This study explores the potential of the English File Pronunciation (EFP) app to help foreign language learners improve their pronunciation. Participants were 52 Spanish EFL learners enrolled in an English Studies degree. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess the participants' perception and production (imitative, controlled, and spontaneous)…

Considering the acquisition of past tense uses by L2 Spanish advanced learners with closely related L1s (French, Portuguese), this study attempts to identify factors associated with variability, such as negative transfer or interface integration. We report data on the acquisition, by adult L1 French and Portuguese learners at B2 and C1 CEFR…

Living in a global world involves not only mastering languages, but also dealing with different habits and values. It becomes critical with students trained to deal with a multicultural public, such as the group of learners from tourism covered by our research. Our proposal aims to analyze whether the virtual world of Second Life (SL) facilitates…

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programmes are mushrooming in many different contexts. However, research has mainly focused on their impact on foreign language learning and to a lesser extent on L1 development, whereas the number of studies undertaken in multilingual contexts in which more than two languages coexist is negligible.…

There is a concern in Galicia (Spain) about possible negative effects on academic performance caused by the introduction of CLIL (content and language integrated learning) in schools. It has been said that when three languages coexist in the same context as vehicles of education, it is too much for the students, especially in primary education. In…

Students of initial teacher education need to be prepared for the classrooms of tomorrow. Teachers require the necessary skills and competences to teach in culturally diverse contexts, to collaborate across disciplines, and to use technologies in innovative ways; but the Digital Economy and Society Index reports that only 20-25% of students in…

Interaction is a necessary condition for second language (L2) learning (Long, 1980, 1996). Research in computer-mediated communication has shown that interaction opportunities make learners pay attention to form in a variety of ways that promote L2 learning. This research has mostly investigated text-based rather than voice-based interaction. The…

The study deals with the effect of instruction and study abroad (SA) on pragmatic knowledge. More specifically, the focus is on gains in explicit knowledge of request mitigators, and whether learners draw on this knowledge when they perform email requests. Email requests produced by 60 Spanish students staying abroad (30 treatment/30 control…

This article reports on an intervention study of reading comprehension among young learners of English as a third language (L3) in a multilingual (Spanish-Basque-English) context in the Basque Country. The study involves a pre-test post-test design, with an intervention of 7 weeks using two intact groups of participants that served as experimental…

This study investigated the effect of two distinct computer-based phonetic training procedures administered in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom with young learners. Students' perceptual awareness of the occurrence of an English schwa in an unstressed position in content words was tested in two experimental groups, which underwent…

This article attempts to shed some light on the possible learning benefits for language acquisition and intercultural development of authentic social interaction with expert peers through computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. The environments used in this study are video communication and the 3D virtual world "Second Life." For…

This study investigates the benefits of Mobile Mediated Communication (MMC) to develop oral skills in second-language learners. A total of 80 Spanish students taking a B1 English course at the University of Almería were studied in this research. According to treatment type, subjects were divided in two groups, experimental and control. A…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a multifaceted educational approach which has emerged as a major innovation in improving language learning and subject learning in the curriculum. In order to analyse the effect of this approach, a number of studies (Dalton Puffer, C., T. Nikula and U. Smit, eds. 2010. "Language Use and…

This article reports the preliminary findings of an action research on the effects of autonomy on a group of university students at the post-graduate level taking their first Spanish course through the Content and Language Learning (CLIL) methodology. The participants, whose Spanish was at the low/mid intermediate level (ACTFL, 2012), were exposed…

In a world in which online reading is becoming increasingly common and, as a consequence, online literacy more and more necessary, this paper focuses on possibility of training L2 (second language) readers to bridge the gap between paper reading and online reading. Many researchers believe metacognitive awareness to be the most important ability…