Lexical Performance by Native and Non-Native Speakers on Language-Learning Tasks

The last 20 years or so have seen a vast increase in research into second language learning tasks. A series of articles has been published by this author and co-researchers taking a cognitive approach to task performance (Foster, 2001a; Foster and Skehan, 1996, 1999; Skehan and Foster, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2007). This chapter reports on a meta-analysis of these studies (see also Skehan and Foster, 2007), but it does so with two additional foci. First, most research with tasks has focused only on second language learners. As a result, it is difficult to disentangle whether performances which are reported are the result of the different variables which are being manipulated (e.g. task characteristics, task conditions) or simply the second language speakerness of the participants. One needs baseline native-speaker data, of the sort reported in Foster (2001a), to enable a better perspective on the results to be obtained.