Medical students need to become fluent in the native language of the country they will be working in before entering their work environment at the hospital. For this purpose, third-year students in the international track medicine (ITM) at Maastricht University attended the interactive online medical-Dutch language course. In this study, the aim…

The sudden global shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic required teachers to place more emphasis on strategies that increased student engagement and supported their online learning. Emotional scaffolding is one such strategy that assisted learners by creating positive emotional experiences and representations during the learning…

Among various factors contributing to autonomous language learners' success, the beneficial role of out-of-classroom activities (OCAs) has been largely neglected. The present case study sought to explore successful language learners' OCAs, their perceptions of the efficiency of these activities, and their purposes for engaging in them. To this…

This quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of using model texts as a written corrective feedback (WCF) strategy on second language learners' writing, in both rewritten drafts and new drafts. It further examined learners' perceptions of model-based feedback and how those perceptions affected model effectiveness. Sixty-six English…

This study, informed by Vygotskian notion of mediation and reporting on a partnership between a researcher (the first author) and a teacher (the second author), aims at exploring how peers' comments can inform teacher assessment and guidance of learners' L2 (second/foreign language) writing. The participants were 19 L2 English learners in an upper…

Over the past decade, the focus of investigation in individual differences (IDs) research has shifted from the utilization of large-scale questionnaire surveys toward the adoption of methodological diversity and development of new approaches to second-language (L2) communication (Dörnyei and Ryan [2015]. "The Psychology of the Language…

Practicing pronunciation through language learning systems incorporating Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology has been effective in helping improve foreign language pronunciation. One of the ASR affordances is that it can provide immediate, personalized feedback on learners' pronunciation. We investigated the effects of two ASR-based…

Purpose: This poetic inquiry investigates second language (L2) learners' experiences of English language learning and examines the role of emotions in the language learning process. Design/methodology: The methodology chosen in the current study is qualitative, case-study research through which 209 English poems written by twenty-one Japanese EFL…

Research on the impact of feedback on students' writing has grown in the past 20 years, including studies comparing the nature of teacher and automated feedback. Differential success in learners' gaining from feedback has largely depended on their engagement with the feedback rather than the feedback itself. Studies examining the ways learners…

Target language instruction in multilingual settings cannot ignore the linguistic diversity of both the learners and the society. Rather than ignoring the individual and societal multilingualism, leveraging them as resources in learning the target language can be beneficial. Developing such multilingual instruction is an organic, iterative process…

Purpose: Despite the increasing use of technology-driven multimodal pedagogies in second-language writing education, there is a dearth of studies investigating the value and design of multimodal text feedback. Based on Chong's (Chong, S. W. 2019. "College Students' Perception of e-Feedback: A Grounded Theory Perspective."…

This study examined the influence of teachers' use of face threat mitigation (FTM) strategies on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' state motivation, motivation to process instructional materials, vision of their ideal L2 self, and L2 achievement in a distance course. To this end, sixty-three EFL learners were assigned into one of the…

This study investigated the effects of using IELTS model essays in conjunction with noticing as a feedback instrument on Vietnamese undergraduates' IELTS Task 2 writing performance. To investigate this, a quasi-experimental design was undertaken. The control group used the course textbook and received traditional writing feedback (i.e. direct,…

In the field of second language (L2) research, there is a growing recognition of the vital need to explore the diversity of emotional experiences of learning. The current paper describes part of action research with two classes of Japanese first-grade university students (n = 47) in compulsory English as a foreign language (EFL) lessons.…

Recent years have witnessed an increased interest in automated writing evaluation (hereafter AWE). However, few studies have examined the use of AWE with apprehensive writers. Hence, this study extends research in this area, investigating the effect of using AWE on reducing writing apprehension and enhancing grammatical knowledge. The participants…