In contemporary Western societies, parenting has become the subject of a substantial body of advice and self-help literature. Within this literature, questions of bilingual parenting have begun to add yet another dimension to parental anxieties. Against this background, we examine how parents in a general Australian online parenting forum discuss…

This article is an investigation into the characteristics of intercultural competence in a face-to-face tandem language learning context between English and Chinese postgraduate students. It examines idiomatic meaning exchanges through the adoption of a conversation analytical perspective. It is a contribution to the existing body of knowledge on…

Research across Myanmar's ethnic states has shown that large and well organised non-dominant ethnic groups such as the Mon, Karen, Shan and Kachin would prefer Myanmar's education system to offer MTB-MLE so that their children are able to start education in the mother tongue. This article engages with some of the overlooked voices of minorities…

Despite previous research suggesting that first language (L1) use fulfills important functions in collaborative writing (CW) tasks, research has yet to examine whether L1 or second language (L2) use may lead to variation in the lexico-grammatical aspects of learners' collaborative texts and the pair talk. Using a corpus-based approach, this study…

This study is a conceptual replication of Rogers and Cheung's (2018) investigation into distribution of practice effects on the learning of L2 vocabulary in child EFL classrooms in Hong Kong. Following a pretest, treatment, delayed posttest design, 66 primary school students (Cantonese L1) studied 20 vocabulary items over three training episodes…

This paper reports a study that investigated the dimensions underneath the construct of foreign language classroom enjoyment and explored the pattern in which these enjoyment dimensions affect foreign language achievement. To this end, 320 first language Chinese senior high school students, who were learning English as a foreign language (EFL),…

Teaching culture out of context may not be the optimal approach, yet it could be achieved by immersive technologies. This study uses an immersive theme-based environment and focuses on cross-cultural interactions between learners of different cultures in goal-oriented scenarios. We collected interactions among learners with different cultural…

Dual language (DL) schools provide literacy in students' native languages; however, it is unknown if there is a focus on oral language (OL) development, an essential component for emergent bilinguals'(EB) literacy development. The purpose of this mixed-methods case study is to understand what DL teachers in Virginia know about OL instruction when…

The present dissertation analyzed speech production and perception in early heritage Spanish-English bilingual children. Specifically, I investigated how perception and production of lexical stress develops in bilingual children. Current models of second language (L2) speech perception do not include heritage bilinguals or suprasegmental aspects…

This paper documents the Dominant Language Constellations (DLC) in my personal multilingual repertoire, as it traces my path and pathos (or passion) of learning languages--starting with my mother tongue which has been a point of reference for most other languages that I have learnt during my life. It is also a sort of memoir of different periods…

Practice is necessary for developing oral English proficiency, but many Chinese learners of English lack the self-confidence to practice oral English; furthermore, students' self-confidence deficiency is perpetuated by insufficient oral English proficiency. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to discover pedagogical practices that break…

Cognitive flexibility (switching) and control (inhibition) are among widely accepted cognitive advantages of bilingualism. Switch Cost (SC), i.e., the time difference to complete a switch versus non-switch task, is a construct for measuring the switching ability. The need to control the interference and switching between one's languages leads to…

This dissertation investigates Voice Onset Time (VOT), which serves as an essential property for differentiating plosive consonants in L1 and L2 Mandarin Chinese. It surveys VOT variations and demonstrates that they are affected by several phonetic and phonological properties, e.g., lexical tone, place of articulation (POA), speech rate,…

Comprehension of many types of texts involves constructing meaning from text and pictures. However, research examining how second language (L2) learners process text and pictures and the relationship with comprehension is scarce. Thus, while verbal input is often presented in written and auditory modes simultaneously (i.e., audio of text with…

The unforeseen shift to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic required instructors and students to face unprecedented learning challenges. Under these circumstances, Chinese international students who intended to come to the U.S. to begin their studies were required to remotely access their courses while still residing in China, which…