This article argues that the most commonly used lesson plan pro formas in language teacher education are inappropriately premised on an outcomes-based approach to teaching, one that is in conflict with what we know about how languages are learnt and how experienced teachers teach. It proposes an alternative, affordance-based approach to lesson…

The studies documented in the four articles in this special issue uniquely exemplify principles of design-based research as follows: by taking innovative approaches to significant problems in the contexts of real educational practices; by addressing fundamental pedagogical and policy issues related to language, learning, and teaching; and, in the…

Little empirical research has examined the cause of language shift or the factors related to the heritage language (HL) development of language minority groups. This study investigates the factors that facilitate or inhibit the HL development of second-generation Korean Americans, with a focus on adolescent HL learners, who go through phases in…

This article presents an approach to use wordless picture books to enhance the language development of English language learners. This approach is grounded in best practices to teach ELLs. The process starts with viewing and analyzing the visual images, engaging ELLs in discussion, and ending with students' self-authored texts. The wordless…

English language attainment and literacy acquisition are of significant importance to achieving academic success and college and career readiness in the United States. The rise in evidence-based standards requires concerted efforts by educators to meet the literacy needs of English language learners (ELLs). When collaborating with ELL teachers,…

This state-of-the-art review reports on the major studies conducted in the field of "Deutsch als Wissenschaftssprache" (academic German) since the late 1990s. To begin with, the current position of German as a language of academic communication nationally and internationally will be discussed, focusing especially on the challenges posed…

This article explores attitudes and response to language selection in advertising targeting Italian bilinguals who belong to a defined speech community. The research builds upon (i) research on multilingual advertising by investigating its attitudinal correlates, and (ii) studies on advertising to bilinguals through the verification of the…

In TESOL teacher mentoring, giving advice can be conceptualized as a continuum, ranging from directive to facilitative feedback. The goal, over time, is to lead toward the facilitative end of the continuum and specifically to catalytic interventions that encourage self-reflection and autonomous learning. This study begins by examining research on…

Corpora have the potential to support the L2 writing process at the discourse level in contrast to the isolated dictionary entries that many intermediate writers rely on. To take advantage of this resource, learners need to be trained, which involves practising corpus research and referencing skills as well as learning to make data-based…

This study is an attempt to explore the frequency of pragmatic content occurrence represented as three speech acts of requesting, refusing, and apologizing in global and local English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks. Three global elementary ELT textbooks, namely "Interchange, Top Notch," and "American English File" along with…

This study sought to investigate the role of transfer at the initial states of the third language (L3) acquisition. The following hypotheses were investigated in this study: (a) the second language transfer hypothesis ("L2 Status Factor") proposing that L2 impedes transfer from L1 into L3; (b) the Cumulative Enhancement Model…

Poor levels of English first additional language (EFAL) reading comprehension amongst school learners at most public schools in South Africa are a great concern. In fact, for learning to be successful and effective, learners need to be able to read well in EFAL. This is more so as EFAL serves as a language of learning and teaching (LOLT) for most…

This Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest descriptive study examines how long it took English learner students to gain English proficiency and reclassify as former English learner students at elementary schools in seven Seattle-area school districts. Analyzing test scores of 17,733 students, the study found that the average time to…

Since the 1960s, bilingualism has become a defining aspect of Canadian identity. And yet, fifty years after the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was formed and with over forty years of federal government funding and supports for second-language education, relatively few English Canadians speak or choose to speak French. What…

The purpose of this paper is to present the rationale and outcomes of ClipFlair, a European-funded project aimed at countering the factors that discourage Foreign Language Learning (FLL) by providing a motivating, easily accessible online platform to learn a foreign language through revoicing (e.g. dubbing) and captioning (e.g. subtitling). This…