This study examined the characteristics of male high school English learners' motivation and the relations between their motivation and achievement in English learning. A total of 334 Grade 10 students in a boys' high school participated in this study by completing a questionnaire survey on second language (L2) learning motivation and taking an…

This article highlights a series of areas deemed worthy of attention by L2 researchers. In some cases the research effort would entail following up on studies initiated some years ago and in other cases the effort would involve relatively new research thrusts. The article includes ideas about research regarding: (1) "pathways to success in…

This mixed-methods study explores English and Japanese learning motivations in a group of Japanese summer course participants at a university in Hong Kong. Sixty-one Cantonese-speaking students completed two questionnaire surveys on co-existing motivations for learning L2 English and L3 Japanese. Depending on the questionnaire results, eight…

Despite the dramatic rise in international student enrolment in Chinese higher education institutions, the classroom learning experiences of these students are not adequately reflected in the international literature. The present qualitative study explores the learning experiences of 33 international students in different types of classroom…

A multi-method approach was used to understand the attitudes of English Language Teachers working in universities in Japan to first language use (L1) in the second language (L2) classroom. Findings indicate that instructors recognise the benefits of the L1 and have awareness of current empirical findings, though, their approach is highly dependent…

This article describes learning walks that focus on enhancing student intrinsic motivation and learning at a dual-language pre-K-8 urban public school. Descriptions in this case study are a composite based on the authors' actual experiences as well as ideas from literature and other schools. About once a week at Chicago's Talcott Fine Arts and…

This study has sought to reveal perceptions towards the employment of WhatsApp in foreign language learning, especially preparing for a national academic language exam. In this sense, this study is supposed to make contribution to employing WhatsApp in educational contexts. This study, designed as a case study, is to investigate the pros and cons…

Easy and rapid access to the Internet, the affordances of Web 2.0 tools and technological advances, such as smartphone applications, have rendered informal contact with English an undisputed reality. This out-of-class contact without the primary or conscious objective of language learning has been the focus of recent research into the field of…

This study employed narrative inquiry to understand the oral English learning motivation of Chinese international students with low oral English proficiency through their academic acculturation stories. Expectancy-value theory served as the theoretical framework to inform the study design and the interpretation of results. Findings suggest all…

From a constructivist perspective on learning, mistakes are seen as natural elements of learning processes. A supportive and constructive way of dealing with student mistakes has shown to affect students' individual motivation and learning performances in a favorable way. In classroom settings, however, making mistakes is not just a personal but…

This research investigates the variables influencing willingness to communicate (WTC) in English as a foreign language (EFL) context in Taiwan. A hypothesized EFL WTC model with six layers focusing on factors related to individual differences was proposed and the EFL WTC model was reinterpreted as a serial mediation model. Ten latent variables,…

This paper investigates the relationship between the decisions made by school leaders in England concerning their school policy for teaching modern foreign languages (MFL) post-14, and student motivation for MFL. Seventy head teachers, 119 heads of modern languages and 666 students aged 14-15 from schools in England took part in the…

This study investigated the impact of reading learning strategies (RLS) mediated by smartphone features and applications on the learners' psychological autonomy in English as a foreign language (EFL) reading context among undergraduates in Saudi Arabia. A total of 70 male students in two intact reading classes participated in this study. A…

Over the past several decades, applied linguistics and second language (L2) acquisition and teaching have been areas of prolific research and have undergone continual development. The purpose of this article is to identify essential themes in the field of applied linguistics, focusing more intensely on teaching and learning second languages in a…

In recent years, numerous English vocabulary learning-assisted apps have been developed to enlarge learners' English vocabulary through mobile learning. However, the ability of learners to engage in self-regulated learning (SRL) importantly affects performance in autonomously learning English vocabulary using mobile apps. Therefore, this study…