In recent years, studies have investigated "Subtitles as a Support" (SaS) and "Subtitling as a Task" (SaT) as two distinct approaches to audiovisual input, which have the potential to foster learners' vocabulary. In line with the Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) (Laufer & Hulstijn, Applied Linguistics 22(1):1-26, 2001),…

This study investigated adult learners' experiences with the language of their new living environment. Migrants and refugees' personal goals for language learning in their specific life situations were captured in in-depth interviews conducted as part of ethnographically oriented field studies in Finland and Germany. Interpretative…

This paper presents the findings of a survey on research activities and research cultures across the CercleS network. The survey was conducted under the auspices of the CercleS Focus Group on Leadership and Management and aimed to explore the scope of research in Language Centres; the links between institutional factors such as staff contracts and…

Language assessment is a central aspect not only of language education in the general population, but also amongst heterogeneous, low-incidence populations. One such population are immigrant deaf and hard-of-hearing learners (IDML) who are bimodal-multilingual and whose languages development often includes the spoken, written, and/or signed…

For newly arrived students who are d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), language acquisition is particularly complex. The spectrum of initial language situations ranges from no first language to multilingual acquisition contexts. In Germany, there are currently no studies that focus on the education of these learners. This prompted an interview study…

Second language (L2) grammar learning is difficult. Two frameworks--the psycholinguistic lexical bottleneck hypothesis and the neurocognitive declarative/procedural model--predict that faster L2 lexical processing should facilitate L2 incidental grammar learning. We tested these predictions in a pretest-posttest syntactic adaptation study of…

This study aimed at evaluating the explanatory value of basic psychological needs (BPN) for foreign language-related motivation and activities in a sample of higher education students and volunteers abroad. According to the self-determination theory, satisfaction of the BPN facilitates forms of motivational regulation and in turn promotes foreign…

Writing can be a challenging task for students--especially for those who have grown up as second language (L2) learners. In particular, planning and structuring written content can be especially difficult for them. For this reason, the effects of a combined strategy instruction intervention consisting of a graphic organizer and storytelling on the…

Although robots' social behaviors are known for their capacity to facilitate learner-robot interaction for language learning, their application and effect have not been adequately explored. This study reviewed 59 empirical articles to examine the contexts and application of various social behaviors of robots for language learning, and conducted a…

When teaching Mandarin Chinese classifiers, teachers usually ask students to memorize 'classifier + noun', phrases as collocations. Given that Mandarin Chinese has a vast and complicated system of classifiers, the rote memorization of 'classifier + noun' collocations is challenging and monotonous. Therefore, the present study aims to improve that…

Countries world-wide face the task of integrating students with various linguistic resources and ways of living into their educational systems. The specifically German institution of vocational schools in Germany is complex and, especially in the subject of German, presents teachers with the challenge of ensuring language and subject learning with…

While internationally there is long-standing research activity on the effectiveness of language contacts (especially in the form of mobility stays) at tertiary level and a number of literature syntheses on this field have been published, research projects at the primary and secondary level are still comparatively rare and the results are often not…

Accelerating globalization has created an interest in studying the use of different languages in intercultural communication. This paper is based upon a small-scale study of expatriates' use of English as a lingua franca in Denmark and Germany. It discusses expatriates' use of English as a lingua franca and its influence on their willingness to…

Teachers of all subjects and grades must remain aware of the linguistic and cultural diversity among their students, as second language learners often experience educational disadvantages. Therefore, (pre-service) teachers must acquire pedagogical language knowledge and skills in linguistically responsive teaching (LRT), and develop positive…

This article explores how ideology is embedded in the cultural content of textbooks used in Germany's integration courses for migrants. Using critical multimodal discourse analysis, I analyze two dimensions of meaning in linguistic and visual (multimodal) texts: meaning as representation and meaning as inter/action. I analyze how social actors are…