The acquisition of verbal morphology presents challenges for many second language (L2) learners, in part because they do not readily process those forms during sentence comprehension. Instead, L2 learners rely on lexical‐semantic cues (e.g., temporal adverbs and explicit subjects). This study investigated the role of task‐essential training in changing learners’ processing tendencies and tested whether such changes were related to increased performance with the L2 Spanish present, preterite, and future tenses and first‐ and third‐person morphology. The experiment compared a no‐training control group to three groups of learners who completed a multisession task‐essential training following the principles of structured input (SI). Groups varied in the type of feedback they received. Results of a cue‐reliance assessment indicated that each SI group relied significantly more on verbal inflections after training while the control group did not. Furthermore, the extent to which groups relied on verbal inflections on posttest measures correlated moderately to strongly with performance on interpretation and written production measures. Implications are discussed for input processing, learned attention, and pedagogy, in particular the impact of feedback on cue reliance and learning outcomes.

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This study investigates the effects of task-essential training on offline and online processing of verbal morphology and explores how working memory (WM) modulates the effects of training. We compare a no-training control group to two training groups who completed a multisession task-essential training focused on Spanish verbal inflections related to person–number agreement and tense. Effects of training were evaluated using an offline aural interpretation task and an online self-paced reading (SPR) assessment, administered as a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. Results showed that training led to more accurate interpretation of both person-number and tense information in the offline interpretation test. While higher WM was associated generally with greater accuracy, higher WM did not lead to greater gains from training. The SPR results showed that training did not increase sensitivity to subject–verb agreement or adverb–verb tense violations. However, among participants who underwent training, WM enhanced sensitivity under some conditions. These results demonstrate a role for individual differences in WM for offline and online processing, and they suggest that while task-essential training has been shown repeatedly to improve offline processing of target forms, its effects on online processing of redundant verbal morphology are more limited. Implications for L2 learning are discussed.

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Note: This is the English-language version of the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) for use with secondary school students studying English as a foreign language. The items comprising each scale are presented in the 'AMTB item-key' document. The AMTB has been translated and used in our research in Brazil,