Lexical proficiency in a second language (L2) has long been effectively assessed through the measurement of various lexical indices, or textual characteristics that act as observable indicators of such conceptual categories as lexical richness, diversity, sophistication, and fluency. While many studies have established links between these lexical…

How to approach grammar when teaching for proficiency in today's world language classrooms can be challenging and confusing. Many teachers wrongly believe that proficiency-based instruction means no attention to grammar, but this couldn't be less true! Many teachers feel so strongly about teaching grammar that they continue with outdated methods,…

In this mixed-methods study, we investigated the relationship between instructional approach, students' self-efficacy beliefs, and students' English language proficiency, as well as the perceptions of the instructor and students regarding problem-based learning (PBL) in a College English course in China. Using path analysis, we assessed the…

The all-encompassing term "Medical Spanish" references the Spanish used by healthcare professionals. Medical Spanish courses have gained traction as the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. continues to grow. Consequently, demand for courses in Medical Spanish and other areas of Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP), a subfield of…

In South Australia, pre-service teachers require a sound knowledge of grammar to deploy the Learning English: Achievement and Proficiency (LEAP) Levels, an assessment, monitoring and reporting tool designed to inform programming and planning for English as an Additional Language and Dialect (EAL/D) students. However, research shows that many…

Language-responsive instructional approaches are intended to enhance the mathematics learning of students with low academic language proficiency, mostly by enriching mathematical content trajectories with systematic language-learning opportunities. However, little is known about their effects (and in particular differential effects) in…

The efficacy of the "integrated approach," which calls for the simultaneous integration of two varieties in teaching Arabic as a second language (L2), has not yet been rigorously examined, and the very few available studies suffer from many methodological limitations. The current study sought to bridge this gap in the literature by…

This large-scale study used a survey to collect data on K-12 world language classrooms in Massachusetts public schools, focusing on core instructional practices, curriculum, and assessment. The study resulted in 383 individual teacher completed responses, representing 188 districts, which was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results indicate…

In Dynamic Assessment (DA), the observation that individuals respond differently to support, or mediation, is important for diagnoses of development. The concept of learning potential refers to openness to mediation, i.e., the extent of change to performance when mediation is available, which may suggest learners will need less overall instruction…

For more than three decades, there has been a paradigm shift in approaches to the teaching of world languages in the classroom. The shift has been influenced heavily by the literature on second language acquisition and teaching as well as the development and implementation of the national standards for teaching and learning. The purpose of this…

The "ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners" are designed to describe language performance that is the result of explicit instruction in an instructional setting. A companion to the "ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines," a document that describes broad, general language proficiency regardless of when, where or how…

For this study, a training module is designed as an integral component of a professional educational program to include an educational workshop situated in a university classroom, educational research work, and a reflexive activity. A didactic model consisting of five structural and functional blocks, namely, normative-target, conceptual,…

A robust finding in psycholinguistics is that prior language experience influences subsequent language processing. This phenomenon is known as syntactic priming. Most of the empirical support for L2 syntactic priming comes from lab-based experiments. However, this evidence might not reflect how priming occurs in typical language activities in the…

This quasi-experimental study investigated the impacts of two instructional conditions on the fluency of learners' performance. In the first condition (strategy training), learners were provided with explicit fluency strategy training for a portion of each lesson before rehearsing versions of the speaking task for the remainder of the lesson. In…

The production-oriented approach (POA) is a nascent language-teaching approach that considers the aptitudes of Chinese learners. This study compared POA with task-based language teaching (TBLT) and presentation-practice-production (PPP) theoretically and empirically. A four-quadrant model and a theoretical comparison table are proposed to clarify…