of Child and Adolescent English Language Learners(2023) Struck, Jason; Jiang, Nan; Clark, Martyn; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Millions of public-school students in the United States are identified as English language learners (ELLs), whose academic success is tied to their second language (L2) English education. Previous research in adult populations indicates that L2 proficiency is related to the contextual variable of the prevalence of one’s first language (L1) among their peers, called L1 density, which may also moderate the effects of individual variables such as age and exposure to the L2. Despite its substantial impact on the amount and quality of adult learners’ exposure to the L2, the variable of L1 density has received little attention in child and adolescent populations, even though it is unknown what role, if any, L1 density plays in L2 acquisition in a school context. Other outstanding questions concerning individual variables include the nature of the purported rate advantage of later starters and whether the similarity of one's L1 and L2 is related to L2 proficiency.The current study addressed these questions by analyzing longitudinal L2 proficiency assessment records of 10,879 ELLs in grades 1–12 in the United States. The assessment was WIDA's ACCESS for ELLs Online Test, a national, standardized test with scores for each of the four domains of listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Multilevel models were used to estimate the effects of several variables: age of enrollment in a United States school, length of enrollment, language similarity, and L1 density. In the fitted model estimates, age of enrollment had a small, positive effect. Length of enrollment had a sizable, positive effect but attenuated over time. ELLs enrolling at a later age progressed slightly slower than ELLs enrolling at an earlier age, contrary to the widely accepted notion that later starters enjoy a rate advantage. Little to no evidence was found for a relationship between test scores and language similarity or L1 density, or that the effects of age of enrollment or length of enrollment varied with L1 density. The results of this study give evidence for the following conclusions for ELLs in United States schools: an earlier age of enrollment is associated with greater gains in L2 proficiency over time, speakers of different L1s are not expected to become differentially proficient in L2 English, and ELLs’ levels of L2 proficiency are not expected to vary with how many of their peers speak the same L1.Item Variation in Interlanguage: Evidence from Internal and External Patterning of Morphosyntactic Variability in the Speech of Second Language Learners(2022) Zheng, Qi; Jiang, Nan; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Language is inherently variable, and learner language is particularly variable. The variationist paradigm considers learner language a heterogeneously variable yet inherently rule-governed system. Specifically, learners’ alternation between native-like and nonnative-like variants of a variable or invariable target native speaker (NS) form constitutes learner language variation. Variation is also viewed as an indication of a transitional phase towards acquisition (e.g., Regan, 2013; Tagliamonte, 2011). With a particular concentration on second language (L2) morphosyntactic variation, this dissertation explored inter-learner variation and intra-learner variability together with interlanguage development by analyzing Japanese L2 learners’ oral performances in English oral proficiency interviews. The research observed and studied the variation pattern in the interview data and identified the linguistic, paralinguistic, and nonlinguistic factors and factor groups which may give rise to Japanese L2 learners’ repeated exercise of their interlanguage grammar for four morphosyntactic features: preposition/particle, article, object pronoun-dropping, and modal auxiliary verb. The data were analyzed by using classification trees, random forests, and mixed-effects variable rule methods which together identified a hierarchy of variable importance among potential factors and factor groups and the influential factor levels within each significant factor group. With modern mixed models, the dissertation concluded that the observed morphosyntactic variation is subject to inter-lingual and intra-learner factors. Additionally, learners may also have individualized baselines and grammar. More importantly, the findings of the current research have provided important theoretical and empirical justification on whether and how individual patterns mirror the interlanguage patterns and hence an inter-lingual developmental understanding of L2 morphosyntactic competence.Item Lexical development and masked orthographic priming in the second language(2022) Park, Kichan; Kira, Gor; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The fuzzy lexical representations (FLR) hypothesis proposes that form encoding of words in a second language (L2) is often fuzzy, and this concerns both phonological and orthographic representations. FLR occur because of difficulties in encoding of L2 word forms as well as insufficient L2 experience. The FLR hypothesis also suggests that fuzzy L2 orthographic representations are the reason for the weak lexical competition for orthographic neighbor prime-target pairs in the L2 that has been observed in previous research (e.g., Jiang, 2021). However, this hypothesis also assumes that as orthographic representations become robust along with learners’ L2 experience, L2 words are eventually able to take part in lexical competition just like first language (L1) words. The current study tests these hypotheses using the individual-differences measures of the quality (orthographic precision) and the quantity (vocabulary size) of orthographic representations. At the same time, this study explores the relationship between sound perception (word and phoneme identification) of nonnative contrasts (e.g., the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast for Korean L2 learners of English), phonolexical encoding, and form facilitation for minimal pairs with these contrasts. A masked priming LDT was employed, in which minimal pairs with a nonnative phonological contrast (e.g., read-LEAD) and minimal pairs without a confusing phonological contrast (e.g., dear-TEAR) were used as the prime and target. Before the experiment, it was predicted that low-proficiency L2 speakers would show significant form facilitation under all prime conditions. On the other hand, medium-proficiency L2 speakers were expected to show evidence of emerging lexical competition (a null priming effect) for prime-target pairs without a difficult phonological contrast (e.g., dear-TEAR), although they would still show form facilitation for minimal pairs with a nonnative phonological