In this commentary, we describe the English language placement adaptations we were required to make due to the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. It includes a brief description of our placement test battery which was adapted to address our institution's move to a remote teaching/learning mode. A discussion of the major challenges we experienced, their…

Engaging in critical dialogues in language classrooms that draw on critical pedagogical perspectives can be challenging for learners because of gaps in communicative resources in their L1 and L2. Since critically oriented classrooms involve discussing social issues, students are expected to deploy "literate talk" to engage in critiquing…

The concept of Funds of Identity (FOI) comes from a theory of learning that emphasizes the importance of recognizing and using students' cultural, linguistic, and personal backgrounds to enhance their educational experiences. FOI is like a "toolbox" of resources that people gather over time. These resources are shaped by historical,…

Successful listening in a second language (L2) involves learning to identify the relevant acoustic-phonetic dimensions that differentiate between words in the L2, and then use these cues to access lexical representations during real-time comprehension. This is a particularly challenging goal to achieve when the relevant acoustic-phonetic…

MOOCs (massive open online courses) promise higher education to participants who cannot travel to or pay for face-to-face classes. In 2013, a new MOOC introduced second language (L2) learners to concepts of English language academic writing. The authors of this article participated in the course as students and kept a reflective diary, which we…

Constructionist research on L2 learning has focused on the degrees to which skewed frequency (Goldberg, Casenhiser & White, 2007; Casenhiser & Goldberg, 2005; Goldberg, Casenhiser, & Sethuraman 2004) in a person's linguistic environment can facilitate "entrenchment," "schematization," and "contingency…

Engagement is related to important student outcomes such as persistence, retention, and grades. It is key to all students' learning, but it may be particularly important for culturally diverse students who may have fewer models and other resources for keeping themselves engaged. As the institutions of higher education become increasingly…

This paper examines how flows of people, media, money, technology, and ideologies move through the world, with attention to how these scapes (Appadurai 1990, 1996, 2013) shape identity construction among language learners, both in and out of classrooms. After illustrating intersecting scapes in sociolinguistic terms, I explore the relevance of…

This article introduces an ongoing effort to use Internet resources in an Advanced Business Chinese for Professionals (ABCP) course in order to deepen learners' language and cultural understanding. This course blends face-to-face (F2F) classroom instruction and online communications using Brix, an online course management system developed by the…

This paper brings task-based language teaching (TBLT) curriculum development principles into the blended learning context, presenting processes and outcomes from a project to develop a task-based thematic unit--asking and giving directions--in a hybrid web-based university-level class focused on listening and speaking skills in Mandarin Chinese.…

This article investigates the potential benefits of using children's literature in adult second language (L2) classrooms. A short-term, intensive university course for English reading and writing was designed incorporating children's literature into the curriculum. The author describes the course and discusses how children's literature can be used…

The theme for this year's annual graduate student conference of the College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature (LLL) was "Your Voice, My Voice: Literature, Language, Culture and Society." Translation and interpretation guided the theme for the conference, with Dr. Marvin Puakea Nogelmeier of the Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian…

Drawn from a 2.5 year critical ethnography in the ESL program of a Hawai'i public high school (Tradewinds High), this article examines racializing and racist conduct directed at Micronesian students by a group of old-timer ESL students, primarily of East/Southeast Asian inheritance. Racialization and racism directed at Micronesians positioned them…

The theme for this year's College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa was "Engaged Language Research and Practice," with the plenary speech given by Dr. Kathryn A. Davis. Following a preface from the editors and plenary speaker highlights, contents of these proceedings include: Section I:…

Learning to juggle has become popular among corporate training programs because it shows participants how to appreciate mistakes and use "Intelligent Fast Failure" (learning quickly by daring to make a lot of simple mistakes at the beginning of a process). Big business also likes the way juggling can get executives "out of the…