English language learners are often at risk for communication and language delays--crucial elements in the foundation of early literacy skills. Studies have shown that preschool children involved in sociodramatic play demonstrate greater proficiency and interest in language development and reading. The manuscript shares evidence-based strategies…

Past research suggests that bilingualism positively affects children's performance in false belief tasks. However, researchers have yet to fully explore factors that are related to better performance in these tasks within bilingual groups. The current study includes an assessment of proficiency in both languages (which was lacking in past work)…

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) requires students to use language in myriad ways as they define a problem, design and conduct an original research project, disseminate their findings, and take change-seeking actions in their community. YPAR embeds language development in community-centered and cross-disciplinary work and empowers youth…

Proficiency is a key variable in late second language (L2) learning, but one that is undermeasured in current research. This study investigates whether L2 oral proficiency can be quickly and reliably assessed via the Spanish "elicited imitation task" (EIT; Ortega, Iwashita, Rabie, & Norris, 1999). Thirty-seven L2 learners of Spanish…

In this field note we discuss findings from pilot research on a variety of heritage German spoken in the Northeastern Province of Misiones of Argentina. Based on sociolinguistic field interviews with 25 consultants possessing varying degrees of proficiency in the language, we show that this variant of heritage German does in fact occasionally…

In recent years, there has been an increase in Chinese international students attending American universities. Chinese international students in American higher education represent the largest group of international students from a single country. However, research and media reports have documented that Chinese students in America are now facing a…

This study examines the links between L2 linguistic knowledge, L2 listening strategy use, self-determined motivation, and L2 listening anxiety relative to L2 listening proficiency. Prior theoretical and empirical work suggests that these variables are interrelated in complex ways, and this hypothesis is tested here using structural equation…

This paper examines how students perceive their proficiency in a second language to affect their ability to complete ethical tasks in an educational game. Students' limited proficiency in a second language may impede their ability to carry out real-world tasks; this may cause problems for classes in which the tasks are just as important as…

This study explores the effects of extensive audio-visual input with three captioning modes -- unenhanced captions, textually enhanced captions, and no captions -- on learning a variety of L2 grammatical constructions and examines the effects of three learnability factors: construction type, frequency, and recency. A total of 112 participants…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a blended learning method on the development of foreign language communicative competence of the officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the educational and information environment of a Higher Military Educational Institution. The foreign language training was carried out at 11 military…

This study examined levels of English proficiency before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among English learner students in grades 3-12 in Texas. In 2020-2021, nearly 750,000 students in grades 3-12--approximately one in five Texas students--were English learner students. In accordance with Texas state law and the Every Student Succeeds Act,…

The lack of exchange between international students and host nationals in Japan has long been a pressing issue, yet very little progress has been made to rectify this situation. In this study, we examined this issue by focusing on how international students in Japan perceive cultural contact with their host and home culture members during their…

Empirical research on L3 teachers' beliefs has gained momentum in the last decade since teacher cognition is paramount for understanding teaching practices in multilingual settings. Yet, many of these works deal with experienced language practitioners (e.g. [Otwinowska, A. (2017). English teachers' language awareness: Away with the monolingual…

This study compares the language proficiency gains of two groups of students taking a business English course module in a bilingual university in Catalonia (Spain). Whereas one of these groups followed a 'translanguaging' or 'plurilingual' pedagogy, the other followed a strictly monolingual approach. Participants were 54 mostly Catalan/Spanish…

This paper reports the development and validation of a digital application (Assessment Scale of Oral Language at School -- Decision Support System, EVALOE-DSS) for the professional development of teachers aiming to improve their students' linguistic competence. We performed a multiple case study involving seven teachers and their students from…