We examined what causes L1-L2 differences in sensitivity to prominence cues in discourse processing. Participants listened to recorded stories in segment-by-segment fashion at their own pace. Each story established a pair of contrasting items, and one item from the pair was rementioned and manipulated to carry either a contrastive or…

The present study examines the effect of adjunct questions on the reading comprehension of English-speaking learners of Chinese as a second language (L2). In Experiment 1, fourth-year (advanced) learners (n = 42) read two texts, either with or without adjunct questions, and completed a multiple-choice cloze. In Experiments 2 and 3, second-year…

Understanding the effects of second language writers' topic familiarity on their subsequent writing performance has been a subject of great interest to researchers in second language acquisition and TESOL. However, prior studies have tended to suffer from multiple methodological limitations (e.g., no interrater reliability, limited or no control…

In this task-repetition intervention study, L2 learners' reuse of linguistic constructions was analyzed to investigate to what extent recurring reliance on specific constructions during the same task repetition predicts fluency development. English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners performed oral narrative tasks three times per day under two…

In this research, it was aimed to determine learners' perceptions of the target language and target culture through metaphors. It is structured with a phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs. The participants of the study were selected by purposive sampling method. The participants of the research consisted of 101 learners…

"Te Whariki" promotes the use of te reo rangatira in English-medium early childhood education (ECE) settings. There is a growing body of work concerning the use of pukapuka pikitia (picturebooks) to support language learning, but there is very little, if any, research documenting how pukapuka pikitia can support te reo rangatira. This…

Language learners in higher education increasingly use out-of-class self-directed learning facilitated by mobile technology. In order to make informed educational decisions, this study sets out to provide an overview of empirical research into learning strategies that self-directed learners use with the support of mobile technology in language…

Technology is increasingly being used to foster engagement, enhance classroom dynamics, promote autonomy and improve the student learning experience in language learning environments. Many teachers have begun to employ digital apps and tools (e.g. Mentimeter and GoSoapBox) as a more interactive alternative to traditional activities. One product…

Learning a language is a lifelong process and requires motivation, patience, a great deal of effort to continuously observe, reflect, and apply the acquired knowledge and skills in practice. Building on an experiential learning approach to support lifelong learning offers a wide range of ways in which instructors can create and deliver engaging…

Learning a second language is an increasingly vital skill in our globalized society. State and federal programs promote at least two years of world language study for all students (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2018; O'Rourke, 2016). Federal and state laws call for all students to have access to learning in the…

This paper reports a study in a technology-assisted Chinese teaching context where one major teaching objective is to encourage international students to participate in speech contests with the theme of 'Tell China, Tell Your Stories'. Results showed that through four weeks' preparation, all the students had a more robust method for presentation…

Turkish coffee is accepted as a Turkish cultural heritage. It was placed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013 by the United Nations. Drinking coffee is one of the oldest traditions and customs in most countries in the world. Every country in the world has its own coffee culture and tradition. In…

Mandarin lexical tone learning has repeatedly been identified as a difficult linguistic feature for non-native speakers of tonal languages like English, even for native English learners of Mandarin at high proficiencies (e.g., Pelzl et al., 2019b). Sound perception training has been shown to help native English speakers perceive lexical tone…

Communication is vital to life. In the United States, communication comes in all forms. In United States education, students come from all backgrounds. However, English is the language that is used for all studies. This can be quite difficult because English Language Learners (ELLs) have a difficult time in the classroom. ELLs in middle school and…

This dissertation explores first language (L1) transfer and second language (L2) transfer processes and models, such as the full transfer/full access model (FT/FA), the representational deficit/interpretability hypothesis, and the feature reassembly hypothesis (FRH). The typological proximity model (TPM), the cumulative enhancement model (CEM),…