Motivations-beliefs for learning and their relationship to instructional experiences are a poorly understood aspect of higher education. Notably, interest is an individual difference that both researchers and educators alike believe should be supported. However, this support is too often relegated to the craft of instruction. To be enhanced…

Purpose: Communication technology is used in diverse ways in our everyday lives. This research aims to fill a gap in research into L2 learner psychology connected with using online communication tools such as messaging platforms. Approach: The article focuses on practitioner research into feelings experienced during online L2 text chat. Twenty-one…

Undergraduate research in Japan, called graduation research (GR), is comparable to that in other countries and is defined here as a final-year curricular activity that completes undergraduate study. This article aims to elucidate GR to contribute to the scholarship of undergraduate research from an international perspective. The main findings…

In the field of second language (L2) research, there is a growing recognition of the vital need to explore the diversity of emotional experiences of learning. The current paper describes part of action research with two classes of Japanese first-grade university students (n = 47) in compulsory English as a foreign language (EFL) lessons.…

This project addressed the role of foreign language (FL) classes in a successful first-year student experience at one Japanese university. I assessed six dimensions of this experience: Match between high school FL classes and university FL classes, role of first-year FL course grades for academic progress, role of first-year FL classes in later…

Foreign language (FL) writing has undergone a number of key evolutions over the past 50 years. But despite attempts toward a reframing of FL learners as emergent bilinguals, bilingual languaging strategies such as translanguaging are still rarely seen in most FL education contexts, and bilingual composition strategies are yet to become integrated…

Because internationalization in higher education has recently received significant attention within the context of globalization, universities in Japan have begun to develop study-abroad programs to support their students in gaining international experience. This article explores those university policies designed to support the…

The study focuses on the role of different theories when considered together in a foreign language other than English (LOTE) context. Specifically, the study examines (a) to what extent influential second language (L2) motivational theories, when integrated, explain motivation to learn LOTEs, and (b) how the powerful status of English in Japan…

In the 21st century it has become clear that more and more language-learning pedagogical materials have begun to shift to a digital mobile-access format and away from being a textbook and classroom based one. High quality language-learning podcasts can provide a cheap, beneficial and portable technology that allows learners the freedom to access…

In numerous Asian-Pacific tertiary contexts--students' chosen department not-with-standing-- second-language study is a requirement for both entry level and graduation. A practice by which Second Language motivation research could benefit from First Language procedures is to acknowledge instrumentality in such nonelective classes. Instrumental…

This report describes the processes, methods and results of using language software based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in a tertiary level institute in Japan in order to facilitate the learning of low ability learners of English. None of the learners were English majors, all were between the ages of 18 and 20,…