This article explores the use of conversation analysis (CA)-informed speaking task design to develop second language (L2) learners' interactional repertoires in L2 classrooms. The study draws on the voices of teachers and Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) who encountered difficulties or dilemmas in L2 interaction due to…

This paper analyzes writing tasks in academic writing textbooks for Japanese university students, focusing on the organization and difficulty of these tasks based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). A total of 411 writing tasks from 30 textbooks were coded by two experienced Japanese English teachers. The author…

This article provides critical student perspectives on a set of instructor-created materials in which students ultimately delivered a spoken anecdote in a class presentation. The research was conducted qualitatively through the lens of narrative inquiry. Data were gathered from six participants, all undergraduate English majors at a Japanese…

Usage-based approaches to second language acquisition put a premium on the linguistic input that learners receive and predict that any sequences of words that learners encounter frequently will experience a processing advantage. The current study explores the processing of high-frequency sequences of words known as 'lexical bundles' in beginner…

This article focuses on the design of digital instructional game (DIG) tasks for young second language (L2) learners. The aim of the study is to identify motivational task elements based on what children respond to positively in games and incorporate into their own L2 vocabulary learning game designs. Eighty-two sixth-grade students (ages 11-12…

This book proposes a new paradigm for English language teaching based on concepts from English for Specific Purposes (ESP) research and applications as well as from growing evidence relating pattern recognition to language learning ability. The contributors to the volume argue that learners should not try to become proficient all-around users of…

Technology has played an increasingly vital role in self-access learning over the past twenty years or so, yet little research has been conducted into learners' actual use of the technology both for self-directed learning and as part of everyday life. This paper describes an ongoing action research project at a self-access learning center (SALC)…