This study explores whether English-dominant (ED) speakers and speakers of English as a foreign language (EFL) perceive the same degrees of formality in combinations of (in)formal greetings (Hi/Dear) and address forms (informal First Name/Ms. Last Name) with (in)formal nouns, verbs, and adjectives (Latinate/Germanic). It also explores which of…

This study examines the second language academic discourse socialization of two Chinese students who attended British Columbia (Canada) offshore schools in China. After an overview of offshore school structures in China, this article describes the perspectives and experiences of recent offshore school graduates interviewed at a Canadian…

English-medium universities often accept scores from various English language proficiency (ELP) tests as evidence of ELP from non-English background students. This practice raises the question of how these tests compare in terms of their ability to predict academic achievement. This longitudinal study addresses this question by examining the…

This study explores English-dominant speakers' and English learners' knowledge of (in)formal stylistic variants, their choice of (in)formal styles in relation to social context, their preferences in the use of select (in)formal stylistic variants, and their beliefs about the influence of their other languages. Ten English-dominant undergraduates…

There are grounds for believing that prompting language learners to infer the meaning of new lexical items is beneficial because inferring the meaning of lexical items and verifying one's inferences invites more cognitive investment than simply being presented with the meanings. However, concerns have been raised over the risk that wrong…

Plurilingualism is an inclusive language teaching approach to sustain multilingual societies, but there is little investigation on teacher candidates' (TCs) beliefs and challenges before and after its implementation. This interpretive qualitative study introduced plurilingualism in teacher education at a Canadian university. Sixteen TCs…

Several high-stakes English proficiency tests including but not limited to IELTS, PTE Academic, and TOEFL iBT recommend a 2-year time limit on validity for score usage. Although this timeframe provides a useful rule-of-thumb for the recency of testing, it can have far-reaching consequences. In response to stakeholder queries around IELTS validity…

Translanguaging effectively affirms international students' diverse language practices and linguistic and cultural identities. Although it may appear evident that their multilingual and multicultural identities and experiences inevitably influence their translanguaging experiences, few studies have examined how their identities affect their…

Placement tests are used to support a particular need in a local context--to determine the best starting place for a student entering a specific programme of language study. This brief report will focus on the development of an innovative placement test with self-directed elements for our local needs at a university in Canada for students studying…

This study examines the language spoken at home based on the academic path and language composition of couples. In particular, the study deals with the adoption or retention of a minority official language in Canada--i.e., English in Quebec and French in the other provinces and territories--as the language spoken most often at home. The study is…

The use of AI-powered chatbots has recently been extensively examined for second language (L2) learning. While their positive effects have been widely reported regarding L2 English learning, studies involving less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) are scant. The current study incorporated an AI chatbot called Iruda in L2 Korean teaching, to…

This corpus-based study explores the expression of gratitude in the acknowledgement section of doctoral dissertations in both English and Arabic. The objective is to analyse how gratitude in academic discourse is structured in these languages and to explore any differences related to gender. The study examines 80 dissertations (40 in English and…

This study aims to extend statistical learning (SL) research to multilinguals and provide an insight into what could facilitate word segmentation. We studied how the number of cues available in the input as well as the number of languages spoken influence SL and word segmentation. We used two SL tasks: one involving the tracking of transitional…

This study examined number marking comprehension among Japanese learners of second language (L2) English, whose first language (L1) does not have an obligatory number marking system. The study conducted an online sentence comprehension experiment with 96 L1-Japanese learners and 32 native speakers of English, wherein participants engaged in a…

Many English-medium universities employ a compensatory model to establish cutscores on English language proficiency tests for student admissions. In this model, students can have different scores on different sections of the test provided their overall score meets the admission cutscore. This practice raises questions regarding potential variation…