This article has two main goals. The first is to summarize and comment on the current state of affairs of generative approaches to SLA (GenSLA), 35 years into its history. This discussion brings the readership of SSLA up to date on the questions driving GenSLA agendas and clears up misconceptions about what GenSLA does and does not endeavor to…

Why do adults seem to struggle more than children in learning a second language, despite being better at a range of other cognitive skills? The source of L1-L2 differences in language learning is one of the most debated topics in the study of language. One hypothesis is that L1-L2 differences are primarily experience-based, with language learning…

As the parameters of the field of educational assessment have extended past testing into learning, assessment concepts have evolved and become ever more nuanced. It is frequently lamented in the English language literature that there is insufficient conformity and clarity in the way they are defined and used. This paper offers a survey of the…

The current study aims to investigate Iranian EFL learners' cognitive styles and their explanations of conceptual metaphors, offering a possible range of individual differences in metaphor processing. 71 participants were asked to explain some established conceptual metaphors that are commonly used in English. Then, their cognitive styles were…

Learning Japanese has become very common amongst Taiwanese high school and university students, ranking the second most sought for language. A concise study of the likeable activities in a typical language class for the Taiwanese students seems to be quite useful. Therefore, the present study has concentrated on the senior high school students'…

Frequentist methods have long dominated data analysis in quantitative second language (L2) research. Recently, however, several empirical fields have begun to embrace alternatives known as Bayesian methods. Using an open-source approach, we provide an applied, nontechnical rationale for Bayesian methods in L2 research. First, we compare the…

This article applies the perspective of "boundary work," an approach originating in science studies, to relations between the disciplines of Second Language Writing (SLW) and rhetoric and composition (R&C), especially to controversies surrounding the concept of translingualism. Boundaries both separate and connect, a dual potential…

This article reports the first attempt to test the relevance of buoyancy--the capacity to overcome the setbacks, challenges, and pressures that are part of the ordinary course of school life--for instructed second language (L2) learning. Questionnaire data from 787 college-level L2 learners in South Korea assessed their academic buoyancy and a set…

This study examined the extent to which manipulating the characteristics of second language reading activities affects the reading process and noticing of glossed linguistic constructions. Thirty-eight Korean learners of English read two texts under conditions that required more or less careful reading. For the condition intended to promote more…

The last 15 years has seen a tremendous growth in research on structural priming among second language (L2) speakers. Structural priming is the phenomenon whereby speakers are more likely to repeat a structure they have recently heard or produced. Research on L2 structural priming speaks to key issues regarding the underlying linguistic and…

This article explores the concept of narratives of biliteracy or how two bilingual mothers defined biliteracy for their families through the construction of narratives. This study is approached through a theoretical discussion of narratives to investigate how the two families constructed certain versions of their realities as they observed,…

Since its introduction by Glass in the 1970s, meta-analysis has become a widely accepted and the most preferred approach to conducting research synthesis. Overcoming the weaknesses commonly associated with traditional narrative review and vote counting, meta-analysis is a statistical method of systematically aggregating and analyzing empirical…

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the influence of Iranian EFL learners' previously acquired capitals on their foreign language achievement. For this purpose, the Social and Cultural Capital Questionnaire (SCCQ) and Emotional Capital Questionnaire (ECQ) were administered to 403 participants. Application of structural equation…

This article briefly traces the historical conceptualization of linguistic and cultural immersion through technological applications, from the early days of locally networked computers to the cutting-edge technologies known as virtual reality and augmented reality. Next, the article explores the challenges of immersive technologies for the field…

As "Foreign Language Annals" concludes its 50th anniversary, it is fitting to review the past and peer into the future of standards-based education and assessment. Standards are a common yardstick used by educators and researchers as a powerful framework for conceptualizing teaching and measuring learner success. The impact of standards…