The study aims to discover whether audio or video modality in a listening test is more beneficial to test takers. In this study, the posttest-only control group design was utilized and quantitative data were collected in order to measure participant performances concerning two types of modality (audio or video) in a listening test. The…

As the construct of agency has generated considerable discussion among language educators recently and has become a buzz word, there is a need for it to be further conceptualized and operationalized in autonomy research. Drawing on Margaret Archer's theorization of "internal conversation," this paper theorizes language learners' agency…

Motivation plays an important role in foreign language learning. Learning motivation is to promote and guide and maintain learning activities which have been conducted an internal strength or internal mechanism. Learning motivation once formed, the student will use an active learning attitude to learn, and express a keen interest in learning, and…

Introduction: Nowadays, language and intercultural competences have become core employability skills in many fields, supporting the development of other skills which emphasizes the necessity for specific pedagogic approaches in developing online learning materials and courses that would develop learners' language competence and other relevant 21st…

This discussion examines an academic intervention designed to enhance the motivation and classroom engagement of English Language Learners (ELLs) during literacy-based activities. Stemming from a sociocultural perspective of literacy (Au, 1993; Perez, 2004) within a funds of knowledge framework (González, Moll, & Amanti , 2005), our approach…

The present article carries out an in-depth analysis of the differences in motivation, input-related variables and linguistic attainment of the students at two content and language integrated learning (CLIL) schools operating within the same institutional and educational context, the Spanish region of Extremadura, and differing only in terms of…

This qualitative study explores teachers' perspectives on learner motivation for English in Chilean secondary schools. Drawing both on motivation theories and on concepts related to teacher cognition, autonomy and agency, the analysis of 19 semi-structured interviews with Chilean English teachers sheds light on the difficulties that many teachers…

This book presents original, empirical data from quantitative and qualitative research studies in the field of language learning aptitude, ability, and individual differences. It does so from the perspectives of Second Language Acquisition, psychology, neuroscience and sociolinguistics. All studies included in the book use a similar and uniform…

Empirical research conducted over the past few decades suggests that the age at which an individual is first exposed to a second language affects long-term outcomes, in particular for phonology. The question that has occupied scholars of various bents is what, exactly, underlies the robust age effects observed. Does age imply immutable changes in…

Nowadays, the function of language teaching and testing has been paid much attention by researchers. There is an overall notion in the literature that motivation, as driving force, is one of the likely learners' traits. The aim of this study was to examine the comparative impact of self-assessment and teacher-assessment on learners' academic…

One major competence for learners in the 21st century is acquiring a second language (L2). Based on this, L2 instruction has integrated new concepts to motivate learners in their pursue of achieving fluency. A concept that is adaptable to digital natives and digital immigrants that are learning a L2 is Gamification. As a pedagogical strategy,…

As the English language has become a global lingua franca today, it is not surprising that changes in attitudes and perceptions towards learning English in the international context have taken place at the same time. In this paper, I critically examine the notion of "integrative motivation" in the literature of second language (L2)…

The purposes of this study are (1) to longitudinally measure the receptive vocabulary size (VS) of Japanese EFL senior high school learners; (2) to investigate how the learners develop their VS; and (3) to describe the longitudinal developmental patterns of VS of each learner during their three years of high school. Kasahara's (2005) VS tests, a…

This study aims to examine the college students in Taiwan for the attributes of how their English test scores are being affected by language learning strategy use. The university is recognized as a second-tier technology university in Taiwan, as the students are considered to have low levels of English proficiency and learning motivation. A group…

In recent years increased attention has been given in applied linguistics to the learning processes of various groups of special needs (SN) students, especially to those whose achievement is impeded by dyslexia or other learning difficulties. However, students with sensory impairment, particularly those who are Deaf or severely hard of hearing…