Although the United States has a population with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, multilingual education has been greatly influenced by monolingual and raciolinguistic ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2019; Garcia, 2014; Ruiz, 1984). With world language enrollment continuing to decline (Lusin et al., 2023), investigation of the lived…

This qualitative study explores the roles that undergraduate Spanish as a second language (L2) learners ascribe to their identities, backgrounds, sociocultural contexts, and imaginations in the development of their ideal second language (L2) selves (Dornyei 2009), rooted L2 selves (MacIntyre et al., 2017) and investment (Darvin & Norton, 2015;…

Increased global migration and a myriad of other social and political factors has made today's universities more diverse than ever. As a result, teachers in higher education regularly find multilingual learners from a variety of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds in their classrooms and must consider this diversity in their teaching.…

In this dissertation, I will present social-cognitive frameworks that support the use of mental imagery for possible self enhancement; and articulate and evaluate a pedagogical intervention designed for the foreign language class. This intervention will allow students to explore and develop prominent and vivid mental representations (self-schemas)…

The onset of the COVID-19 crisis in March 2020 gave way to a precipitous transition to online learning in colleges and universities across the globe. Learners and teachers alike were forced to adapt to new procedures and norms within a matter of days. Among the many questions regarding the development of rigorous courses that can adequately…

International schools, which are often rich with linguistic diversity, typically promote that proficiency in an accepted standard variety of English is the desired and favored outcome for students (Hayden & Thompson, 2016; Spiers, 2016). These schools, in part due to the teachers they employ, could be characterized as systems that promote…

This dissertation is to explore the academic efficacy and relevance of two comparatively new technologies, video games and Virtual Reality (VR), how they relate to an older cultural phenomenon, theater, and how a discussion of both topics can result in a better understanding of how to supply students in the classroom with the chance to improve…

Learning an L2 is often said to transform an individual into a new (and improved) version of the self. This mixed-method study investigated (1) whether, and if so, in what way such a transformation occurs within the L2 learner self; and (2) whether current theories of self and motivation in the fields of SLA and psychology adequately address L2…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to understand how context may shape multiple goal negotiation. Prior research has focused on identifying variables that influence goal pursuit in general, but little attention has been given to how these principles operate in different circumstances. This study adopted the Dynamic Systems Model of…

Within the past few decades, notable contributions have been made in heritage language education research that continued to gain ground in language pedagogy and teaching practices (e.g., Davila, 2017; Valdes, 2000; Fishman, 2001; Kelleher, 2010; Polinsky & Kagan 2007). This dissertation is guided by translanguaging and social identity, two…

This dissertation investigates the intricate relationships among global competence, cultural identity, and English learning motivation within the context of undergraduates in Southern China through a mixed-methods research design. Given the backdrop of accelerating globalization, this study underscores students' need to develop robust global…

Translanguaging research among multilingual students has received considerable attention across different contexts of practice. The most robust contexts in translanguaging research have been the classroom contexts between teacher and students. This study examined the affordances of translanguaging spaces "between class sessions" in…

This qualitative multi-case study examined the co-construction of elementary dual language students' language use and identity to understand how five individual students positioned themselves as bilingual individuals as well as how this relates to their investment in the language-learning process. This study also investigated the influence of…

Writer identity has gradually become a focus in writing scholarship in recent years. From a social constructivist lens, writer identity is not optional; it resides in all texts. And it is a construct that does not exist in a vacuum, but is shaped by the sociocultural and academic context, and simultaneously individual writers agentively select…

Form-focused instruction (FFI) can improve students' language output by enhancing form accuracy (Barrot, 2014; Mansouri et al., 2019; Schenck & Baldwin, 2019; Spada, 2014), while the identity theory looks at language learning and the relationship between the language learner and the larger social world (Norton, 2013). Given issues such as…