This paper seeks to provide insights into the local context of ICLHE (Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education) in Italy. Its principal aim is descriptive although it also discusses theoretical models since it seeks to establish the extent to which Focus on Form (FonF) is present in ICLHE lectures. By means of observations, recordings…

English literacy skills are important in order to participate fully in public life; however, the heritage-based literacy skills learned outside of the classroom also are critical in the P-12 classroom. School teachers are important advocates for immigrant students--to preserve their first language and heritage, to integrate knowledge of their two…

This paper discusses what intercultural English learning/teaching (IELT) is in English as a world Englishes (WEes) and how IELT can contribute to the development of proficiency/competence among WEes and can be fitted into actual WEes classrooms. This is to claim that IELT be a pivotal contextual factor facilitating success in…

Learners differ from each other in many ways particularly in cognitive abilities. These factors eventually affect their learning abilities. Thus teachers should look into learner differences in intelligence before designing a teaching and learning program for them. Gardner proposed a much broader view of the definition of intelligence than a…

Introduction. The use of three-five languages is of the greatest importance in order to form varied cooperative networks for the creation of new knowledge. Aim of the paper is to analyze the synergy between language acquisition and language learning. Materials and Methods. The search for the synergy between language acquisition and language…

In this essay, I apply current linguistic theory to reanalyze earlier research on the acquisition of "ser" and "estar" (e.g., VanPatten 1985, 1987). Using insights from Roby and Schmitt ("Semi-Copulas"), for example, I argue that the acquisition of the copular verbs is an issue of the acquisition of their aspectual properties (see also Bruhn de…

Second-language learners use processing strategies, such as assigning agency to the first noun of an utterance when grammatical cues indicate a contrary interpretation, that can impede correct form-meaning mappings. Processing instruction was developed to push learners to use more optimal processing strategies so that they can make correct…

The aim of this review is to provide a critical analysis of language teacher research engagement. The term "research engagement" here covers both engagement IN teacher research (i.e. by doing it) as well as engagement "with" research (i.e. by reading and using it). Research engagement is commonly recommended to language teachers as a potentially…

Italian has for many years been considered somewhat of a specialist language when studied as a second language (L2) and this is perhaps due to historical and cultural factors. Its footprint worldwide compared to such languages as English, Spanish and French is therefore somewhat limited. Surprisingly, however, there is a considerable body of…

The possibility that anxiety interferes with language learning has long interested scholars, language teachers, and language learners themselves. It is intuitive that anxiety would inhibit the learning and/or production of a second language (L2). The important term in the last sentence is "anxiety". The concept of anxiety is itself multi-faceted,…

The seminar, organised by Jane Woodin, Gibson Ferguson, Valerie Hobbs and Lesley Walker (School of Modern Languages & Linguistics and School of English, University of Sheffield), aimed to bring together those working in intercultural communication (IC) pedagogy largely--though not exclusively--in the higher education sector. It drew…

The analysis of narrative data in applied linguistics has focused to varying degrees on their content, form, and context, with content and thematic analyses being the focus in much of the narrative research in language learning and teaching (Pavlenko 2007). The aim of this article is to report on a positioning analysis of a small story about the…

In a recent paper, Anthony Bruton argued that correction receives too much attention and that the debate over it (which he calls "the Truscott debate") is "a rather tedious sterile academic debate" that has harmed the field. He dismissed the case against correction, based on arguments that uncorrected students do not improve, some general…

Spanish-English bilingual lexical organization was investigated using masked cognate and non-cognate priming with the lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, three groups of bilinguals (Spanish dominant, English dominant and Balanced) and a single group of beginning bilinguals (Spanish) were tested with Spanish and English targets primed by…

The paper reviews eight topics in the area of second language critical pedagogy: (i) historical inheritances and lines of development associated with critical pedagogies; (ii) advocacy (and the need for critical language teachers to engage in it); (iii) the diverse institutional contexts that could be explored for critical language pedagogy; (iv)…