Second language (L2) learning research suggests that virtual reality (VR) has the potential to enhance the development of language skills due to its immersive nature and its situated learning opportunities. This quantitative, between-subjects study compared the effectiveness of three learning conditions. University students (N = 63) studied…

Despite the growing body of technology-assisted vocabulary intervention studies, few have addressed learning outcomes beyond target vocabulary and the interaction between the interventions and English language learners' (ELLs) initially different levels of vocabulary knowledge. The study examined the differential effects of a texting-based…

Sleep right after studying new material is more conducive to memory than a period of wakefulness. Another way to counteract forgetting is to practice retrieval: taking a test strengthens memory more effectively than restudying the material. The current work aims at investigating the interaction between sleep and testing by asking if testing adds…

This study at a Canadian university grew out of the need to know whether students acquired academic vocabulary incidentally through text exposure (extensive reading) in class. The ability to explicitly teach all the words on the academic word list is an unreasonable expectation for a one-semester course. This study, therefore, investigated whether…

This study investigates the role of emotional linguistic input in learning novel words with abstract and concrete denotations. It is widely accepted that concrete words are processed more easily than abstract ones. Several theories of vocabulary acquisition additionally propose a critical role of sensorimotor and emotional information during novel…

This exploratory post-hoc analysis examined the impact of learners' first language (L1) on learning vocabulary annotated in immersive 360º pictures. This analysis is a part of a larger, between-subjects study (Papin & Kaplan-Rakowski, 2020) in which learners (N=63) of French as a second language (L2) studied vocabulary annotated in (1)…

This study investigates the role of typed synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) on learners' foreign language anxiety and output quantity. Sixty-one beginner French learners participated in the study. In the first session (group 1: SCMC, group 2: face-to-face [FTF]), participants learned new vocabulary and the present tense forms of…

Recent research that explored how input exposure and learner characteristics influence novel L2 morphosyntactic pattern learning has exposed participants to either text or static images rather than dynamic visual events. Furthermore, it is not known whether incorporating eye gaze cues into dynamic visual events enhances dual pattern learning.…

Previous corpus research on English for academic purposes (EAP) writing has analyzed how often additional language (L2) writers use words from the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000), but few studies to date have explored how accurately those words are used. Therefore, the current study investigated how accurately and appropriately EAP…

Canadian post-secondary classrooms are linguistically diverse. This diversity comes from immigration, more access to higher education for marginalized and minority groups, and international student recruitment. An institute's language prerequisites serve as tools to help admissions decide who is linguistically prepared for study in English.…

This article reports on a study that examined the effectiveness of an intervention using text messages to enhance the academic vocabulary acquisition of English language learners (ELLs). With a random control trial design, we compared students' learning gain of target vocabulary (direct effect) and its subsequent impact on academic vocabulary…

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the appropriateness of open-access reading materials for an intensive English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course, and to provide teachers with a set of criteria to select online texts systematically and efficiently. The Corpus for Veterinarians (VetCorpus) was compiled and analyzed using Lextutor corpus…

This edited book documents practices of learning-oriented language assessment through practitioner research and research syntheses. Learning-oriented language assessment refers to language assessment strategies that capitalise on learner differences and their relationships with the learning environments. In other words, learners are placed at the…

This article presents qualitative findings from a larger design-based research doctoral study in which I examined the impact of a curricular innovation to challenge the monolingual and monocultural norms of literacy practices and to be responsive to the linguistic and cultural landscape of 21st century classrooms. I collaborated with 11 university…

This article describes a research study that determined the depth of vocabulary knowledge of 28 intermediate ESL learners. The study was carried out with Bricklayer, a vocabulary assessment tool for L2 English which tested the ESL learners on 72 words. Two post-tests collected evidence for concurrent validity. A semantic distance test captured…