Children across the world acquire their first language(s) naturally, regardless of typology or modality (e.g. sign or spoken). Various attempts have been made to explain the puzzle of language acquisition using several approaches, trying to understand to what extent it can be explained by what children bring to language-learning situations as well…

The purpose of this corpus-based study is a bottom-up investigation of strategic devices used by heritage language speakers (HLSs) during narration and conversation. It offers a critical review of compensation/communication strategy definitions and classifications, and presents the results of an investigation into strategies employed by an…

Contrary to prevailing research on willingness to communicate (WTC) which treats spoken second language (L2) as the predominant indicator of WTC, this study examines a young English as a second language (ESL) learner's WTC expressed through multimodal means and her utilization of multimodal and multilingual resources for mediating WTC in…

The study adopts a multimodal perspective, looking at adults' use of gestures in variation sets (VS; i.e. sequences of partial self-repetitions occurring in successive utterances of varying form) addressed to Spanish-learning toddlers in adult-child interactions. We seek to address the following question: Do adults make simultaneous use of VS and…

HSL and SSSL are two endangered sign languages of Hawai'i and Papua New Guinea, respectively. Mouthings of spoken words in signing, especially in smaller sign languages, is a growing topic in sign language linguistics. Here, I present an analysis of mouthings in HSL and SSSL. Mouthings in these languages may present patterns that are previously…

Communication strategies interlocutors use to avoid or resolve potential problems in face-to-face (FTF) and computer-mediated interactions can facilitate English learners' second language acquisition (SLA) (Smith, 2003). Such strategies are beneficial because they encourage English learners to practice the second language (L2), learn vocabulary,…

One key tenet of Global Englishes for Language Teaching (GELT) is that the native English speaker should no longer serve as the role model for second language (L2) English users. Such a view does not discount that some degree of linguistic knowledge is necessary for successful global communication. However, GELT scholarship has remained relatively…

This study examined translingual practices in two playdates of a Korean four-year-old boy (Theo) with a Korean boy and an American boy. The boys played a game called "Candy Land." In both playdates, the boys' naturally occurring English and Korean communication strategies were observed and analyzed based on Canagarajah's (2013) four…

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has extensively been reported to interfere with second language learning and performance. To mitigate anxiety, researchers have called for the inclusion of technology into foreign language classes and providing learners with corrective feedback on their performance. One factor that may affect the comprehensibility of…

This study investigates the complementarity between linguistic and non-linguistic modes of expression in reading in Higher Education and how this combination can counterbalance the accountability that characterises the measured university in current times. Participants are Argentine college students aged 21-22 at the time of data collection. They…

Previous evidence suggests that children's mastery of prosodic modulations to signal the informational status of discourse referents emerges quite late in development. In the present study, we investigate the children's use of head gestures as it compares to prosodic cues to signal a referent as being contrastive relative to a set of possible…

This study explored the language practices of a small group of international Chinese students in an anglophone Higher Education context where English was the medium of instruction. The context was the first year of an early childhood education course at an Australian university. Building on findings from research in conversation analysis on…

The importance of oral interaction in language learning is well recognised, and this paper examines the factors that hinder English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' active participation in online discussions during Synchronous Online Communication. Using focus groups with 51 Cypriot Greek-speaking students from three tertiary institutions in…

The acquisition of communicative competence in second and foreign languages requires the incorporation of verbal and non-verbal elements. Notwithstanding, few studies have performed empirical research into the acquisition of non-verbal signs. This research studies the learning of emblematic gestures for students of Spanish in the USA using an…

Language classroom interactions can be characterized as multimodal, since teachers may resort to a variety of resources provided by their body or by their immediate space in order to convey meaning, manage activities and assess pupils' performances. Furthermore, teachers' multimodal practices constitute an essential component for the…