Malaysia is a multilingual and multiethnic country with a substantial population of ethnic Chinese, who use standardized languages such as Malay, English, and Mandarin, as well as various Chinese dialects in their daily lives within and beyond Chinese communities. Cantonese is a community language that significantly impacts the lives of local…

EL1 learners' receptive morphological words (root, inflected, and derived words) develop on different scales, but whether they develop similarly in EFL learners' language production is still unknown and deserves an examination. The answer may provide a clue to theoretical controversy about whether language learners' morphologically defined words…

This study examines the developmental relationship between L2 Chinese oral fluency and self-repair in Dutch students learning Chinese. In this study, 76 junior Dutch students were split into two different groups based on level and were tested at two time periods (T1 and T2) for L2 Chinese fluency, which included the control variables of repetition…

As a key component of fluent linguistic production, multi-word sequences called lexical bundles are considered an important distinguishing feature of discourse in different registers, genres, and disciplines. They are also an important aspect of empirically correct and proficient language use in a corpus of natural language because they enable…

Research in the field of language attrition suggests that the use of a foreign language (FL) diminishes among language learners when it ceases to be actively employed. The present study aimed to investigate whether similar patterns of lexical attrition occurred among FL teachers, who were generally considered to possess a strong resistance to FL…

Metaphors are known to present both opportunities and challenges for second language learners, but relatively little is known about learners' awareness of them. To investigate this, we analyzed 72 argumentative essays written in English by a group of 37 intermediate Chinese university students of English. We identified metaphors using an…

Motivation and anxiety are two crucial factors influencing learning outcomes, yet limited empirical research on expectancy-value theory can be found within previous literature about Chinese undergraduate students studying English as a foreign language (EFL). Moreover, few studies have examined the interaction between motivation and skill-specific…

This study addresses how Chinese learners of English as a second language (L2) perceive conversations in English materials as compared to speakers of English as a first language (L1). Data were collected through questionnaires completed by 48 participants (28 L2 English learners in China and 20 L1 English speakers in the UK), eliciting evaluations…

In this study, we conduct a longitudinal experiment to explore the effects of adaptive phonetic training on the identification of the English vowels /i/ and /I/ by learners in China. The vowel /i/ in English has a low F1 value, a high F2 value, and a long duration. In contrast, the vowel /i/ has a high F1 value, a low F2 value, and a short…

This study is the first to explore language attitudes of the endangered Faifi language in SA. Understanding these attitudes is crucial for future language revitalization efforts. Employing a conceptual framework from LA research, data were collected via an online Arabic questionnaire with a sample of 258 participants. This paper aims to explore…

Dynamic assessment (DA), based on Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory, integrates instruction and assessment into a single activity through interactive dialog between the mediator and learner to promote development. This research utilized the interactionist DA to assess and enhance five types of listening inferential abilities of Chinese EFL learners.…

Bilingualism has become the norm--not the exception--in today's globalized world. The development of bilingual proficiency in English and other languages is increasing worldwide. Saudi Arabia is one of many countries within the expanding circle of nations in which English (although with no official status) enjoys a special position as the sole…

This study examined the challenges of English learning encountered by Chinese international students in a Malaysian university, as well as the contributing factors and strategies students employ to cope with these challenges. A total of 60 Chinese international students (51.7% male and 48.3% female) participated in this study, with an average stay…

In order to facilitate the instruction and acquisition of EFL writing, this paper compares the uses of the light verb "get" in English writing by Chinese and L1 undergraduates by drawing on insights from the theory of norms and exploitations (TNE). Corpus pattern analysis (CPA) is conducted to analyze the data taken from two comparable…

This study investigates English teachers' beliefs and classroom practices regarding the teaching of creative thinking (CT) and explores the factors that hinder these practices. A mixed methods approach is adopted, drawing data from 63 middle school English teachers in China through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and classroom…