The objective of this study is to examine how secondary school students' beliefs about their social-emotional skills and intercultural understanding can forecast their attitudes towards the English course. This study was developed with a focus on the connection between language and culture, as well as the correlation between social-emotional…

The opaque English orthography complicates learning to read, as irregular words, such as the word "pint," cannot be Addread accurately by decoding. Studies with first language (L1) English children show that vocabulary facilitates word reading, especially in the case of irregular words. It is unclear whether this influence of vocabulary…

Cross-language transfer happens in bilingual reading development. However, little is known about whether L1 affects L2 spelling development. In addition, longitudinal studies are needed to examine the L1-L2 relations developmentally from the beginning of literacy learning. We tested whether and which Chinese (L1) literacy-related skill(s) in…

Parental involvement in their children's education is a noteworthy predictor of students' academic promotion and success. School-family relationships are core elements of communication in educational systems. They have two main types; home-based or/and school-based parental involvement. Previous research studies have instead focused on home-based…

This study explored the predictive roles of social expectations (i.e., community influence and social values) and perceived adults' growth mindsets (i.e., teachers' growth mindset and parents' growth mindset) on self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy use and English learning achievement with 685 fourth to fifth graders in Hong Kong. Structural…

Despite much attention having been paid to foreign language (FL) reading and related variables such as self-efficacy, relatively few studies have focused on young learners, and even fewer on storybooks, arguably the commonest genre read by children worldwide for language learning. As FL learning commences at a young age in many contexts globally,…

Within the same learning context, learners' outcomes in terms of oral fluency vary greatly. This study tracked the relative contributions that first language (L1) and initial second language (L2) fluency skill and working memory (WM) made to L2 fluency development. We assessed the performance of French-speaking Grade 6 learners' (n = 47, mean age:…

Perceived competence is considered an essential predictor of learner´s performance in language learning. It is therefore important to identify strategies that favor its development. This study aims to analyze whether the perceived linguistic competence of English as a L2 of pre-service teachers improves after implementing Dialogic Pedagogical…

This study examined the role of growth mindset, self-efficacy, and intrinsic value in self-regulated learning (SRL) and English language learning achievements in Hong Kong primary school students. A sample of 690 4th graders participated in the study. The findings suggest that the level of SRL strategy use (i.e. monitoring, effort regulation, and…

This research examines the role of positive and negative emotions in language learning. To this end, enjoyment and anxiety, which are widely studied emotions in language education, were chosen for the current study. A quantitative research design was adopted to provide a deeper understanding of learners' language enjoyment and anxiety levels as…

Research on the implementation of CLIL at the onset of primary school is limited and has largely overlooked the role of other sources of individual differences. This study investigated the effects of the CLIL approach to English learning, together with the effects of out-of-school exposure to the language through media and other sources of…

This study aimed to examine the relationships between motivational variables, self-regulated writing strategy use and writing competence with 511 fourth graders in Hong Kong. The high writing achievers reported a higher level of motivation, i.e. self-efficacy, task values (i.e. interest and utility) and growth mindset in English writing than the…

Metalinguistic awareness (MLA) is a predictor of adult foreign language (FL) learning in instructed settings. Following Bialystok and Ryan (1985) two-component model of MLA, we distinguish ML analysis as the ability to compare and select language items from ML control as the ability to detect and manipulate rule-based linguistic patterns. So far,…

Considering the teacher talk as the main input in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms, this descriptive study aimed to elucidate the beliefs and practices of Turkish EFL teachers regarding their use of a foreign language, namely English (L2) in their classrooms by taking into account school types, experience, and travelling abroad as…

The UK is linguistically rich but faces a reducing uptake of language learning in schools, as pupils feel more withdrawn and disinterested in learning an additional language to English. A key component in many linguistic minority communities to preserve their language is complementary schooling (CS), which has wide-ranging educational and societal…