Successful language acquisition requires extensive word knowledge. However, learners are reportedly unable to increase their word knowledge due to insufficient meaningful input in the language classrooms. This paper intended to present another tool to encourage learners' vocabulary development. It examined the effect(s) of using short narrative…

There have been interests in finding appropriate ways in which students learn to write in English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL). Educators should be aware that ESL/EFL learners are less privileged in terms of exposure to the target language when compared to their English native speaker counterparts. Ironically, writing instructions to…

This paper examines the production of word-initial stops by two simultaneous trilingual sisters, aged 6;8 and 8;1, who receive regular input in Italian and English from multiple speakers, but in Spanish from only one person. The children's productions in each language were analyzed acoustically and compared to those of their main input providers.…

This study investigated whether children born in a second language (L2) environment pronounce their L2 with foreign accents and, if so, when foreign accents first emerge. This study also examined the latest age of onset (AO) of extensive L2 experience at which native L2 pronunciation is possible and explored several factors that affect the degree…

This article calls attention to a facet of the expertise of second language (L2) learners of Japanese at the intersection of language, memory, gesture, and the psycholinguistics of a logographic writing system. Previous research has shown that adult L2 learners of Japanese living in Japan (similarly to native speakers of Japanese) often…

The present study implemented a sign-repetition task at two points in time to hearing adult learners of British Sign Language and explored how each phonological parameter, sign complexity, and iconicity affected sign production over an 11-week (22-hour) instructional period. The results show that training improves articulation accuracy and that…

This study investigates the effect of two attention-enhancing techniques on L2 students' learning and processing of novel French words (i.e., target words) through video with L2 subtitles or captions. A combination of eye-movement data and vocabulary tests was gathered to study the effects of Type of Captioning (full or keyword captioning) and…

The purpose of this study is to determine gender differences and type of learning approaches among Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) undergraduate students in English writing performance. The study involved 241 (32.8% male & 67.2% female) undergraduate students of UUM who were taking the Process Writing course. This study uses a Two-Factor Study…

The preparation of early childhood educators in Tunisia has become part of the mainstream pre-service teacher education programmes. Nonetheless, this field has not yet reached the expected maturity as evidenced by the lack of a guiding vision. A case in point that attests to this state of opacity is the example of foreign language (FL) education.…

The present study seeks to expand the current focus on acquisition situations in linguistic relativity research by exploring the effects of nativisation (the process by which a L2 is acquired as a L1) on language-specific cognitive behaviour. Categorisation preferences of goal-oriented motion events were investigated in South African speakers who…

The teaching of foreign languages to young learners is growing in popularity around the world. Research in this field, particularly of English as a second/foreign language education in East Asia, is a relatively new area of empirical inquiry, and it has the potential to make significant contributions to child second-language acquisition…

The impact of globalisation in the last 20 years has led to an overwhelming increase in the use of English as the medium through which many business people get their work done. As a result, the linguistic landscape within which we now operate as researchers and teachers has changed both rapidly and beyond all recognition. In the discussion below,…

Combining psychological and social perspectives and using mixed methods, this 4-year longitudinal study examined the EFL learning and self-identity development of about 1,000 students from 5 universities in Beijing, China. The self-designed questionnaire, administered 5 times during the 4 years, consisted of 7 identity categories of identity…

Alderson, Brunfaut and Harding (2014) recently investigated how diagnosis is practised across a range of professions in order to develop a tentative framework for a theory of diagnosis in second or foreign language (SFL) assessment. In articulating this framework, a set of five broad principles were proposed, encompassing the entire enterprise of…

A major structural problem in the teaching of English worldwide is to be found in the arthritic power relationships that continue to limit the continuing professional development of its practitioners. The acceptance of the superior status of "theory" and "theorists", and the consequent subordination of teachers as the…