This study aimed to examine the reciprocal relationship between motivation and engagement in out-of-class learning among Japanese undergraduates by using a cross-lagged panel model. Two online surveys were conducted with 293 university students in Japan. This study measured motivation and engagement with regard to out-of-class tasks (homework) for…

Morphological knowledge is a complex construct integral to vocabulary breadth and reading comprehension. To understand its complexity, researchers examine its dimensionality. First, this study contributes to this broad topic by investigating whether morphological awareness and affix knowledge, related concepts with a long history of investigation…

Early childhood is marked by significant developmental changes in the ability to recognize facial expressions. However, since the COVID-19 outbreak, people have been wearing masks more frequently during social interactions which may hamper the recognition of facial expressions. This study examines whether preschoolers recognize the facial…

This study investigated how students' self-reported individual differences predicted second language (L2) spoken discussion task output, an objective behavioral outcome, in the Japanese university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Although numerous psychological theories are used as a rationale for task-based language teaching (TBLT),…

This study aims to understand the dynamics and impact of emotional presence in a collaborative learning environment and its effects on the learning process and outcomes. Emotional presence, defined as the experience of emotion arising from cognitive appraisals in learner-environment interactions, encompasses four dimensions: interest-curiosity,…

Readers should construct a coherent discourse during reading comprehension. The ability to build coherence has been examined using coherence and cohesion judgment tasks. Although eye-tracking studies have been conducted on building coherence or processing cohesion among native language users, few such studies have been conducted with second…

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused difficulties in conducting face-to-face classes in schools; instead, conducting online classes has been encouraged. However, the effect of the teacher's screen presence on students' performance is unclear. This study (n = 60) aimed to explore whether students' gaze during the task could predict their…

This study examines the knowledge representation of Japanese university students assessed using grammaticality judgement tests (GJTs) and a metalinguistic knowledge test (MKT). The study also investigates the role of automatised and non-automatised explicit knowledge in general L2 language proficiency. Participants were 87 late learners of English…

In this study, neural representation of adult second language (L2) speakers' implicit grammatical knowledge was investigated. Advanced L2 speakers of Japanese living in Japan, as well as L1 Japanese speakers, performed a word-monitoring task (proposed as an implicit knowledge test) in the MRI scanner. Behavioral measures were obtained from…

This study compares two leadership styles, emergent leader (EL) and assigned leader (AL), to explore effective leadership in second language (L2) group work. ELs were spontaneously chosen by the group, while ALs were pre-assigned by teachers before the task. The study involved 45 university students, who were divided into seven EL groups (n = 21)…

The present study investigates the use of generative strategies and their effect on second language (L2) vocabulary retention and learner confidence in vocabulary knowledge over time. Generative strategies (or generation) are one in a group of learning methods known as desirable difficulties -- strategies that improve long-term learning by adding…

The use of three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVWs) in language education has been widely acknowledged in the field, and researchers have expressed a growing interest in their proliferation in second language (L2) learning and instruction. In order to improve the Thai-speaking abilities of learners of Thai as a foreign language (TFL) in three…

Groupwork has become ubiquitous in language education, with the clear benefits of interaction and output on language acquisition. A body of research has investigated this interaction in pairs and small groups, and there is an increased understanding that individual group context is a key factor in determining the behavior of students. This article…

This study compared individuals from two first language (L1) backgrounds (Italian, Mandarin) to determine how they may differ in their perception of Japanese consonant length (i.e. singleton vs. geminate) according to the phonemic status of length in L1 and experience with Japanese. The participants included two groups of non-native learners of…

How online interactants advance their talk in written interactions has been extensively investigated in different areas, including language learning. Applying a conversation analysis technique, this study examined how second language (L2) learners managed topics in L2 task-based text-chat interactions and the effects of L2 proficiency on their…