A prerequisite for learning is that instructions and other learning activities take place in a language that you understand. This may seem self-evident, but fact remains that most learners in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are taught in a European second language (L2) that they are unfamiliar with. Frequently, the role of the home languages in the…

Open research practices are relevant to all stages of research, from conceptualization through dissemination. Here, we discuss key facets of open research, highlighting its rationales, infrastructures, behaviors, and challenges. Part I conceptualizes open research and its rationales. Part II identifies challenges such as the speed and cost of open…

With mobile phones now in the hands of virtually all of our learners, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to imagine environments that do not include learning through mobile devices in even some small capacity. The interest in mobile learning is reflected in the enormous number of publications which have appeared over the past 10 to 15…

Forty years ago, the Castañeda v. Pickard landmark case marked an important milestone in the fight for equitable education for English learners in law, and for the first time linked theory, resources, and outcomes. Notwithstanding the important progress it marked in advocating for greater resources for English learners and accountability for…

The rapid advancement in video technologies in recent years has made the creating and editing of subtitles for a video increasingly feasible. For a long time, however, the pedagogical potentials of subtitling in language teaching and learning have been neglected. To fill this gap, this technology review introduces "VisualSubSync," a free…

The decolonization of applied linguistics is a critique of applied linguistics (see Phillipson, 1999; Phipps, 2018 and Pennycook & Makoni, 2020). We argue for a shift toward the Global South, in particular Africa, and for the importance of paying attention to 'race' as a significant category of analysis in applied linguistics in Africa. Three…

While translation was once a key component of language teaching, throughout the twentieth century, it largely gave way to methods and approaches with a greater focus on communicative competence. However, efforts have been made in the past few decades to return translation and more generally multilingual language learning to classrooms. In the…

Critical thinking (CT) is widely viewed as an essential skill for college students. Nevertheless, the use of CT skills in the classroom often varies across disciplines. This article summarizes perceptions of CT, including various definitions and constructs as well as barriers to its implementation in higher education. Faculty members from various…

In this article I adopt a family language policy approach and a diachronic perspective to explore how the dialect-Italian dynamics unfolds differently within different cohorts of Italian migrants due to the hierarchical position of the two heritage languages. I highlight three main issues that emerge across time in the language policies in the…

This article focuses on the ever-increasing stress on multilingual education (MLE) in policy documents, especially its pairing with mother tongues in education (MTE). This focus brings into relief the relationship between MTE, the preservation of linguistic diversity and social democracy. We argue that the outcome of this relationship crucially…

In the contemporary era of globalization, learning a second language has become a pivotal means to broaden individual perspectives and enhance competitiveness. English, as the lingua franca of international communication, assumes particular importance. This paper delves into the integrated application of situated learning (SL) and task-based…

As access to smartphones and emerging technologies has become ubiquitous in our daily lives and in language learning, technology-mediated social interaction has become common in teaching and assessing L2 speaking. The changing ecology of L2 spoken interaction provides language educators and testers with opportunities for renewed test design and…

How can Levinas's work help language educators respond ethically to encounters with students? This paper considers this question in the context of adult immigrants learning an additional language, and is interested specifically in the existential aspects of language learning. How does the experience of "coming into being" in a new…

By utilizing a massive corpus of textual data, large language models can generate unique human-like outputs to questions and interact with users in a natural conversational way. ChatGPT is one such platform, and since it emerged into the public consciousness in November 2022, it has generated both excitement and concern among educators. A growing…

The enhancement of bilingual vocabulary in government secondary schools is essential for equipping students with the linguistic skills necessary for success in a globalized world. Despite the considerable benefits of bilingual education, challenges such as rigid curricula, inadequate teacher training, limited resources, and varied student…