This paper describes a mixed methods study of Japanese first-year tertiary learners' attitudes to English language learning models. It outlines the results from a survey comprised of a verbal guise test (measuring respondents' attitudes to both linguistic and personality features) and vocabulary elicitation, which was administered to 87…

Conducting a survey research on demotivating factors in business English majors can enrich the theoretical research findings on demotivation and meanwhile help to explore effective methods to enhance the students' learning motivation. This study explores the construct of demotivating factors in business English majors in a Chinese university, the…

This study investigates the impact of positive psychology factors on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' second language (L2) speaking proficiency. Specifically, it examines the predictive roles of foreign language speaking enjoyment, the ideal L2 speaking self, and L2 speaking grit on L2 speaking proficiency. Data were collected from…

Increasingly, research attention has turned to the benefits of extensive reading (ER) in languages other than English, such as Japanese. Yet significant issues remain with participant numbers in studies of Japanese ER, which are often low, meaning they may not be representative of the rest of the cohort, let alone students in other contexts. An…

The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive study was to explore how college English as a second language educators described how English as a second language learners used direct and indirect Language Learning Strategies in facilitating their learning at a higher education institution in the Southwest region of the United States. The research is…

Chinese vocabulary is characterized by compound words composed of monosyllabic morphemes. Compounds sharing a common lexeme often exhibit polysemous meanings, forming a cognitive semantic network. Systematic instruction on these high-frequency compounds can help learners access their meanings and underlying structure, making learning more…

The use of AI-powered chatbots has recently been extensively examined for second language (L2) learning. While their positive effects have been widely reported regarding L2 English learning, studies involving less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) are scant. The current study incorporated an AI chatbot called Iruda in L2 Korean teaching, to…

Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) is the result of the affordances of technology that allow learning to take place in unstructured learning contexts. However, how IDLE facilitates students' English language learning remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the strategies English as a foreign language (EFL) students employ to learn…

Second language (L2) listening skills play an important role in both content- and language-focused academic success; however, provision of L2 listening-related pedagogy may be lacking or unsuitable in many contexts. Difficulties transposing research derived knowledge about listening processes to appropriate pedagogy arise because it can be…

The contributions of positive psychology (PP) to the study of second and foreign language (L2) emotions have received considerable scholarly attention in recent years. In response to the criticism that it adopted a limited viewpoint, PP has broadened its perspective. Existential positive psychology (EPP) is a branch of PP that can address prior…

This study aimed to investigate university students' preferences for and reported instructor practices of written feedback (WF) and how these align with instructors' perceptions and self-reported practices in EFL writing classrooms. An 80-item survey was conducted with 13 instructors and their 210 students at a Moroccan university. The findings…

Listening journals provide a personal space for learners to document and share their inside thoughts about what they think, do, and feel regarding their learning. This study analyzes the journal entries of 19 second- to fourth-year business university learners. Over five weeks, they completed five listening journals on topics of their choice as…

This study investigates how task complexity shapes motivation and performance in second language (L2) pragmatics, a domain that remains underexplored within task-based learning research. To address this gap, 37 secondary school learners of English completed both simple and complex decision-making tasks at three intervals over an eight-week period.…

We describe a longitudinal (5-year) researcher-supported initiative designed to strengthen the research-practice link (RPL) and serve as an effective form of situated professional learning and development (PLD) in adult second language programs. We facilitated the formation of and supported 9 professional reading groups of 6-12 instructors (N =…

This study investigated the beliefs, attitudes, and motivation of Thai and Chinese undergraduate students in relation to English language learning. Utilizing a mixed-method, explanatory sequential design, it aims to provide a better understanding of the three variables mentioned above. The quantitative data analysis showed disparities between the…