Alex Housen
Biographic Data
| ID | 753642 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alex Housen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alex |
| FAMILY NAME | Housen |
| SIGNATURE | HOUSEN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vrije Universiteit Brussel |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0306-0589 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The role of perceptual salience in L2 morphology acquisition
Acquiring morphology poses a considerable challenge in second language acquisition (SLA), highlighting the need to explore methods that facilitate this task for L2 learners. One potential facilitator is salience, which is theorized to aid language acquisition by directing learners’ attention to certain linguistic elements. To empirically investigate the impact of one type of salience, perceptual salience, a text-based eye-tracking experiment was …
Bound to be noticed? Opposing effects of boundedness on attention to morphemes in L2 reading
Introduction Salience—the extent to which a feature stands out from its environment-has been posited as an important cognitive factor in second language (L2) acquisition. However, supporting empirical research remains scarce, particularly looking at specific effects of salience properties in isolation. For example, although morphological boundedness of a form has been theorized to impact its salience, to date no study has considered morphological…
Exploring complexity at the lexis-grammar interface
On Umbrellas and Omnibuses
This response to the commentaries on our conceptual review article on structural complexity and learning difficulty in second language acquisition (SLA) clarifies the scope and objectives of our framework, the challenges of defining and measuring complexity and difficulty, and the broader relevance of our proposal for both empirical research and theory building in SLA, including its relationships to frameworks such as complexity–accuracy–fluency …
Complexity and Difficulty in Second Language Acquisition
This article presents a theoretical review of and methodological guidelines for the study of two key notions in second language acquisition research, complexity and difficulty. The term complexity has gained considerable currency over the past decades and has taken on a wide range of meanings. We argue for a more restricted interpretation, focusing exclusively on formal, structural properties of linguistic items. The less employed term difficulty…
Learning second language morphosyntax in dialogue under explicit and implicit conditions
We investigate the role of awareness in learning non-salient grammar features in a second language during oral interaction. We conducted a learning experiment during which forty-eight adult Dutch-speaking advanced learners of German and a native German-speaking experimenter engaged in a scripted oral dialogue game. The experimenter and learner in turn produced sentences based on pictures eliciting German strong verbs with stem-vowel alternations,…
Comparing the longitudinal development of phraseological complexity across oral and written tasks
This study builds upon previous research investigating the construct validity of phraseological complexity as an index of L2 development and proficiency. Whereas previous studies have focused on cross-sectional comparisons of written productions across proficiency levels, the current study compares the longitudinal development of phraseological complexity in written and oral productions elicited over a 21-month period from learners of French. We …
Proficiency at the lexis–grammar interface
This study investigates whether re-thinking the separation of lexis and grammar in language testing could lead to more valid inferences about proficiency across modes. As argued by Römer, typical scoring rubrics ignore important information about proficiency encoded at the lexis–grammar interface, in particular how the co-selection of lexical and grammatical features is mediated by communicative function. This is especially evident when assessing…
Difficulty and Complexity of Language Features and Second Language Instruction
Since the 1990s, researchers in applied linguistics and second language acquisition have given increasing attention to how instruction affects the acquisition and mastery of language features, and whether some types of language features are more effectively instructed than others. Type of language feature has typically been considered in terms of whether features are somehow complex, hard, or difficult or, rather, simple or easy to learn or use. …
Variation in syntactic complexity
This special issue, focusing on different types of variation in syntactic complexity, offers a critical discussion of the role of variation in syntactic complexity research in SLA. Special attention is paid to inter‐learner variation (i.e., individual developmental trajectories of acquiring syntactic complexity) and to interactions with related constructs, for instance between syntax and morphology, and between syntactic and lexical complexity. T…
Syntactic complexity in L2 writing
The present study aims to contribute to a fuller understanding of how the L2 production of L2 learners varies over time in terms of syntactic complexity by analyzing a substantive number of English L2 writing samples (n = 11) produced by a sizable group of learners (n = 10) over a relatively long period of time (19 months), using a judicious selection of quantitative measures of syntactic complexity. The focus is on synchronic and diachronic vari…
Multiple approaches to complexity in second language research
In the past decades, there has been a surge in interest in the study of language complexity in second language (L2) research. In this article we provide an overview of current theoretical and methodological practices in L2 complexity research, while simultaneously framing these within the broader scientific interest into the notion of complexity. In addition to focusing on the role of complexity in L2 research, we trace how language complexity ha…
Noun phrase complexity in Nigerian English
Structural simplicity/complexity is an important variable with which New Englishes and native varieties are identified and conceptualised, but predicting such variation in complexity has received little attention in the literature. New Englishes, especially the outer circle varieties such as Nigerian or Indian English, differ in form and function from the inner circle varieties, such as British or American English, but the extent of such variatio…
