Idiomatics--the scientific study of idiomatic language and figurative language--is a pervasive theme in global literature, yet its precise terminology often lacks clear definition. This article addresses this challenge directly by delving into the etymology, significance, and universality of idiomatics. It emphasizes the pivotal role of idiomatics…

Young children can exploit the syntactic context of a novel word to narrow down its probable meaning. This is "syntactic bootstrapping." A learner that uses syntactic bootstrapping to foster lexical acquisition must first have identified the semantic information that a syntactic context provides. Based on the "semantic seed…

This article provides a conceptual review of the principles of input spacing as they might relate specifically to oral task repetition research and presents some of the common methodological considerations from the broader input spacing literature. The specific considerations discussed include the interaction between intersession intervals and…

In this paper, the role and nature of language and language development will be discussed. Research and theory in second language acquisition has demonstrated that (i) language is an abstract, implicit and complex system. Input (ii) plays a key role in language development; despite the fact that some knowledge of language is innate (iii). Overall,…

The Discontinuity Model (DM) described in this article proposes that adults can learn part of L2 morphosyntax twice, in two different ways. The same item can be learned as the product of generation by a rule or as a modification of a template already stored in memory. These learning modalities, which are often seen as opposed in language theory,…

Despite the substantial expansion in vocabulary research since the 1980s, we still know very little about how vocabulary develops over time and what factors influence this development. This methodological overview discusses key issues and considerations in vocabulary breadth growth assessment to help advance research in this area. The report…

In the field of educational psychology, self-regulation is part of a well-established research paradigm that has been extensively applied to learning contexts. However, despite proposals highlighting its benefits, some researchers claim that its cross-pollination into applied linguistics has been slow. In their recent "Applied…

The learning sciences inherently involve interdisciplinary research with an overarching objective of advancing theories of learning and to inform the design and implementation of effective instructional methods and learning technologies. In these endeavors, learning sciences encompass diverse constructs, measures, processes, and outcomes…

This provocative article raises many important issues that need to be addressed and in so doing will advance the fields of second language (L2) and third language (L3) acquisition in several important ways. Fundamental questions concerning multilingual development persist especially with respect to the role of Universal Grammar in this language…

This paper proposes the replication of Bird's (2010) and Serrano's (2011) studies, which examined distribution of practice effects in second language acquisition (SLA). These studies, which took place in authentic classroom contexts, produced conflicting results regarding the degree to which the learning of a second language (L2) benefited from…

Gunther Kress's multimodal and social semiotic theory of communication has moved beyond the realm of linguistics, which originally framed his work, and has reached out to inform other fields, such as those of education, museum studies, as well as the humanities and social sciences more broadly. This article brings together our insights in relation…

This paper is focused on one of the most common and basic ways of processing corpus information; concordance, and how it can be used in the classroom to offer language learners useful vocabulary that they would face in genuine conversations and help them detect language patterns as this ability helps them with their learning process. In addition,…

Culture and language play important roles in counting techniques, affecting how students learn math around the globe.

A great deal of research on second language (L2) input has provided useful linguistic evidence for the development of generalizations about and hypotheses on the usage-based nature of L2 knowledge. However, despite the fact that classrooms are one of the most ubiquitous sites of L2 learning, we still know very little about the linguistic quality…

The metaphors that students form and encounter have been shown to exert a powerful influence on how they think about mathematics. In this paper, we explore the linguistic metaphors about learning and doing mathematics that were prevalent in 11 advanced mathematics lectures. We present four metaphor clusters that were common in the corpus that we…