This study aimed at investigating the relationship between types of dictionaries used and lexical proficiency in writing. Eighty TOEFL students took part in responding to two Questionnaires collecting information about their dictionary type preferences and habits of dictionary use, along with an interview for further in-depth responses. They were…

Although English-as-a-second-language (ESL) programs for matriculated students have been a presence in U.S. higher education since the 1940s, little has been documented in the literature concerning ESL courses, ESL placement tests, and the procedures in which incoming students are placed into appropriate classes.The present study takes three…

Separating text into meaningful language chunks, as with visual-syntactic text formatting, helps readers to process text more easily and language learners to recognize grammar and syntax patterns more quickly. Evidence of this exists in studies on native and non-native English speakers. However, recent studies question the roll of VSTF in certain…

This paper describes three case studies, where language learners were invited to use "LingoBee" as a means of supporting their language learning. LingoBee is a mobile app that provides user-generated language content in a cloud-based shared repository. Assuming that today's students are mobile savvy and "Digital Natives" able…

In language learning, there is much evidence to suggest that heritage language (HL) learners exhibit learning needs and profiles that are distinct from non-HL learners. In the case of Chinese language teaching in Victoria, this issue is particularly pronounced because of the loose eligibility criterion that divides students into the streams of…

This paper reports on a small study of attitudes to tertiary language study amongst senior secondary language learners in three independent New South Wales schools. The study examines what elements of preparedness may be the most effective in supporting transition to tertiary study for this sample of languages students. An analysis of survey data…

Over the past 20 years task-based language teaching (TBLT) has become a dominant approach to teaching in many contexts, including schools in New Zealand and the Flemish speaking region of Belgium (East, 2012; Van den Branden, 2006), but there are challenges for teachers in adapting their teaching to this approach. This paper reports on a study…

Circular seating arrangements can help instill a sense of belonging within classroom communities with overall positive effects on learning, emotions, and well-being. Yet students and their teachers within certain language classroom contexts, due to sociocultural limitations, may be relegated to learning in antisocial environments instilled partly…

Emotional intelligence has not been widely studied in second language acquisition and studies published to date have been questionnaire-based. In this study we take a qualitative approach to focus on how emotional intelligence is used by two participants, one a learner and the other a pre-service teacher. The two focal participants were selected…

The present study uses oral interviews with foreign language learners in search of influential factors in their language learning histories. The sample for the study was drawn from a larger sample of intermediate/advanced learners of English as a foreign language with a minimum of 10 years of exposure/instruction. The sample includes 6 early…

Direct and indirect/mediated relations of (a) children's and parents' cultural orientations and (b) parent-child gaps in cultural orientations to children's psychological adjustment were examined in a socioeconomically diverse sample of 258 Chinese American children (age = 6-9 years) from immigrant families. Parents reported on children's and…

Language-in-education policy in Ghana has been in a flux since British colonial rule but particularly so after independence. A close examination of post independence language in education policies shows these fluctuating policies have moved from one form of bilingual education policy to another. Many tensions and paradoxes that arise from…

Even though collaborative prewriting tasks are frequently used in second language (L2) writing classes (Fernández Dobao, 2012; Storch, 2005), they have not been as widely researched as other tasks, such as collaborative writing and peer review. This article examines the effectiveness of collaborative prewriting tasks at encouraging English for…

This study investigated how semi-urban, multi-ethnic and multilingual students in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, negotiate their new identities through languaging experiences. Metacognitive reflections of their recreated language spaces were collected through 20 written narratives, which were analysed using a universalist reductionist…

Positioned against the background of the Council of Europe's interest in developing intercultural competence through education, the study presented in this paper investigates the impact on intercultural visual literacy of the Council of Europe's "Images of Others--An Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media"…