contrast (e.g., read-LEAD). The facilitation for the latter pairs was predicted to occur because of less successful orthographic encoding of these pairs caused by fuzzy phonological representations of L2 words with difficult phonological contrasts. It was further expected that high-proficiency L2 speakers would show a nativelike pattern of form priming across all the prime conditions. Thirty L1 speakers and 90 L2 learners of English with a wide range of L2 proficiency were recruited for the experiment. In auditory word and phoneme identification tasks, L2 speakers showed less accurate identification of the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast compared to L1 speakers indicating that they indeed had problems in accurate sound perception and/or phonological categorization of the nonnative contrast as had been predicted. In the masked priming LDT, L1 speakers showed a null priming effect across the prime conditions. L2 speakers showed significant form priming for words with the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast but not for other words without a difficult contrast. When form priming in each L2 participant group was examined separately, low- and medium-proficiency L2 speakers showed significant facilitation for pairs with the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast, but high-proficiency L2 speakers showed a null priming effect for these pairs as L1 speakers did. This finding supports the prediction of the current study. At the same time, the influence of global proficiency, as measured by a cloze test, on the orthographic form priming was statistically non-significant. Furthermore, form facilitation for prime-target pairs without a confusing contrast (e.g., dear-TEAR) was not significant even in low-proficiency L2 participant groups. Through a series of investigations on the relationships between the form priming found in L2 speakers and their performance on individual-differences measures (spelling, vocabulary, word identification and phoneme identification tasks), the present study discovered that form facilitation was significantly modulated by L2 speakers’ orthographic precision (spelling scores). Moreover, it was found that the influence of orthographic precision on the form facilitation was more prominent for words that were more difficult for accurate phonological encoding, and as a consequence, orthographic encoding (i.e., minimal pairs with the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast) than others without a confusing contrast. These findings support the FLR hypothesis which argues for the role of the quality of orthographic representations in lexical competition between orthographic neighbors. The role of vocabulary size (vocabulary scores) was also found for four-letter stimuli indicating that the development of the size of the mental lexicon also affects lexical competition. On the other hand, no modulating role was observed of accurate word or phoneme identification of nonnative contrasts in form priming for minimal pairs with these contrasts. Based on these findings, this study suggests that (1) the orthographic form facilitation discovered at initial stages of L2 lexical development is due to fuzzy L2 orthographic representations. In addition, it claims that (2) as L2 speakers establish a larger and more precise L2 lexicon, L2 words can take part in lexical competition just as L1 words do. It also proposes that (3) the establishment of precise orthographic (or phonological) representations of L2 words with a confusing phonological contrast is more challenging than those without a difficult contrast. (4) Finally, although the observed weak effect of sound perception on form priming seems to indicate no systematic relationship between the development of phonological categorization ability and the form facilitation for these words, the present study contends that it may be premature to draw a conclusion about the role of phonolexical representations involving a nonnative contrast in orthographic representations. Indeed, the results may be due to methodological limitations of the word and phoneme identification tasks as a measure of the quality of phonological representations.Item Simply (neuro-)stimulating: The effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on phonological and lexical tone learning indexed by behavior and pupillometry(2021) Pandza, Nicholas Balint; Gor, Kira; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Mandarin lexical tone learning has repeatedly been identified as a difficult linguistic feature for non-native speakers of tonal languages like English, even for native English learners of Mandarin at high proficiencies (e.g., Pelzl et al., 2019b). Sound perception training has been shown to help native English speakers perceive lexical tone differences, but acquiring lexical tone as a feature still remains difficult, even after as many as 18 training sessions (Bowles et al., 2016; Chandrasekaran et al., 2010; Li & DeKeyser, 2017; 2019; Liu & Chandrasekaran, 2013; Wang et al., 1999; 2003; Wong et al., 2011; Wong & Perrachione, 2007). While much of the tone learning literature has focused on different training interventions to overcome learning plateaus, another type of intervention that could augment learning is non-invasive neurostimulation. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is a type of safe, non-invasive neurostimulation that delivers electrical current to the ear canal that has been shown to enhance cognition and learning (e.g., Jacobs et al., 2015). This dissertation investigated taVNS and its potential impact as tool to enhance Mandarin tone learning. Participants in three groups, peristim taVNS, priming taVNS, and a sham taVNS control participated in a double-blind two-day Mandarin phonological and lexical tone training study. Behavioral data including accuracy and reaction time were collected, as was physiological data in the form of pupillometry due to its ties both to cognitive effort and the most well-studied taVNS mechanism of action, the production of norepinephrine. Active taVNS groups received stimulation before or during multiple training and testing tasks across the two days. This body of work revealed: (1) priming and peristim administrations of taVNS differentially facilitated vocabulary learning of words with Mandarin tone, (2) priming and peristim administrations of taVNS differentially facilitated learning of new phonological tone categories, and (3) the effects of individual differences were substantially and differentially impacted by priming and peristim administrations taVNS, all results compared to a sham control. The evidence herein supports the potential of taVNS as a practical treatment intervention for enhancing language learning and reveals a number of considerations for its use and implementation to be explored in future research.