This study examined whether cadets at a U.S. service academy perceived attitudinal differences toward their military and civilian L2 instructors along three variables: foreign language expertise, communicative anxiety, and relatability. Cadets' proficiency levels (divided by beginning and intermediate classes) and current instructor (civilian or…

Scholars of task-based language teaching (TBLT) advocate for the identification of learners' communicative needs to inform syllabus design, particularly in language for specific purposes contexts (e.g., Long 2015). However, little research has applied TBLT principles in designing Spanish for specific purposes curricula. Moreover, despite the…

The purpose of this paper is to compare structured input (SI) with other input-based instructional treatments. The input-based instructional types include: input flood (IF), text enhancement (TE), SI activities, and focused input (FI; SI without implicit negative feedback). Participants included 145 adult learners enrolled in an intermediate…

The Spanish Skills Placement Test (SSPT) is the product of a need for a Spanish literacy placement instrument for use with literacy, adult basic education, and pre-General Educational Development program students. The need for the test was expressed by a variety of Illinois literacy organizations and agencies, particularly those in Chicago. The…

A study investigated links between writing apprehension, preferred writing processes, and academic achievement in 28 adult learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). One group was of varying language background in an intensive intermediate ESL class and the other consisted of francophone Canadians in an evening intermediate ESL writing class…