Besides linguistic benefits, e-tandem virtual exchanges provide opportunities for intercultural meaning negotiation in interaction. However, several studies showed that learners in such exchanges often engage in lengthy interactions but do not always succeed in intercultural communication. The present paper examines intercultural negotiation of…

Non-binary speakers often struggle to describe themselves within the binary gender system of Spanish. This is even more of a challenge for learners of Spanish who are used to describing themselves in English without having to identify their gender. Our study investigates how we can create a more inclusive learning experience in our Spanish…

If maximal exposure were the key to success in language learning, then adult learners at the university level would be doomed to fail. Not only are they presumably too old to learn additional languages effectively, but target language (TL) input appears to be insufficient, especially when other languages are allowed in class. Nevertheless,…

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) focuses on education and seeks to promote inclusive, equitable, and quality education, providing opportunities for all. In this context, it seeks to promote intersectionality (gender and ethnicity) as a fundamental factor in education, and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics…

The present research explores the interactional nature of oral tasks carried out in two types of learner dyads in terms of their likelihood to foster negotiation for meaning during Language Related Episodes (LREs). Quantitative data analyses reveal how learners in same L1 dyads, Spanish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, and in…

The present study examines the role that multimodality and translanguaging play in scaffolding oral interactions during language-related episodes (LREs) involving meaning negotiation. The oral tasks carried out using synchronous video-based computer-mediated communication were part of a tandem virtual exchange (Spain, Canada). The participants, 18…

This paper discusses a telecollaborative project between my students of Spanish at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), Canada and students of English from University of Concepción, Chile in fall 2015. The telecollaborative project was aligned with the intercultural objectives already in place under my current intercultural Spanish language…

In this article, I explore practical implications of the theories of language of M.M. Bakhtin within university second language writing classrooms. Specifically, I examine the presence of Bakhtinian intertextuality within online intercultural exchanges involving the use of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) technology. I describe a CMC exchange…

This study examines how adult second language learners acquire the different meanings of the Spanish preposition "a". Cognitive linguistic models predict that spatial meanings are acquired first, as they are conceptually basic and are the source from which other meanings derive via natural cognitive mechanisms such as metaphor and…

The goal of this article is to further our understanding of how learning opportunities are created in interactions. Based on a conversation analysis of peer interactions of foreign language learners, we investigate how the negotiation of expert positions among these learners affects this process. The focus of the analysis is on the relationship…

This small-scale study investigates the effects of community service learning (CSL) projects or a cultural presentation on the development of the cultural understanding of low- and high-intermediate L2 students. Fifty-two learners in four sections of two Spanish classes in Canada participated in the study. The participants also completed pre- and…

This article aims to demonstrate how the use of an online journal, a bilingual blog, can contribute to filling in the language and cultural gaps of foreign language learners. This case study focuses on the participation, interaction, motivation, language acquisition, feedback and cultural input improved by students of Spanish as a Foreign Language…

L1-Spanish L2-English listeners' perception of a Canadian-English /bIt/-/bId/-/bit/-/bid/ continuum was investigated. Results were largely consistent with the developmental stages for L1-Spanish listeners' acquisition of English /i/ and /I/ hypothesized by Escudero (2000): Stage 0, inability to distinguish. Stage 1, duration based. Stage 2,…

It might sound like a no-brainer that being bilingual or multilingual helps students planning engineering and just about any other career. But it is certainly true and is becoming more important as the economies of nations become more intertwined. What's more, being able to go beyond mere language ability and understand cultural distinctions are…

This study extends previous research on the relationships among intelligibility, perceived comprehensibility, and accentedness. The researchers obtained accent and comprehensibility ratings and transcriptions of accented speech of Cantonese, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish intermediate English-as-a-Second-Language students from native English…