The majority of L2 vocabulary studies concentrate on learning word meaning and provide learners with opportunities for semantic elaboration (i.e., focus on word meaning). However, in initial vocabulary learning, engaging in structural elaboration (i.e., focus on word form) with a view to acquiring L2 word form is equally important. The present…

This article describes a collaborative research project with four Quebec college teachers offering French and ESL classes designed to support immigrant students' bilingual learning. Using action research, a professional learning community was created that allowed the researcher and teacher participants, through cycles of planning, action, and…

Research on third-language learning (L3) has documented that plurilingualism is an asset in many respects. Particularly relevant for this study is research showing that L3 learners use more strategies more frequently and efficiently than L2 learners. However, previous studies have mainly concentrated on L3 learners' strategy use at the university…

The relative influence of cultural insights, first language skills, and purely cognitive or linguistic factors in successful second-language learning is discussed. The teacher is encouraged to reflect on the value of and experiment with providing cultural background to language acquisition. (MSE)

A study comparing the use of the Silent Way technique in an experimental setting with its use in a real classroom setting suggests that results of experimental research cannot necessarily be transferred directly to the classroom. Student compositions based on ten Silent Way worksheets and an editing task are appended. (MSE)

Examines the inferencing procedures used by university-level second language (L2) learners of French to guess at the meaning of unfamiliar words in a written L2 text. The article combines qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and compares the strategies used by students assessed as high or low in French proficiency relative to their…