The current study compared perceived language gains between learners of different preprogram proficiencies, academic interests, and genders who participated in the same predeparture preparation and short-stay service learning program abroad. L2 learners studying Spanish and computer science students participated in a semester-long program to…

The present study examined the impact of a service learning activity on students' perceptions of language, identity, and community in an advanced Spanish for the Health Professions course. Forty-five advanced Spanish heritage learners (SHLs) participated in health fairs as assistants to health-care providers as part of the curriculum requirements.…

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…

For more than 30 years, foreign language instructors have considered approaches to teaching their students about Afro-Latin cultures, yet little research appears to address students' actual awareness of these populations. Using a photo ratings survey, the present study explored the perceptions of postsecondary second language learners and their…

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…

Second language (L2) educators have proposed a unique anxiety for general L2 learning and an anxiety specific to L2 reading. Since the early 1990s, the L2 anxiety concept has been challenged on theoretical and empirical grounds. In this investigation, U.S. high school L2 learners were administered the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS)…

This study empirically tested the noticing function of the output hypothesis (Swain, 1993, 1995, 1998) and explored the relationship between noticing and learning by comparing the effects of the production of output to exposure to textually enhanced input. The present study is a conceptual replication of Izumi (2002); however, Izumi examined a…

This case study reports the results of a genre-based approach, which was used to explicitly teach the touristic landmark description to fourth-grade students of Spanish as a foreign language. The instructional model and unit of instruction were informed by the pedagogies of the Sydney School of Linguistics and an instructional model for…

This study draws upon activity theory to better understand the implications of corrective feedback (CF) as an artifact on (1) the coconstruction of knowledge and (2) the action-oriented decisions of 10 mixed pairs comprising a foreign language learner (FLL) and a heritage language learner (HLL) of Spanish. To this end, the dyads were divided into…

Following appraisal theory (Martin & White, 2005), which examines the linguistic resources through which texts/speakers express, negotiate, and naturalize particular intersubjective or ideological positions (White, 2015), this study addresses (1) the extent to which second language (L2) learners express their attitudes toward their own and the…

In 2013, Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) was adopted at all levels of instruction at a private university in southern California. The study reports the opinions of 1,236 Novice, Intermediate Low, and Intermediate Mid Spanish students concerning IPA and their perceptions of the way in which classroom instruction was reflected in the content…

The growth of Latinx populations in the United States has resulted in an increasing number of community-based service-learning (CBSL) opportunities. In particular, the steady growth in Spanish-English dual-language schools and the accompanying staff shortages position elementary classrooms as meaningful settings in which to develop relationships…

Studies investigating teacher candidate performance on traditional assessments of content knowledge place emphasis on just one of many skills needed to be an effective foreign language teacher; they also fail to explain why many teacher candidates with advanced oral proficiency struggle in the classroom and why some with less advanced language…

In response to calls for more practice-based teacher education, this study investigated the way in which two high-performing novice world language teachers, one in Spanish and one in Latin, implemented a high-leverage teaching practice, leading an open-ended group discussion. Observational data revealed a number of constituent micro-practices. The…

This article presents evidence for a validity argument on the ACTFL Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) tests (Interpersonal Listening/Speaking, Presentational Writing, Interpretive Listening, and Interpretive Reading) by summarizing an analysis of the 2014 test data from examinations administered in three languages…