Background: As more people around the globe become immigrants or refugees, an increasingly popular subsection of research has aimed to investigate how these populations use mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) to learn the language(s) of the host country. Objectives: This study examines how the language learning, inclusion and self-regulation…

Second language (L2) learners stand to gain substantially from mastering a wide range of multiword expressions (MWEs), and several studies have examined the benefits of language courses that regularly draw learners' attention to MWEs. However, most of these studies focused on the learners' retention of the MWEs included in the course materials and…

The year 2020 marked the 25th year since Bonny Norton published her influential "TESOL Quarterly" article, 'Social identity, investment, and language learning' (Norton Peirce, 1995) and the fifth year since we, Darvin and Norton (2015), co-authored 'Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics' in the "Annual Review of…

This language classroom article demonstrates how L2 (second language) feature films, through the incorporation of tasks that facilitate comprehension, interpretation, and cultural comparison, can be used at a range of levels to teach students about immigration and other global challenges. While the scaffolding strategies described in the article…

Acquisition of the perfective marker "-le" in Mandarin Chinese is a daunting task for second language learners. To date, there has been no consensus on what it is about "-le" that makes it such a challenge to learners. This study investigates the acquisition of "-le" from both a lexical perspective and a discourse…

Background: Japanese EFL learners often fail to identify and categorise the different degrees of certainty associated with CERTAIN, PROBABLE, and POSSIBLE items. This computer-mediated study evaluated the relative effects of animated versus static illustrations on stimulating the spatial concept of distance for the acquisition of this knowledge.…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the opportunities and challenges to the application of portfolios as an assessment tool in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms at different educational levels in Vietnam, as explicitly and implicitly reported in the literature. Design: This study is a combination of a narrative review,…

Foreign languages have been studied since the beginning of civilization; in the past few decades, there has been increased interest in understanding the role of motivation in learning a foreign language. Less than a quarter of studies on learning languages other than English (LOTE) have studied motivation. The purpose of this quantitative…

Educational media has the potential to serve as an instructional tool to enhance vocabulary knowledge among young children. The current study examined how certain mechanisms on screen might influence early literacy development in preschool-aged dual language learners (DLLs). Specifically, the study investigated how four screen-based pedagogical…

Drawing on positioning theory and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of mind, this study analyzes the discursive processes through which expert and novice positions are negotiated in heritage-second language (HL-L2) learner interaction. It examines how positioning practices shape collaboration between HL and L2 learners, determining what types of…

The present study examined the relative effectiveness of bilingual subtitles for L2 viewing comprehension, compared to other subtitling types. Learners' allocation of attention to the image and subtitles/captions in different viewing conditions, as well as the relationship between attention and comprehension, were also investigated. A total of 112…

Research has found that teaching about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) can raise U.S. high school students' awareness about DEI-related topics and develop their critical thinking skills to analyze DEI-related issues. But the achievements of DEI-focused education are limited. Thus, DEI-focused education needs complementary efforts to enhance…

Despite the increasing emphasis on the language and literacy practices of immigrant communities, our understanding of Asian immigrants' everyday experiences in their workplaces remains limited. This study examines the language and literacy practices of two Korean adult immigrants within their professional environment--a family-owned dry cleaning…

The important role of willingness to communicate (WTC) in facilitating second language (L2) learning and use has been widely endorsed. However, few studies have examined how teacher support in an L2 class may predict students' L2 WTC. Such a relationship may also be mediated by learners' L2 anxiety, a typical predictor of L2 WTC, and moderated by…

This volume brings together original papers from language education scholars from around the world to explore, exemplify, and discuss the multiplicity of boundary crossing in language education. It emphasizes the potential of boundary crossing for expansive learning, and aims to generate new insights, through boundary crossing, into the complexity…