The growth of literature in student learning gain in recent decades has posed challenges to address the issue within the classroom. To further shed light on this scientific body of knowledge, the current study implemented a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design on a sample of 76 students. First, test data were analyzed using the interval…

Even in math class, English learners can work on their oral language development. The math tasks described here, designed for K-3, illustrate how.

Civic education provides adult English learners with the tools to be able to actively engage in their communities. This knowledge allows them to gain agency, develop a sense of belongingness, and facilitate lifelong learning. However, teaching civic education can be challenging for instructors for many reasons, such as prioritizing on developing…

English language learners (ELLs) experience higher barriers to education than non-ELLs. School counselors are uniquely positioned to identify and respond to the needs of these students. This phenomenological study explored the advocacy efforts of 14 school counselors working with ELLs. Major themes included creating space for culture and context,…

This book explores the reasons why adult ESL learners drop out of their language classes and suggests explicit strategies for keeping students engaged. The most effective strategies may be personal rather than technical or curricular. Based on a study of a group of Mexican immigrants to the US, the author proposes that "superación" or…

Collaboration between English as a Second Language (ESL) and content teachers to support multilingual students designated as English Learners is a growing but complex phenomenon in U.S. schools, and one that has continued to evolve during the pandemic and related disruptions to schooling. We draw upon ecological perspectives on language learning…

A considerable amount of research has emerged in recent years concerning second language (L2) learner sensitivity to various information types. From this, Clahsen and Felser proposed the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (SSH) to account for increased learner sensitivity to certain kinds of non-structural (e.g., contextual, discoursal, semantic, and…

This paper examines the impact of self-directed pronunciation practice using "Google Translate" (GT) on the acquisition of French liaison (the production of latent consonants when they appear in consonant-vowel contexts across words: /z/ in le/za/mis 'the friends'). Second-language (L2) French learners completed homework activities on GT…

This study investigated classroom interaction in three novice-level Chinese language classrooms at middle and high schools in the US in the spring of 2021. Due to school responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the participating teachers had shifted from teaching in a face-to-face, in-person classroom to fully online and partially online, hybrid…

This dissertation provides an in-depth linguistic description and analysis of the discourse in a target domain of digital games, a domain referred to as "single player offline role-playing games." Gaming discourse from this domain is represented by a 4.8-million-word corpus of spoken and written language extracted from the digital files…

Mindsets have been gaining popularity recently in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). There have been studies exploring language mindsets in relation to emotions such as anxiety and fear of failure (e.g., Lou & Noels, 2017), anxiety, rejection sensitivity, contact avoidance, and willingness to interact (e.g., Lou & Noels,…

This paper represents a summary and discussion of the three studies presented at the morning session of the Fall 2022 JALT Vocabulary SIG. The papers, which were written by Ali Al-Hoorie, Masaki Eguchi, Derek Canning, Stuart McLean, Christopher Nicklin, and Joseph Vitta, represent a range of topics and study designs that are common in recent…

This article discusses the author's belief that the notion of a foreign language (FL) "disability" started with the a priori assumption that there is a unique disability for FL learning and an intimate connection between FL learning and learning disabilities (LD). Educators, clinicians, and researchers were largely uninterested in…

Language is on display all around us, all the time, and the study of this linguistic landscape is one of the fastest-growing areas of research in applied linguistics. This book provides an overview of how the field of Linguistic Landscape Studies has emerged and developed over the past 20 years, combined with an in-depth exploration of the…

In this three-paper dissertation project, I explore how 'English' becomes a recognizable object within the context of adult ESOL education. Building on scholarship on named languages (Garcia, 2019; Makoni & Pennycook, 2006), the historical construction of languages (Bonfiglio, 2010; Irvine & Gal, 2000), and raciolinguistic ideologies…