The development of morphological complexity
Studies in second language acquisition (SLA) increasingly rely on measures of linguistic complexity to assess second language (L2) proficiency and development. While an important number of studies have risen to the call of studying a broader range of complexity related constructs (Bulté and Housen, 2012; Norris and Ortega, 2009), few have examined morphological complexity, instead focusing on syntax and lexis. The use of morphology measures is es…
Evaluating short-term changes in L2 complexity development
This paper reports on a study on the nature and extent of the development of English L2 writing proficiency of 45 adult ESL learners over the time of an intensive short-term EAP program as evaluated by means of objective measures targeting different components of lexical and syntactic complexity. In addition, we compare the scores on these measures with more holistic and subjective ratings of learners' overall writing quality. Results reveal that…
Developmental stages in receptive grammar acquisition
This study takes a new look at the topic of developmental stages in the second language (L2) acquisition of morphosyntax by analysing receptive learner data, a language mode that has hitherto received very little attention within this strand of research (for a recent and rare study, see Spinner, 2013). Looking at both the receptive and productive side of grammar acquisition, however, is necessary for a better understanding of developmental system…
Difficulty and Complexity of Language Features and Second Language Instruction
Since the mid‐1990s applied linguistics and SLA research have given increasing attention to how instruction affects language features, such as forms, items, structures, patterns, and rules, and whether some features are more effectively instructed than others. These issues are of relevance to various stakeholders. For SLA researchers, knowing how the nature of the input stimulus interacts with the human cognitive‐processing and learning mechanism…
Conceptualizing and measuring short-term changes in L2 writing complexity
Factors, processes and outcomes of early immersion education in the Francophone Community in Belgium
Although Belgium is characterized by a widespread consensus that a functional proficiency in the two major national languages, Dutch and French, as well as in English is desirable, educational provision to achieve such proficiency has long been constrained by an official language policy which mandates that education must be monolingual in Dutch, French or German. The last two decades, however, have witnessed an increased interest in bilingual edu…
An Eye for Words
This eye-tracking study tests the hypothesis that more attention leads to more learning, following claims that attention to new language elements in the input results in their initial representation in long-term memory (i.e., intake; Robinson, 2003; Schmidt, 1990, 2001). Twenty-eight advanced learners of English read English texts that contained 12 targets for incidental word learning. The target was a known word (control condition), a matched ps…
Dimensions of L2 Performance and Proficiency
Research into complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) as basic dimensions of second language performance, proficiency and development has received increased attention in SLA. However, the larger picture in this field of research is often obscured by the breadth of scope, multiple objectives and lack of clarity as to how complexity, accuracy and fluency should be defined, operationalized and measured. The present volume showcases current research o…
Defining and operationalising L2 complexity
This chapter takes a critical look at complexity in L2 research. We demonstrate several problems in the L2 literature in terms of how complexity has been defined and operationalised as a construct. In the first part of the chapter we try to unravel its highly complex, multidimensional nature by presenting a taxonomic model that identifies major types, dimensions and components of L2 complexity, each of which can be independently analysed or measu…
Opportunities and Challenges of Bilingualism
Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency in Second Language Acquisition
This special issue addresses a general question that is at the heart of much research in applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA): what makes a second or foreign language (L2) user, or a native speaker for that matter, a more or less proficient language user? Many researchers and language practitioners believe that the constructs of L2 performance and L2 proficiency are multi-componential in nature, and that their principal dimen…
Processes and Outcomes in the European Schools Model of Multilingual Education
This article discusses aspects of the European Schools model of multilingual and multicultural education, with a particular emphasis on its language component. European Schools (ES) cater to a linguistically and culturally diverse population and operate in up to nine languages at the same site. Pupils receive most of their education in their respective first languages but are required to learn at least two other languages in the course of their s…
The development of morphological complexity
Studies in second language acquisition (SLA) increasingly rely on measures of linguistic complexity to assess second language (L2) proficiency and development. While an important number of studies have risen to the call of studying a broader range of complexity related constructs (Bulté and Housen, 2012; Norris and Ortega, 2009), few have examined morphological complexity, instead focusing on syntax and lexis. The use of morphology measures is es…
Multiple approaches to complexity in second language research
In the past decades, there has been a surge in interest in the study of language complexity in second language (L2) research. In this article we provide an overview of current theoretical and methodological practices in L2 complexity research, while simultaneously framing these within the broader scientific interest into the notion of complexity. In addition to focusing on the role of complexity in L2 research, we trace how language complexity ha…
Syntactic complexity in L2 writing
