This study investigates the effects of four online vocabulary tasks on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition among learners of different proficiency levels. While tasks are widely used to support L2 vocabulary learning, the efficacy of a task depends on the interplay between task and learner factors. Thus, choosing an appropriate task…

Guided by Dynamic Systems Theory (DST) and multidimensional perspectives on individual differences (IDs) in instructed second language (L2) learning (e.g., Larsen-Freeman, 2014; Sun & Zhang, 2020), this longitudinal mixed-methods study focuses on three conceptually different categories of L2 learners' IDs: working memory (WM), motivation, and…

Nonverbal behavior is essential in human interaction (Gullberg, de Bot, & Volterra, 2008; McNeill, 1992, 2005). For second language speakers, nonverbal features can be helpful for successful and efficient communication (e.g., Dahl & Ludvigsen, 2014). However, due to the complexity of nonverbal features, language testing institutions have…

Barriers to accessing preventive care, and healthcare in general, include lack of language proficiency (Chang, Chan, & Han, 2015; Lebrun, 2012; Ponce et al., 2006; DeRose, Escarce, & Lurie, 2007; Jacobs, Chen, Karliner, Agger-Gupta, & Mutha, 2006), inability to afford health care (Aguilera & Massey, 2003), lack of health insurance…

Online (OL) second language (L2) courses are becoming more widely offered in the United States; however, little information exists about the effectiveness of OL L2 courses beyond one semester or course. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess Spanish students' oral proficiency after completing one year of OL only L2 courses. At the end…

This study examined (a) the effects of metacognition and proficiency on EFL reading performance and (b) the relation of metacognition and EFL reading performance. Data were collected by Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) and reading scores were examined. By variance analyses, we found that reading scores and metacognitive knowledge show…

This study examines language mixing in 26 Spanish-English dual language learners over the course of their first year of preschool. The children's patterns of language choice while interacting in monolingual language contexts were analyzed at age 3;6 and 4;5 to examine: (1) whether the frequency of language mixing changed during the year; (2)…

Single word items have usually been the unit of analysis for measuring L2 learners' vocabulary size, for designing word lists and for estimating word coverage of reading texts. However, what is lost in these estimates is the consideration of multiword expressions, such as idioms. To empirically test the assertion that the knowledge of single word…

Elicited imitation tasks (EITs) have been shown to be a valid, reliable, and practical method for establishing second-language (L2) oral proficiency across a variety of languages. Nevertheless, research that has validated existing EITs has most often explored a narrow range of learner proficiencies or has examined how well the EIT distinguishes…

This paper contends that China higher education has become one of the most attractive academic hubs for citizens of developing and developed nations. Empirical evidences show that the opening up policy and the spread of Confucius institutes in the world support China higher education breakthrough. More importantly linguistic tolerance that is…

Employing the approaches to learning theoretical framework, this study examines the effects of language proficiency on overall student satisfaction with a unit of study mediated by approaches to learning accounting. Survey data was gathered from undergraduate second year accounting students from an Australian and an Ethiopian universities using…

In this article, we study a simple mathematical model of a bilingual community in which all agents are fluent in the majority language but only a fraction of the population has some degree of proficiency in the minority language. We investigate how different distributions of proficiency, combined with the speakers' attitudes toward or against the…

The number of individuals undertaking IELTS has continued to grow in recent years, standing at approximately 3 million candidates per year in 2016. As a result, this high-stakes, high-pressure test has become firmly entrenched as a global gatekeeping institution, regulating the international flows of people for migration and academic study. This…

Addressing themes from the Douglas Fir Group's (2016) transdisciplinary framework, this paper bridges boundaries between cognitive and social disciplines by showing how social contextual factors can affect the psycholinguistic development of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) in learner language. Sociolinguistic and sociocultural frameworks…

Education levels are on the rise among Mexican immigrants, who now comprise the fourth largest group of college-educated immigrants in the United States, after those from India, China, and the Philippines. The number of Mexican immigrants with a bachelor's degree or higher grew from 269,000 in 2000 to 678,000 in 2017--an increase that is primarily…