The critical shortage of foreign language teachers in the United States is well documented, and it was recently reported by ACTFL (2017) to be the worst on record. Exacerbating this shortage is declining enrollment in foreign language teacher training programs that serve as a pipeline to the profession. Even more troublesome, in response to…

L2 sounds present different kinds of challenges to learners at the phonetic, phonological, and lexical levels, but previous studies on L2 tone learning mostly focused on the phonetic and lexical levels. The present study employs an innovative technique to examine the role of prior tonal experience and musical training on forming novel abstract…

This study examined the linguistic dimensions of comprehensibility and perceived fluency in the context of L2 argumentative speech elicited from 40 Japanese-speaking learners of English. Their speaking performance was judged by 10 inexperienced native speakers of English for comprehensibility and perceived fluency, and was also objectively…

This experimental study reported in this article is casual research since it aims to improve reading comprehension of EFL students by means of applying pre-related reading activities. The study is quantitative. It used two instruments: (1) Reading Engagement Scale developed by Whitaker (2003) to determine the efficacy of pre-related reading…

This study explores college EFL learners' construction of identity through the analysis of their pragmatic choices in digital stories, in which they narrated their relationship with another person they had helped in the past. More specifically, such choices were examined following Relational Dialectics Theory in learners' enactments of…

This paper investigates how bilingual Upper Sorbian-German teachers who belong to the Sorbian speech community (Lusatia, Germany) introduce the minority language during German language lessons in an Upper Sorbian school. In Lusatia, as well as in Sorbian schools, bilingualism is not of equal character; minority language speakers are all bilingual…

This article is a small-scale qualitative study whose objective was to identify differences between the way in which native English teachers and their non-native Chilean counterparts assess pronunciation. To achieve this, teachers from both groups were asked to assess the same material produced by two students of English pedagogy in a Chilean…

This study aimed to examine the effect of administrating Job Enabling English Proficiency (JEEP) on the students' English language skills in selected colleges and universities of Region XII, Philippines. The study sought to find out the relationship between the JEEP Program administration for the sustainable operation and the students' English…

While an elicited imitation test (EIT) has been widely used as a measure of oral proficiency in second language acquisition (SLA) research, it is still unclear the extent to which memory capacity impacts EIT performance. In light of this gap, the present study sought to clarify the nature of elicited imitation by examining the relative…

It is well known that article usage is difficult for learners of English to acquire. Indeed, learner errors such as "*many of people" are not uncommon. A closer look at similar multiword sequences reveals why learners might have difficulty using articles properly in such expressions: No definite article is required in phrases like…

The study is the second in a series of mixed-methods studies on the integration of The Sims 4, a life-simulation game, into language classrooms. In this study, the researcher explores the effect of game-based language learning (GBLL) on students' English communicative competence from three aspects, interaction, fluency and content, in a Japanese…

This literature review explores the current body of research pertaining to learner autonomy in the Vietnamese English for Academic Purposes (EAP) context, investigating themes and research methodologies, conclusions drawn, limitations and possible avenues for further study and new research directions in the future. We demonstrate that although…

This study addresses the topic of visual communication and early sign language acquisition in deaf children with a Flemish Sign Language (Vlaamse Gebarentaal or VGT) input. Results are obtained through a checklist focusing on sign-exposed deaf children's visual communication and early sign language acquisition: the adapted VGT Visual Communication…

This study aims to investigate the usefulness of a deductive-cum-process writing approach to raise native Cantonese-speaking ESL students' awareness of the inappropriate use of informal language in academic writing. Achieving tone formality by incorporating appropriate syntactic and semantic elements poses great difficulties to freshmen at the…

This study takes a positive psychology approach to the integration of technology in the foreign language classroom. Specifically, it explores the benefits of using flow criteria (Czimmerman & Piniel, 2016; Egbert, 2003) to guide the design sequence of a technology-mediated project for a French for business course (advanced level). In the…