The present study aims to contribute to a fuller understanding of how the L2 production of L2 learners varies over time in terms of syntactic complexity by analyzing a substantive number of English L2 writing samples (n = 11) produced by a sizable group of learners (n = 10) over a relatively long period of time (19 months), using a judicious selection of quantitative measures of syntactic complexity. The focus is on synchronic and diachronic vari…
Processes and Outcomes in the European Schools Model of Multilingual Education
This article discusses aspects of the European Schools model of multilingual and multicultural education, with a particular emphasis on its language component. European Schools (ES) cater to a linguistically and culturally diverse population and operate in up to nine languages at the same site. Pupils receive most of their education in their respective first languages but are required to learn at least two other languages in the course of their s…
Variation in syntactic complexity
This special issue, focusing on different types of variation in syntactic complexity, offers a critical discussion of the role of variation in syntactic complexity research in SLA. Special attention is paid to inter‐learner variation (i.e., individual developmental trajectories of acquiring syntactic complexity) and to interactions with related constructs, for instance between syntax and morphology, and between syntactic and lexical complexity. T…
Developmental stages in receptive grammar acquisition
This study takes a new look at the topic of developmental stages in the second language (L2) acquisition of morphosyntax by analysing receptive learner data, a language mode that has hitherto received very little attention within this strand of research (for a recent and rare study, see Spinner, 2013). Looking at both the receptive and productive side of grammar acquisition, however, is necessary for a better understanding of developmental system…
Developing Second Language from Primary School
From Pragmatics to Syntax
Processes and Outcomes in the European Schools Model of Multilingual Education
This article discusses aspects of the European Schools model of multilingual and multicultural education, with a particular emphasis on its language component. European Schools (ES) cater to a linguistically and culturally diverse population and operate in up to nine languages at the same site. Pupils receive most of their education in their respective first languages but are required to learn at least two other languages in the course of their s…
Contextual, Output and Operational Variables in Bilingual Education in Latvia
This paper evaluates the implementation and implications of the recent Education Act in Latvia for the education of language minority children in Latvia. By analysing the output, contextual and operational variables that determine language education policy, comparisons are made with two established Western European models of multilingual education, the European School model and the system of trilingual education in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. …
Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency in Second Language Acquisition
This special issue addresses a general question that is at the heart of much research in applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA): what makes a second or foreign language (L2) user, or a native speaker for that matter, a more or less proficient language user? Many researchers and language practitioners believe that the constructs of L2 performance and L2 proficiency are multi-componential in nature, and that their principal dimen…
Opportunities and Challenges of Bilingualism
Dimensions of L2 Performance and Proficiency
Research into complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) as basic dimensions of second language performance, proficiency and development has received increased attention in SLA. However, the larger picture in this field of research is often obscured by the breadth of scope, multiple objectives and lack of clarity as to how complexity, accuracy and fluency should be defined, operationalized and measured. The present volume showcases current research o…
Defining and operationalising L2 complexity
This chapter takes a critical look at complexity in L2 research. We demonstrate several problems in the L2 literature in terms of how complexity has been defined and operationalised as a construct. In the first part of the chapter we try to unravel its highly complex, multidimensional nature by presenting a taxonomic model that identifies major types, dimensions and components of L2 complexity, each of which can be independently analysed or measu…
An Eye for Words
This eye-tracking study tests the hypothesis that more attention leads to more learning, following claims that attention to new language elements in the input results in their initial representation in long-term memory (i.e., intake; Robinson, 2003; Schmidt, 1990, 2001). Twenty-eight advanced learners of English read English texts that contained 12 targets for incidental word learning. The target was a known word (control condition), a matched ps…
Difficulty and Complexity of Language Features and Second Language Instruction
Since the mid‐1990s applied linguistics and SLA research have given increasing attention to how instruction affects language features, such as forms, items, structures, patterns, and rules, and whether some features are more effectively instructed than others. These issues are of relevance to various stakeholders. For SLA researchers, knowing how the nature of the input stimulus interacts with the human cognitive‐processing and learning mechanism…
Conceptualizing and measuring short-term changes in L2 writing complexity
Factors, processes and outcomes of early immersion education in the Francophone Community in Belgium
Although Belgium is characterized by a widespread consensus that a functional proficiency in the two major national languages, Dutch and French, as well as in English is desirable, educational provision to achieve such proficiency has long been constrained by an official language policy which mandates that education must be monolingual in Dutch, French or German. The last two decades, however, have witnessed an increased interest in bilingual edu…
Evaluating short-term changes in L2 complexity development
