This article presents a theoretical review of and methodological guidelines for the study of two key notions in second language acquisition research, complexity and difficulty. The term "complexity" has gained considerable currency over the past decades and has taken on a wide range of meanings. We argue for a more restricted…

This article delves into the ongoing debate surrounding the role of age in second language acquisition, examining developments over the past three decades and highlighting contentious issues. We argue that the commonly held belief in age's pivotal role is frequently contradicted by empirical evidence. Additionally, we examine the agerelated debate…

This paper examines English's linguistic imperialism and the resulting widespread use of the language among speakers of various linguistic backgrounds. It challenges the mistaken belief that native speakers (NS) are inherently better at speaking English simply due to their birthplace. Despite the growing number of non-native speakers (NNSs),…

In this brief forum article, I draw from the disciplinary orientation of linguistic anthropology to discuss how a collection of linguistic and semiotic resources gets "enregistered" as the "language" for specific communicative activities. Enregisterment is an ongoing social and ideological process whereby a semiotic corpus gets…

This paper presents a critical evaluation of the English Test for International Communication (ETIC), a large-scale, computer-based, and criterion-referenced English language proficiency test developed by the China Language Assessment in 2016. The ETIC test battery comprises five categories: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, and…

Measuring lexical diversity in texts that have different lengths is problematic because length has a significant effect on the number of types a text contains, thus hampering any comparison. Treffers-Daller et al. (2018) recommended a simple solution, namely counting the number of types in a section of a given length that was extracted from the…

For me, 'language learner autonomy' denotes a teaching/learning dynamic in which learners plan, implement, monitor and evaluate their own learning. From the beginning they do this as far as possible in the target language, which thus becomes a channel of their individual and collaborative agency. By exercising agency in the target language they…

The recent surge in the popularity of Large Language Models (LLM) for language assessment underscores the growing significance of cost-effective language evaluation in our increasingly digitalized society. This paper posits that the application of computational psychometrics can enable the incorporation of technology into language assessment,…

The recent advancement in technology has attracted learners' attention worldwide to Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) for educational purposes. While GenAI has shown promising results for general language purposes (Godwin-Jones, 2023; Xiao & Zhi, 2023), the potential of GenAI for language learning has not been fully explored. This…

Language proficiency testing has long played a role as both facilitator and barrier in global migration. This paper outlines how Canada and other traditional migrant destination countries use English-language proficiency testing for immigration, asylum and resettlement, and citizenship. It identifies commonalities between these three related areas…

This article focuses on the intersection of technology and pedagogy through the lens of affect/ emotion. It highlights why technology-mediated teaching and learning require new ways of thinking about emotionality in educational contexts. To develop a nuanced understanding of what technology can and cannot do, we can draw insights from the recent…

Decades of research have established that most English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts rely on textbooks and corresponding materials to drive the education process. Textbook analysis as a vital quality control check of these products has also become a popular trend in applied linguistics and "second language" (L2) research. In the main,…

This article traces the intellectual roots and developments of the notion of competence in second language (L2) teaching and research. Since L2 teaching and research invariably concern competence of some sort (linguistic, communicative, interactional, or otherwise), there have been countless attempts to define competence from diverse theoretical…

Many candidates undertaking high-stakes English language proficiency tests for academic enrolment do not achieve the results they need for reasons including linguistic unreadiness, test unpreparedness, illness, an unfavourable configuration of tasks, or administrative and marking errors. Owing to the importance of meeting goals or out of a belief…

In the past two decades, syntactic complexity measures (e.g. the length or number of words per clause/t-unit/sentences and number of clauses per t-unit/sentence, and types of clauses used) have been widely used to determine and benchmark language proficiency development in speaking and writing. (Norris and Ortega 2009; Lu 2011). However, the…