State Seals of Biliteracy (SoBL) are a growing trend and present a promising method of serving an increasingly bilingual population. Currently, state SoBLs have been available almost exclusively at the high school level. An Oregon community college initiated the opportunity for students to study and receive the state SoBL in higher education. The…

According to the functional model proposed by Sampasivam and Clément in 2014, the two determinants that build towards second language confidence (L2C) are "richness and self-involvement" of the contact experience. This study adds to previous research by investigating, for the first time, the role of interlocutor type in the context of…

This study examined the effect of benchmarking and peer-assessment activities on second language (L2) French learners' self-assessments of accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency. The learners, who included 25 L2 French students enrolled in a 15-week university-level French course, recorded two oral presentations at the beginning and the end…

Spanish heritage speakers in the United States exhibit a wide range of linguistic profiles due to a combination of political, social, and educational factors. Most of them acquire Spanish at home without formal instruction in writing. Although previous research has explored the main challenges faced by these learners in Spanish writing courses, no…

This study investigated perceptual differences between Japanese language instructors with different ethnolinguistic and professional backgrounds in respect to "kanji" (i.e., Chinese characters used in Japanese) instruction. A total of 199 teachers of Japanese across the United States completed a 62-item questionnaire eliciting their…

This study investigated the way in which American university students learning Arabic as a foreign language in the United States developed the ability to make and modify requests both internally, through an addition of mitigating or aggravating modality markers, and externally, via supportive moves before or after the main request in formal and…

This study examines how language attitudes play a role in the adoption of dialectal variants in second language (L2) pronunciation in a study abroad context. Twenty-four North American university students participating in a 6-week program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were administered pre and posttest questionnaires and a posttest oral production…

This study explored the experiences of eight Latina heritage speakers (HSs) who were enrolled in world language teacher preparation programs at two higher education institutions. Using data from interviews, classroom observations, and other documents, the qualitative multiple-case study investigated their educational experiences and the challenges…

The acquisition of morphosyntax presents challenges for learners of all second/foreign languages. This cross-sectional study investigated English-speaking learners' morphosyntactic accuracy in the symmetrical subject-verb agreement type (in subject-initial sentences) and in the asymmetrical subject-verb agreement type (in verb-initial sentences)…

Many language practitioners feel ill equipped to address learners' pronunciation or have difficulties doing so because of limited class time, opportunities for individualized feedback, and approaches to evaluating intelligibility. However, it is crucial that students become understandable to native speakers who are unaccustomed to dealing with…

This study investigates the instructional treatment of Argentine Spanish vernacular (i.e., "lunfardo"), metapragmatic information about its use provided by instructors, and participants' metapragmatic awareness of vernacular use in a second language (L2) Spanish study abroad (SA) classroom. The participants were 12 American undergraduate…

Advanced grammar courses often present standardized grammar rules to students without considering sociolinguistic variation. As a result, many native/heritage students feel that they speak "incorrectly," and many second language learners do not get an accurate picture of the target language's real-world grammar. This article describes…

This study investigated common spelling errors among first language English speakers who study Arabic at the college level. A sample of 63 students (45 males and 18 females) was asked to write texts about a variety of topics and then to answer survey questions regarding their perceptions and strategies. Their writing produced 457 spelling errors,…

This case study uses survey data to examine the attitudes and pedagogical practices of preservice and current high school Spanish teachers toward Spanish heritage language learners (HLLs). The research questions addressed were (1) the extent to which participants were aware of the challenges facing Spanish HLLs who are enrolled in traditional…

This study investigated comprehension of indirect meaning among learners of L2 Spanish via an original computer-delivered multimedia listening test. The comprehension of implied speaker intention is a type of indirect communication that involves the ability to understand implied intention by using linguistic knowledge, contextual cues, and the…