This paper reports on a study on the nature and extent of the development of English L2 writing proficiency of 45 adult ESL learners over the time of an intensive short-term EAP program as evaluated by means of objective measures targeting different components of lexical and syntactic complexity. In addition, we compare the scores on these measures with more holistic and subjective ratings of learners' overall writing quality. Results reveal that…
Developmental stages in receptive grammar acquisition
This study takes a new look at the topic of developmental stages in the second language (L2) acquisition of morphosyntax by analysing receptive learner data, a language mode that has hitherto received very little attention within this strand of research (for a recent and rare study, see Spinner, 2013). Looking at both the receptive and productive side of grammar acquisition, however, is necessary for a better understanding of developmental system…
The development of morphological complexity
Studies in second language acquisition (SLA) increasingly rely on measures of linguistic complexity to assess second language (L2) proficiency and development. While an important number of studies have risen to the call of studying a broader range of complexity related constructs (Bulté and Housen, 2012; Norris and Ortega, 2009), few have examined morphological complexity, instead focusing on syntax and lexis. The use of morphology measures is es…
Noun phrase complexity in Nigerian English
Structural simplicity/complexity is an important variable with which New Englishes and native varieties are identified and conceptualised, but predicting such variation in complexity has received little attention in the literature. New Englishes, especially the outer circle varieties such as Nigerian or Indian English, differ in form and function from the inner circle varieties, such as British or American English, but the extent of such variatio…
Syntactic complexity in L2 writing
The present study aims to contribute to a fuller understanding of how the L2 production of L2 learners varies over time in terms of syntactic complexity by analyzing a substantive number of English L2 writing samples (n = 11) produced by a sizable group of learners (n = 10) over a relatively long period of time (19 months), using a judicious selection of quantitative measures of syntactic complexity. The focus is on synchronic and diachronic vari…
Multiple approaches to complexity in second language research
In the past decades, there has been a surge in interest in the study of language complexity in second language (L2) research. In this article we provide an overview of current theoretical and methodological practices in L2 complexity research, while simultaneously framing these within the broader scientific interest into the notion of complexity. In addition to focusing on the role of complexity in L2 research, we trace how language complexity ha…
Variation in syntactic complexity
This special issue, focusing on different types of variation in syntactic complexity, offers a critical discussion of the role of variation in syntactic complexity research in SLA. Special attention is paid to inter‐learner variation (i.e., individual developmental trajectories of acquiring syntactic complexity) and to interactions with related constructs, for instance between syntax and morphology, and between syntactic and lexical complexity. T…
Difficulty and Complexity of Language Features and Second Language Instruction
Since the 1990s, researchers in applied linguistics and second language acquisition have given increasing attention to how instruction affects the acquisition and mastery of language features, and whether some types of language features are more effectively instructed than others. Type of language feature has typically been considered in terms of whether features are somehow complex, hard, or difficult or, rather, simple or easy to learn or use. …
Learning second language morphosyntax in dialogue under explicit and implicit conditions
We investigate the role of awareness in learning non-salient grammar features in a second language during oral interaction. We conducted a learning experiment during which forty-eight adult Dutch-speaking advanced learners of German and a native German-speaking experimenter engaged in a scripted oral dialogue game. The experimenter and learner in turn produced sentences based on pictures eliciting German strong verbs with stem-vowel alternations,…
Comparing the longitudinal development of phraseological complexity across oral and written tasks
This study builds upon previous research investigating the construct validity of phraseological complexity as an index of L2 development and proficiency. Whereas previous studies have focused on cross-sectional comparisons of written productions across proficiency levels, the current study compares the longitudinal development of phraseological complexity in written and oral productions elicited over a 21-month period from learners of French. We …
Proficiency at the lexis–grammar interface
This study investigates whether re-thinking the separation of lexis and grammar in language testing could lead to more valid inferences about proficiency across modes. As argued by Römer, typical scoring rubrics ignore important information about proficiency encoded at the lexis–grammar interface, in particular how the co-selection of lexical and grammatical features is mediated by communicative function. This is especially evident when assessing…
Exploring complexity at the lexis-grammar interface
On Umbrellas and Omnibuses
This response to the commentaries on our conceptual review article on structural complexity and learning difficulty in second language acquisition (SLA) clarifies the scope and objectives of our framework, the challenges of defining and measuring complexity and difficulty, and the broader relevance of our proposal for both empirical research and theory building in SLA, including its relationships to frameworks such as complexity–accuracy–fluency …
Linguistics (23 works) · Computer Science (19 works) · Psychology (18 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (17 works) · Second Language Acquisition and Learning (17 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (11 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Cognitive psychology (7 works) · Language acquisition (7 works) · Mathematics education (7 works)