Addressing the perceptions and the preferences of the upper-secondary school students, teachers, parents and administrators of the native speaking (NS) and non-native speaking (NNS) English teachers as well as investigating the variables affecting these preferences and perceptions, this study explores whether or not the native speaker myth is…

The importance of authentic communicative practices in foreign language (FL) learning has long been recognized. However, most FL learners lack adequate access to authentic communicative environments in the target language. In this article, we propose the use of telepresence robots as a potential solution to bridge this gap. Telepresence robots can…

Due to globalization and the spread in the use of foreign languages in the workplace, language needs have been regularly and increasingly researched, whether from linguistic, psychological or socio-economic perspectives. The use of these languages, far from being neutral, gives rise to a whole set of attitudes, feelings, behaviours and…

This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) writing proficiency on second language (L2) writing ability among Saudi college students. The research was built on Cummins' common underlying proficiency theory and linguistic interdependence hypothesis, which advocate the L1's effect on L2 learning. Participants consisted of 38…

A well-known challenge for language learners is that the input is typically produced by a variety of speakers, each with distinct vocal characteristics (Liberman, Harris, Hoffman, & Griffith, 1957). Accordingly, many studies have indicated that talker variability leads to processing costs for learners across the lifespan (Jusczyk & Pisoni,…

In language learning, there is much evidence to suggest that heritage language (HL) learners exhibit learning needs and profiles that are distinct from non-HL learners. In the case of Chinese language teaching in Victoria, this issue is particularly pronounced because of the loose eligibility criterion that divides students into the streams of…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise, description and basic statistics about minority language education in a specific region of Europe. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements, and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects, such as the…

This article argues that while there exists considerable overlap and potentially productive dialogue between political theory and language policy scholarship, any such effort will be hampered by the dominant approaches to political theory that assume individualistic and instrumentalist conceptions of language. Augmenting the language ideologies…

Research on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes has yielded mixed results regarding their impact on students' language learning, drawing attention to the role of CLIL teachers. This study draws on teacher language awareness research to explore secondary subject content teachers' language-related pedagogical practices when…

On the French Guiana-Suriname border, a hybrid space, members of the same population groups engage in circular mobility but little is known about the practices of these transnational communities. We explore how traditional emic social distinctions, modern states' language ideologies and emerging discourses in the urban context shape Maroon's…

This study employs the Specificity Principle to examine the relative impacts of external (input quantity at home and at school, number of books and reading frequency at home, teachers' degree and experience, language usage, socioeconomic status) and internal factors (children's working memory, nonverbal intelligence, learning-related…

Transnational higher education (TNHE), often based on export models of Western-based universities and driven by neoliberal market economy agendas, has spread across the globe. One example of TNHE is Qatar's Education City where six prestigious American international branch campuses (IBCs) all administer their degrees through English medium…

The extent to which learners benefit from instruction may be largely dependent on their individual abilities. However, there is relatively little work on the interaction between instructional effectiveness in second language learning and learner individual factors. In this study, we investigated the relationship between instruction, individual…

Over 11 million students enter school speaking a language other than English. Due to their emerging English proficiency, many English Learners (ELs) struggle with English literacy, which impacts their overall achievement in school. However, there is evidence that ELs who have solid skills in their native language are able to apply their…

Education for multilingual Physics students in South Africa still has a monolingual bias despite such pedagogy being repeatedly identified as the key factor in students' academic underachievement in the subject. The paper reports on the pivotal role language plays in the comprehension and subsequent academic performance of students in science…