This study investigated how word and child characteristics affect children's ability to learn the meanings of novel words. Participants were fourth- and fifth-graders representing native English speakers (NE) and bilingual learners with fluent English proficiency (FEP) and designated English Learners (EL). Students were taught the meanings of a…

Automated writing evaluation (AWE) has been frequently used to provide feedback on student writing. Many empirical studies have examined the effectiveness of AWE on writing quality, but the results were inconclusive. Thus, the magnitude of AWE's overall effect and factors influencing its effectiveness across studies remained unclear. This study…

This study tests the Competing Systems Hypothesis (CSH) as applied to adult second language acquisition of aspect in Spanish. The CSH purports that differences among tutored and untutored learners result from competition between one system of underlying grammatical knowledge and another of learned metalinguistic knowledge in tutored learners…

This paper reports on the narrative of Shannon, a Taiwanese Canadian female assistant language teacher (ALT) of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, one of the world's largest government-sponsored programmes for recruiting English language teachers to teach overseas [Nagatomo (2016). "Identity, gender and teaching English in…

This paper examines the use of technology in the development and assessment of interpersonal communication skills in an online second language (L2) Spanish classroom. The study explores the use of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools and strategies to promote interaction among learners, while also considering the challenges and…

This paper presents a case study of a Hong Kong university student's experiences of learning English as a second language (L2) over a four-year period, with particular attention to the changes in her identities and beliefs across time and space. Drawing on a narrative inquiry approach, the study revealed that the student's L2 identities appeared…

English is regarded as a key to globalization or internationalization and future success for Taiwan and its people. One of the most extraordinary results of English-as-the-global-language of English teaching and learning in Taiwan is private English language schools are ubiquitous. Research into how private English language schools weld together…

This paper addressed the under-investigated question whether speech act moves can be identified and classified in conversation by examining the content, positioning, and strategic role of utterances in turns and turn sequences. To this end, offering exchanges were analysed in the transcripts of 31 open role-plays. These were elicited from American…

Previous event-related potentials (ERP) research has investigated how foreign accent modulates listeners' neural responses to lexical-semantic and morphosyntactic errors. We extended this line of research to consider whether pronunciation errors in Mandarin Chinese are processed differently when a foreign-accented speaker makes them relative to…

Empirical research shows that language anxiety has a detrimental effect on foreign language learning and its use. Several studies suggest that anxiety related to mastering and using foreign languages is skill-specific. This study examined pronunciation anxiety and attempted to determine its significant correlates. The included factors ranged from…

This study evaluates the development of L2 collocational competence in texts written by learners of differing proficiency levels, compared to native speaker collocation patterns from a reference corpus. We address: (1) whether learners develop their collocation competence as their proficiency grows; and (2) How is this development mediated by…

We analyze whether non-native speakers in the classroom affect students' educational achievement and social integration. In contrast to previous studies, which mainly examine the effect of the share of immigrant pupils, we focus on language heterogeneity by using a novel measure of the degree of linguistic diversity in the classroom. Conditional…

This study examines the associations among cross-linguistic social ties, individual-level social network and demographic characteristics, and academic and social-emotional outcomes in a sample of third to eighth grade Latine and Black youth attending urban afterschool programs. Guided by social capital and social learning perspectives, this study…

This dissertation examines how L2 Japanese speaker international students experience their subjectivity (Harre & Gillett, 1994), that is, how their language use and actions convey their thoughts and feelings, their sense of self, and how they relate to the world around them, in casual conversations with L1 Japanese speaker peers. In order to…

The current study investigated linguistic influences on comprehensibility (ease of understanding) and accentedness (linguistic nativelikeness) in second language (L2) learners' extemporaneous speech. Target materials included picture narratives from 40 native French speakers of English from different proficiency levels. The narratives were…