Since its modern inception in the late nineteenth century, research on word associations has developed into a large and diverse area of study, including work with both applied linguistic and psycholinguistic orientations. However, despite significant recent interest in the use of word association to investigate second language (L2) vocabulary…

The current discussion about assessment in the language teaching context--involving topics such as immigration and citizenship, and university entrance--has brought with it the issue of justice in assessment. Although in Colombia such concerns are not generally discussed, it is important to consider fairness when it comes to classroom assessment.…

Language assessment literacy (LAL), an increasingly prominent research topic, has generated substantial literature in language testing and assessment. Thus far, there seems to be few comprehensive reviews on this research topic. The current scoping study reviewed a total of 81 papers by synthesising LAL studies published from 2008 to 2020. It…

As indicated in this Special Issue, there has been much debate on the development of English language and literacy in d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) students. Questions remain on the nature of the first language and the relation of this language to the development of English literacy. There is also considerable controversy on the role of…

The author, having drawn examples from her doctoral study, describes how a thematic analysis approach was employed to interpret raw data in her doctoral study which explored the impacts of a high-stakes test on students and parents in Nepal. As the main purpose of this paper is to provide some guidelines for English language teaching (ELT)…

Unquestionably, discussions on the internationalization of higher education have gained currency in the educational context (Knight, 2004; Altbach; Knight, 2007; Delgado-Marquez; Hurtado-Torres; Bondar, 2011), and language policies prove to be a crucial issue in the internationalization arena. In this regard, Paraná's government created the Paraná…

I started out as a budding English as a second language (ESL) teacher in 1976 at UCLA where I went through the M.A. TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) and Applied Linguistics Ph.D. programs. Sadly, those two programs were "disestablished" in 2014, which provides a stark lesson to any departments that think they are hot stuff…

The studies documented in the four articles in this special issue uniquely exemplify principles of design-based research as follows: by taking innovative approaches to significant problems in the contexts of real educational practices; by addressing fundamental pedagogical and policy issues related to language, learning, and teaching; and, in the…

This is the first collection of research studies to explore the potential for mixed methods to shed light on foreign or second language learning by young learners in instructed contexts. It brings together recent studies undertaken in Cameroon, China, Croatia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania and…

In recent years, the student population enrolling in Flemish higher education has become increasingly diverse. Whereas teacher training institutes used to attract mainly students with a diploma of general secondary education, the proportion of students with a technical or vocational educational background has grown substantially over the past ten…

While there have been a number of studies exploring the impact of time-on-task and language background on language achievement for both English and other languages, the Student Achievement in Asian Languages Education (SAALE) project constitutes the first systematic attempt to gather empirical evidence of these effects for four Asian languages…

This article, first, identifies the reading characteristics of students enrolled in the foundation provision of the extended degree; then determines the responsiveness of the English curriculum to these characteristics and thinking on literacy development. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, and the language ability framework…

This dissertation examined the status of data-based research in applied linguistics through an analysis of published research studies in nine peer-reviewed applied linguistics journals ("Applied Language Learning, The Canadian Modern Language Review / La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, Current Issues in Language Planning, Dialog on Language…

The present study revisited the issue of simultaneous attention to form and meaning from a methodological perspective that addressed several potential methodological issues of previous research in this strand of inquiry. Seventy-two second-semester-level participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental groups, including a control,…

Examines the Variable Competence (VC) approach to second language acquisition (SLA) by defining what is meant by VC and looking at the variable rules and how they are acquired. The research implications of VC models are examined, presenting arguments for and against their use in applied linguistic research in language testing and SLA. (32…