In today's second language classrooms, students are often asked to work in pairs or small groups. Such collaboration can take place face-to-face, but now more often via computer mediated communication. This paper reports on a study which investigated the effect of the medium of communication on the nature of pair interaction. The study involved…

Methods for analysing interlanguage have long aimed to capture learner language in its own right. By surveying the cognitive methods of Error Analysis, Obligatory Occasion Analysis and Frequency Analysis, this paper traces reformulations to attain this goal. The paper then focuses on Emergence Analysis, which fine-tunes learner language analysis…

The self-report questionnaire has served as the primary tool for investigating language maintenance in hundreds of communities over the past 40 years. More recently, it has been employed to investigate language shift amongst first-generation communities where one of the most useful indicators of generational change is the reported pattern of…

Two contradictions are inherent in our research into referencing practices and the subsequent development of teaching strategies to remedy inappropriate practices. First, aggregate studies and teaching strategies that tend toward a one-size-fits-all formula for researching and teaching referencing do not consider individual differences in…

Research on implementing task-based language-teaching (TBLT) shows that adapting TBLT in ways that are inconsistent with its principles is common among nonnative-speaker English-as-a-foreign-language teachers. Our study of Canadian native-speaker English-as-a-second language teachers reveals how they also adapt TBLT in ways that are incongruent…

Numerous studies have proposed that changes of the human language faculty caused by neural maturation can explain the substantial differences in ultimate attainment of grammatical competences between first language (L1) acquirers and second language (L2) learners. However, little evidence on the effect of neural maturation on the attainment of…

This article examines the role of linguistic and sociolinguistic factors in the second language (L2) acquisition of Spanish vibrants. The data consist of 2 sets of recordings from 37 students enrolled in a Spanish pronunciation class. The statistical program VarbRul was used to analyze 7,597 samples. The vibration (simple or multiple) and the…

Currently, restrictive-language policies seem to threaten bilingual education throughout the USA. Anti-bilingual education initiatives have passed easily in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts, while one was closely defeated in Colorado, and federal education policy has re-invigorated the focus on English education for English language…

This article explores the nature of instruction provided to Latino English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities. The case of a bilingual teacher who worked with an ELL with disabilities is presented. This teacher's voice describes her practice, beliefs, and other factors influencing her work with ELLs with disabilities. Finally, the…

The Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) is widely used to assess the vocabulary size of second-language learners of English. The test assesses learners' knowledge of words of different frequencies within general English and of high-frequency words within academic texts. We used the VLT to measure the English vocabulary size of Chinese university students…

Much of the student diversity in U.S. schools reflects increasing numbers of English language learners (ELL). ELL represent a very heterogeneous group in terms of their native language proficiency, educational experiences, access to quality early childhood programs, and immigration experiences. An unfortunate commonality they often share is poor…

In late 2008, the Australian Government announced funding for a national collaborative project to develop a curriculum framework for courses of study in Chinese (Mandarin), Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean for "heritage speakers" of these languages at the senior secondary school level. This article examines some of the issues surrounding…

The present study was carried out to develop and validate an L2 teacher reflection instrument. For this purpose, a six component model of second language (L2) teacher reflection, encompassing practical, cognitive, meta-cognitive, affective, critical and moral reflection, was developed using experts' opinion and a comprehensive review of the…

This paper reports on a small-scale study that was the first to explore raising second-language (L2) learners' awareness of speaking strategies as mediated by three modalities of task-specific reflection--individual written reflection, individual spoken reflection, and group spoken reflection. Though research in such areas as L2 writing, teacher's…

This study examines the effects of educational technologies on the attitudes of both the instructors and the students. The results indicate that there is a discrepancy between the students' awareness of the instructors' goals for using new technologies and the importance instructors placed on computer assisted language learning (CALL). The data…