Performing a stay in a country where the L2 is the official language can provide the perfect immersion for L2 development (traditional study abroad). In the case of English learners, internationalization and the role of English as a lingua franca make it unnecessary to perform the stay in an English-speaking country. Hence, an increasing number of…

While internationally there is long-standing research activity on the effectiveness of language contacts (especially in the form of mobility stays) at tertiary level and a number of literature syntheses on this field have been published, research projects at the primary and secondary level are still comparatively rare and the results are often not…

Studies that measure the effectiveness of language-training program for children's language development do not clearly identify in adult-child interaction which characteristics of educators' language are most effective, particularly for children over 4 years of age who need to develop complex syntactic skills. Our study aimed to analyze the…

The recent introduction of inclusive schooling settings in France has allowed children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as young as 3 years to benefit from teaching adapted to their special needs, while sharing the same educational environment as their typical peers. The present study examined (1) whether children with ASD attending an…

Children with developmental dyslexia (DD) display partially preserved morphology skills which they rely upon for reading and spelling. Therefore, we conducted explicit and intensive training of derivational morphology in French and Swiss individuals with DD, ages 9 to 14 years, in order to assess its effect on: morphological awareness, reading…

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the sociocultural factors influencing learners of Arabic as a foreign language in the Sultanate of Oman. A qualitative inquiry approach was adopted for the study, using in-depth interviewing, and students' diaries to understand how the sociocultural context impact non-Arab learners of Arabic in the…

Previous studies of narrative development based on wordless picture stories indicate that before 7-8 years most children provide descriptive narratives with little inferential content such as explanations and attribution of mental states to the story characters. These components find greater expression in studies where children participated in…

Children's emotion understanding has emerged as one of the best predictors of their psychological well-being, pro-social competences and school achievement. The main goal of this study was to evaluate for the first time the impact of an easy-to-use and not time-consuming classroom dialogue-based intervention (a) on preschool children's…

Accessing higher education without having to overcome bureaucratic hurdles is a serious concern for refugees. Although empirical studies on the integration and success of refugees in higher education are scarce, the challenges related to this issue are becoming apparent. The Success and Opportunities for Refugees in Higher Education (SUCCESS)…

For Chinese as a second language (L2 Chinese), there has been little research into "distinguishing features" (Fulcher, 1996; Iwashita et al., 2008) used in scoring L2 Chinese speaking performance. The study reported here investigates the relationship between the distinguishing features of L2 Chinese spoken performances and the scores…

Foreign language telecollaboration pairs learners so that they may improve their language and intercultural skills. A lesser known model, intergenerational telecollaboration, uses senior citizens as native language partners instead of peers. This paper presents the results of an intergenerational videoconferencing project between learners in…

French learners at university meet difficulties in the comprehension of oral English. Being in a formal context of language learning, they need to develop language awareness to compensate for insufficient exposure to the English language. To meet the students' needs, data was collected in order to pinpoint the main errors made by French learners…

Since the development of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in the 1980's, learner needs have been central to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching and learning, including in the field of English for Medical Purposes (EMP). This paper reports on two studies, conducted at Nice University Medical Faculty between October 2015 and March 2016,…

This article adds to the limited body of research on study abroad for experienced world/foreign language teachers. It describes a 3-week institute sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities that took place in Lyon, France, during summer 2007. The study examines the institute's impact on a wide spectrum of the professional lives of the…

Most successes in intelligent tutoring systems have come in well-defined domains like algebra or physics. We investigate how to support students in acquiring ill-defined skills of intercultural competence using an online environment that employs clips of feature films from a target culture. To test the effectiveness of a set of attention-focusing…