Over past decades, there has been a paradigm shift in WL instruction, moving away from traditional, grammar-based programs and toward instruction that promotes student proficiency in the target language. Despite this growing attention to proficiency-based instruction, few studies have investigated the relationship between proficiency-based…

Language teachers cannot help their students develop high levels of metalinguistic knowledge and language aptitude if they themselves are found lacking in these abilities. This article reports on a study that utilised a descriptive correlational mixed-methods research design to gather data from 89 multilingual teachers of English, Chinese, French,…

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) serves a diverse population of English Learners (ELs) with different ethnic backgrounds, cultural identities, and languages spoken. SDP's population of ELs has grown significantly, from about 12,000 in 2014-15 to nearly 20,000 in 2022-23, an increase of 66%. This community-informed study focuses on English…

This longitudinal study draws on family language policy (FLP) research to examine a group of Chinese parents' ideological beliefs, practices, and management efforts related to their children's learning of multiple languages, including Chinese, English, and Spanish in an international boarding school in China. Based on data analysis, including…

To boost the foreign language learning process, language teachers need to know how to implement a multilingual pedagogy, that is, they should be able to draw on their and their students' knowledge of other languages during lessons. This qualitative study explored the extent to which 21 foreign language teachers in Norwegian and Russian…

This article addresses test translation review in international test comparisons. We investigated the applicability of the theory of test translation error--a theory of the multidimensionality and inevitability of test translation error--across source language-target language combinations in the translation of PISA (Programme of International…

A central question in the field of foreign language acquisition is whether the processes involved in reading development in a foreign language are universal or dependent on characteristics of the specific language involved. We investigated the impact of orthographic depth and writing system on word reading acquisition in a foreign orthography, by…

Children and young people from migrated families often learn host languages faster than their parents might do, and from very young ages they help their parents, families or community members by translating or interpreting, known as child language brokering (CLB). Language brokers need to mediate with different languages in different contexts and…

This paper considers the languages on offer in secondary schools in England and the possibility of enacting curriculum change with a view to reducing the dominance of French, Spanish and, to a lesser extent, German as a possible way to increase take-up of modern foreign languages post-14. Questionnaires were completed by 666 students aged 14-15,…

Answering calls to map college-level proficiency development (Modern Language Association, 2007) and longitudinally chart language learning (Barkaoui, 2014; Ortega & Byrnes, 2008), we mapped the oral proficiency growth of 1,922 lower-division college students of Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish (in the second, third, or fourth semester of…

As online K-12 education continues to expand, concerns about its quality have taken centre stage. This study utilised online learning satisfaction as an outcome indicator for the success of online learning, and investigated student- and teacher-level factors that affected it among 226 high school students taking online world language courses from…

English learners (ELs) lag behind their peers in academic achievement and attainment, partly due to limited exposure to academic content. Prior studies that examine high school course-taking find significant course access gaps between ELs and non-ELs but provide little information on the relation between course-taking and time spent as an EL. This…

This edited volume brings together large-scale research as well as case studies from a range of geographical contexts and represents a variety of educational settings involving second language learners and users. Its aim is to explore the interrelated issues of psychology and technology use in second language learning settings as well as in more…

The aim of the present study was to examine the measurement invariance (MI) of the reading, mathematics, and science tests in terms of the commonly used languages. It also aimed to examine the differential item functioning (DIF) of the PISA test, the original items of which are in the languages of English and French, in terms of the language…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on profiles of English Learners (ELs) include: (1) Percentage of Total School Population, Grades Pre-K through 12, Represented by ELs, by State,…