This study explores whether English-dominant (ED) speakers and speakers of English as a foreign language (EFL) perceive the same degrees of formality in combinations of (in)formal greetings (Hi/Dear) and address forms (informal First Name/Ms. Last Name) with (in)formal nouns, verbs, and adjectives (Latinate/Germanic). It also explores which of…

This study explored perspectives on using Swahili in English language classes and describe how teachers utilise this language in English language classes. It was a qualitative approach. Data were collected through focus group discussions, interviews, and classroom observations. In all, six secondary school teachers and three classes drawn from six…

Purpose: Parents of autistic children are often advised to use only one language to simplify their child's language acquisition. Often this recommendation orients towards the geographically predominant language, which may cause difficulties especially for minority-language families. On the other hand, scientific evidence suggests that…

The phenomenon of verb complementation has been a challenging research topic in the domain of first and second language acquisition in recent decades. This study aimed to determine the achievement levels of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in terms of their recognition and production of factive cognitive verb complementation…

Early-grade learners build on their preschool numeracy competence with vocabulary and grammar of their home language as important semiotic tools. In this study, the performance of two samples of Grade 2 learners, who completed the MARKO-D SA interview-based test of number concept development, were assessed. The results showed that participants (n…

Background/purpose: The phenomenon of multiple verbal nouns for the triliteral bare verb in Arabic represents a distinctive linguistic feature shaped by social and linguistic factors across historical periods. This study pursues two primary objectives: (1) to reassess the phenomenon from the perspectives of classical Arabic linguistic heritage and…

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, public life in many countries ground to a halt in early 2020. The aims of this study were (i) to uncover the language practices of multilingual families during the pandemic, in general and especially regarding homeschooling; and (ii) to determine to what extent the changes in circumstance caused by the…

Background/purpose: Despite its informal setting, it is astonishing that the members of online English-speaking club (ESC) are adept at speaking. Employing a mixed-methods approach, more specifically a descriptive case study, this study aimed to evaluate the ESC contribution to its members' speaking competence development, to examine their…

This quasi-experimental study investigated the impacts of two instructional conditions on the fluency of learners' performance. In the first condition (strategy training), learners were provided with explicit fluency strategy training for a portion of each lesson before rehearsing versions of the speaking task for the remainder of the lesson. In…

Automated speaking assessment (ASA) of second language proficiency benefits both learners and educators. However, developing these systems for less commonly taught languages like Finnish and Finland Swedish is hindered by the need for large datasets with equal representation of all proficiency levels. Traditional machine learning algorithms used…

Despite the range of varieties of Han Chinese, Mandarin is the most widely studied variety in research on Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) around the world. To better understand the role of other varieties of Han Chinese in addition to Mandarin, this article presents a synthesis of research on the learning of Chinese varieties in formal and…

This study investigated phonological whole-word measures in bilingual Arabic-English speakers to explore how the target approximations influence children's phonological development. To this end, fifteen bilingual Arabic-English speakers and nine monolingual Arabic-speaking children aged 36-48 months (mean = 42) participated in a parent-child…

For Spanish nouns, masculine gender is unmarked and feminine is marked. Effects of markedness on gender agreement processing are inconsistent, possibly owing to differences between online methods. This study presents a reanalysis of eye-tracking data from Keating's (2022) study on the processing of noun-adjective gender agreement in speakers of…

This paper examines English's linguistic imperialism and the resulting widespread use of the language among speakers of various linguistic backgrounds. It challenges the mistaken belief that native speakers (NS) are inherently better at speaking English simply due to their birthplace. Despite the growing number of non-native speakers (NNSs),…

When English as a lingua franca (ELF) arising from intercultural communication emerges in the global society due to the trend toward internationalization in recent decades, whether it is accepted by those who usually consider American English and British English as standard English deserves the attention of researchers and educators across the…