Collaborative writing (CW) involves two or more students writing a single text together. Previous studies mainly focused on students' cognitive engagement in CW and investigated their attention to various language-related problems during task interaction. However, little CW research to date has considered that engagement in language-related…

This study investigated the role of cross-linguistic similarity in the acquisition of Russian initial stop contrasts by Chinese learners, addressing two specific research questions: (1) How similar are Russian voiced stops to Mandarin stops for Chinese learners?; and (2) How can the speech learning model (SLM) be applied to account for the…

Language migration and Russian teaching practice highlights the need to consider both cultural and linguistic factors in teaching Russian preposition structure to Chinese students. The present study examined the impact of language migration on Chinese students' ability to acquire Russian preposition structure, and whether the acquisition of…

An increasing number of adults learn more than one foreign language simultaneously. While the cognitive benefits of using multiple languages from birth have been studied extensively, little is known about possible cognitive benefits of learning multiple languages simultaneously in adulthood. Among the cognitive abilities which play a role in…

With the 'New National Teaching Quality Standards' and its supplement -- the 'Guide for the Russian Majors Education' as language education policies, this paper argues that these policies have constructed an ecological environment for Russian language teachers' (RLTs) agency in China. The interpretive policy analysis, interviews and classroom…

The research reported in this article investigated how students learning Japanese or Russian as a third language (L3) perceived and produced word-initial stops in their respective target language and the link between perception and production. The participants in the study were 39 Chinese university students who spoke Mandarin Chinese as their…

There is quite a bit of evidence showing that the experience of learning an L2 will help in learning an L3, but as far as we know, very little research has investigated the possible impact of L3 learning on the already existing and still developing L2 system within the learner. According to Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), language…

This study adopted a social network perspective to explore the academic discourse socialization experiences of eight degree-seeking multilingual international students at a university in eastern China. Based on a triangulation of ethnographic interviews, social network questionnaires, and supplementary sources (e.g., voluntarily submitted…

This article investigates the intercultural competence and identities of undergraduate heritage language learners (HLLs) studying abroad under the auspices of the U.S. Flagship Program. Based on survey responses and interviews with HLLs from Flagship Programs across the country, the article aims to assess the preparation of HLLs for study abroad…

This study investigates 128 Chinese college students to examine the effects of their musical aptitude and musical training on phonological production in four foreign languages. Results show that musically-trained students remarkably possessed stronger musical aptitude than those without musical training and performed better than their counterpart…

A common predictor of language gains during study abroad (SA) is amount of language use. Yet little attention has been given to determining what factors influence the extent of language use while abroad. Studies in this area have mainly been case studies of learners in single locations. In this larger study, we seek to determine variables…

This collection of papers examines approaches to teaching near-native ability in foreign languages. The 13 papers focus on the following: (1) "Principles and Practices in Teaching Superior-Level Language Skills: Not Just More of the Same" (Betty Lou Leaver and Boris Shekhtman); (2) "Toward Academic Level Foreign Language Abilities:…

This report, sponsored by the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), is a summary of evidence-based research on teaching reading to Chinese, Korean, Navajo, and Russian children. It complements a recent summary of the literature on teaching reading to Spanish speaking students. There is a significant need for evidence-based research on…