In the wake of conversations about integrating macro- and micro-levels of linguistic analysis over the last 50 years, and following theoretical and methodological debates in the 1990s about investigating the dynamics of entire social systems, complexity theory is coming of age in educational linguistics. Central to the application of complexity…

This article investigates teachers' attitudes toward English Language Learners (ELLs) at three middle schools in Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania. These schools have been critically impacted by the presence of ELLs, whether due to large numbers, or to smaller, concentrated populations in schools that traditionally have not served ELLs. This…

The United States involvement in the Middle East has been prominent in our recent national history, sometimes clouded by myths and misrepresentations of the people of that region of the world. This article details the experiences of teacher-researchers working with teachers and students in Amman, Jordan, to develop powerful English writing…

The Refugees Into Teaching in Scotland (RITeS) project has been funded by the Scottish government since 2006 to offer support and guidance to refugee teachers in Scotland. A research study aligned with the RITeS project took place from 2007-2008, funded by the West of Scotland Wider Access Forum. The research was managed by a multi-partner group…

This research examined how students in foundation English classes perceive their Thai and native-speaking teachers. The researchers surveyed students at five universities and compared a group of 600 students studying with native-speaking teachers with another group of 600 students studying with Thai teachers in order to investigate three areas:…

Using status characteristics theory, this study examined a sixth-grade Korean student's experiences associated with English literacy learning while attending a predominantly European-American school in the United States. Of particular interest was the interaction between race, culture, and learning in a classroom where the mainstream teachers,…

Previous research has shown that orthography influences the learning and processing of spoken non-native words. In this paper, we examine the effect of L1 orthography on non-native sound perception. In Experiment 1, 204 Spanish learners of Dutch and a control group of 20 native speakers of Dutch were asked to classify Dutch vowel tokens by…

This article discusses the development and functionalities of an intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) system. By way of example, we describe "E-Tutor", an ICALL system for L2 learners of German that has been in use for a decade. Based on advancements in technology, user studies with L2 learners of German as well as feedback…

Increasing numbers of students are opting for study abroad programs of 2 months or less while research on study abroad generally focuses on semester- or year-long programs. This study quantitatively examines changes in students' spoken Spanish after 6 weeks in Argentina using native speaker ratings of student speech. The researcher then uses…

This study investigated the encoding strategies employed by Chinese and English language users when recalling sequences of pictured objects. The working memory performance of native English participants (n = 14) and Chinese speakers of English as a second language (Chinese ESL; n = 14) was compared using serial recall of visually-presented…

This paper explores the implications of new patterns of migration (temporary, circular) for national and regional language policies in officially bilingual areas. Contrasting urban and rural sites in the UK (Wales), Spain (Valencia) and Switzerland (Grisons), it examines the dominant discourses regarding "national" (both in the formal…

This paper reports on a study that was carried out to investigate the effect of pair work on a word-building task in two EFL classes. Forty Iranian adult students participated in this study. The participants in the experimental group completed the word-building task in pairs following the Think-Pair-Share technique, whereas the participants in the…

Vocabulary knowledge has been recognized by researchers as a critical component of reading comprehension, not only as a means to facilitate first language acquisition but also as an integral element in the learning of English as a second or foreign language. To reduce the effect of insufficient vocabulary knowledge during reading, a compensatory…

This study explores how group processes, such as group cohesiveness and group norms, influence an individual EFL learner's motivation. The uniqueness of this research lies in shifting the focus from an analysis of the individual's experience being seen as apart from the group to considering the individual's experience in relation to the social…

Recent research in cognitive linguistics has shown that idiomatic phrases are decomposable and analyzable and that the individual words in idiomatic phrases systematically contribute to the overall figurative interpretations. This cognitive linguistic view suggests that enhancing awareness of conceptual metaphors embedded in the individual words…