This paper focuses on AI-powered image and audio generators as tools for developing language skills of 4-6-year-old EFL learners. Drawing on the concept of digital screen mediation (Meskill, 2021, 2024) rooted in Vygotskian sociocultural paradigm, this mixed-method study explores young learners' experiences interacting with AI technologies…

Teacher identity is the reflection of teachers' perception, position, and identification as teachers. Teachers' identities are dynamic and continuously negotiated by the interplay of their professional practices, past experiences, and contextual conditions. Drawing on this understanding, this study explores Chinese English teachers' professional…

This paper gives an account of the history of foreign language values in Sweden from the seventeenth century to the present. The paper is informed by sociocultural standpoints on language and language learning according to which language is a dynamic tool that is appropriated by individuals to achieve particular purposes, and that dialogically…

This paper discusses the claims put forward by Barbara Fredrickson and her broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions that suggests that certain positive emotions, such as interest, joy, contentment and awe, have the capacity to broaden individuals' thought-action repertoires. Such positive emotions might facilitate the discovery of new…

Studies on social media usage have indicated that the use of social media has now become a norm with many educators utilizing social media applications as an approach to teaching and learning. This is because social media affordances have made this platform a versatile medium in the acquisition of language skills such as speaking which has been…

In new paradigms, teachers' cognition and emotion must be considered dialectically shaped co-evolving processes. To address the issue, the study examined how language teachers' "perezhivaniya" (plural form of "perezhivanie," a concept from Sociocultural Theory that describes a unity between cognition and emotion) developed.…

A great deal of research has focused on tasks, particularly for adult second language learners. In this paper we provide an account of studies that have investigated children and tasks -- an age group that have received far less attention. We consider, in particular, the impact of tasks on children's language learning, how their design features…

This study examined the role of growth mindset, self-efficacy, and intrinsic value in self-regulated learning (SRL) and English language learning achievements in Hong Kong primary school students. A sample of 690 4th graders participated in the study. The findings suggest that the level of SRL strategy use (i.e. monitoring, effort regulation, and…

Synchronous online chatting has been mundanely employed in language classrooms as a supporting instructional medium. To explore the current state of research and inform future studies, this article examines the past studies on the use of Synchronous online text chatting in English as second/foreign language courses. Using frequently referred…

Drawing on theoretical insights from a complex dynamic systems framework, this work explores the ways that learner selves, as they relate to learning and using languages, manifest across different contexts and timescales and emerge in interaction with various factors. First, a broad overview of dynamically-oriented L2 motivation research is…

This questionnaire study examined the beliefs, practices and constraints related to learner autonomy reported by 359 teachers (mainly expatriate) working on an English Preparatory Year Programme (PYP) at a university in Saudi Arabia. The teachers associated learner autonomy primarily with notions of independence and control and saw it as the…

This article updates the trends and developments of Japanese as a second language (JSL) research since Mori and Mori (2011) by reviewing nearly 200 selected empirical studies published in English or Japanese between 2010 and early 2019. The first section of this review examines the cognitive aspects of second language (L2) Japanese development,…

Drawing on sociocultural theories of language and literacy practice and Curdt-Christiansen's theoretical framework of family language policy (FLP), this multiple case study investigates the perceptions, practices, and challenges regarding heritage language maintenance (HLM) of Chinese immigrant families in a mid-sized Midwestern American city. The…

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is crucial in most secondary schools within the EU and many other schools worldwide. Some teachers are integrating Online Community Projects (OCPs) into their curricula to provide a means of communication that motivates learning and incites learner-centred methods. This collaborative Action Research study…

L2 classroom is a place and process that undergoes an array of incessant and concurrent changes affecting its main agents, i.e. the teacher and students in a non-linear and unpredictable manner. Various aspects of their cognitive and affective potential fluctuate and intensify or weaken depending on what is going on in a particular L2…