English has gained in popularity as the world's lingua franca, inviting individuals and countries to join the international community. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the use of English has dramatically increased in Turkmenistan, in Central Asia (CA). Russian was required for securing jobs, professional development, and economic well-being…

This case study examines how one study abroad student oriented to social interaction during a semester in Spain. Using an activity theoretical approach, the findings indicate that the student not only viewed social interaction with his Spanish host family and an expert-Spanish-speaking age peer as an opportunity for second language (L2) learning,…

This paper reports on a case study of a group of six non-native English speaking migrant women's experiences learning English vocabulary in a mobile assisted language learning (MALL) environment at a small community centre in Western Australia. A sociocultural approach to learning vocabulary was adopted in designing the MALL lessons that the women…

Sociocultural theories consider language learning as a social practice examines students as active participants in the construction of learning processes. This study investigates sociocultural theories' central concepts, which includes peer interaction and feedback, private speech, and self-efficacy. The present study is a case study of twenty…

This article focuses on multilingual primary-aged children and their families in a post-industrial city in England. Such pupils, sometimes identified in education policy as "underachieving," often have rich experiences of learning that are hidden from their mainstream teachers and unrecognised in national assessment regimes. The article…

The qualitative study reported in this article explored the use of technology for language learning in a third-year French class at a public university in the Midwest of the USA. To address the need for a more holistic study of technology for language learning (Basharina, 2007; Thorne, 2003), an Activity Theory framework was employed to…

One of the key concerns of educators is to come to know what works in language teaching and under which conditions (Intercultural) Communicative Competence can be furthered. This concern is even bigger among professionals experimenting or willing to experiment with new media. Following socio-constructivist theories of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) and…

The integration policies in some Northern European countries display relatively poor outcomes of passed exam rates for immigrant language training, and several groups of immigrants have very low employment rates. These measures, in many countries, are strong incentives for host-country language acquisition in addition to the obligation to document…

Explores social interactive features of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC)--commonly known as "chat"--as such features unfolded in real time and developed over a 9-week period in two college Spanish courses. Invoked a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical framework and employed discourse analysis as a research tool to…