In order to develop pragmatic competence in a language other than our own (L2), it is important to have enough knowledge of the cultural norms of the target language and enough opportunities to interact with a wide range of speakers to deploy different speech acts, registers, levels of politeness, conversational moves, and the like. The…

Initial research, although limited, demonstrates promise for the use of a voice-user interface via a digital assistant (i.e., Google Assistant) for English language learners seeking language skill development. However, no research has sought to determine the adult English as a foreign language instructor response toward the application of such…

In order to provide "a common basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses, curriculum guidelines, examinations, textbooks, etc. across Europe", The Common European Framework for Languages (CEFR) was published in 2001 by the Council of Europe. It has affected the way languages are taught, learnt and assessed and also how foreign…

Globalization and new technologies mean that additional-language students now have unprecedented access to naturalistic interactions with native or highly competent speakers (HCSs). Even though a majority of students would still prefer to have teacher guidance in these interactions, only some teachers may want or be able to do so. This…

This study investigates heritage language (HL) and second language (L2) learners' attitudes and perceptions of their mixed HL-L2 interactions. As part of the activities of a 10-week course, eight Spanish HL learners and 10 L2 learners worked in mixed dyads to complete a series of collaborative writing tasks designed to leverage their complementary…

This book is written for teachers of young children aged from 5 to 12 years in primary schools who want to support students' English vocabulary. Most of these children will be native speakers of English, although the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of our communities suggests a significant number will be from homes where other…

We describe here strategies inspired by translation studies and implemented in a bilingual translation class pairing two student groups of native speakers of English (from Barnard College, Columbia University) and of French (from the École Normale Supérieure, Lyon). Student e-tandems use CMC (computer mediated communication) to collaborate on the…

The use of linking or glottalization contributes to the characteristic sound pattern of a language, and the use of one in place of the other may affect a speaker's comprehensibility and fluency in certain contexts. In this study, native speakers of Czech, a language that is associated with a frequent use of glottalization in vowel-initial word…

This study demonstrates how native and learner corpora can enhance modal verb treatment in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) textbooks used in mainland China. Data analysis compares modal verbs in the textbook and native corpus by referring to distributional features, semantic functions and co-occurring constructions; and the analysis of the…

When it comes to paying attention to the suprasegmental features of their speech, most learners of English seem to be unaware that such phenomena as stress, pitch, duration, and pausing can be of great importance regarding mutual intelligibility. Since they carry a considerable weight of establishing an intelligible conversation, it is argued that…

The relationship between second language (L2) listening presage and process variables was examined in a large cross-sectional study. A formal model of learning beliefs was adapted to create a structural equation model testing the interrelationships of individual difference (gender, practice, experience with native teachers) and trait variables…

'Race applied to human beings is a "political" division: it is a system of governing people that classifies them into a social hierarchy based on invented biological demarcations' (Roberts, 2011, p. x). Foregrounding our racialized histories, we show how our lives "intersect" in a doctoral seminar in Thailand. Combining…

As an object of inquiry for research and educational purposes, this article introduces the concept of "history-as-interpretive-filter" and operationalises it as a novel approach to examining the impact of individuals' historical consciousness on their epistemic positioning when faced with social problems of a historical character. In…

This article discusses a sociocultural usage-based perspective on the development of sociolinguistic competence. Previous research has focused on learners' acquisition and use of alternative ways of 'saying the same thing' (i.e. native-like variation) in relation to study abroad, contact with native speakers, and pedagogy. Missing from the…

This research investigates the types, frequency and effectiveness of various methods of corrective feedback used by English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in their communicative language classes. A review of prior research in the area of corrective feedback, along with a focus on the various types or methods of corrective feedback that…