Individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS) often face difficulties in social communication and language skills, encompassing comprehension and production in both their first and second languages. English as a second language has been one of the most common communication tools and a school subject for decades in Asia; therefore, mastering English…

This study examined the within- and cross-language relationships between intrinsic language learning motivation, home literacy environment (shared book reading, parental literacy involvement, and parent perceived child literacy interest), and receptive vocabulary in 185 bilingual preschoolers and 233 primary school children in Singapore. Age…

During the last decades, global interest in learning English as a foreign language has increased, encouraging countries to include it in school education. This trend was followed by the Chilean Ministry of Education, which suggests teaching English based on a communicative approach starting in early childhood education. To foster students'…

This study examined translingual practices in two playdates of a Korean four-year-old boy (Theo) with a Korean boy and an American boy. The boys played a game called "Candy Land." In both playdates, the boys' naturally occurring English and Korean communication strategies were observed and analyzed based on Canagarajah's (2013) four…

The cognitive, educational and economic benefits of learning a second language have been well documented in the literature. This paper reports findings on perspectives of 13 stakeholders on the benefits of a case study about teaching Vietnamese to preschoolers in a regional early childhood context in Tasmania, Australia in 2017. Using a thematic…

Aim: This study explores how bilingual parents of autistic children made language decisions for their families, how the event of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and subsequent lockdown impacted the communication environment of their households, and whether these experiences affected their language habits. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted…

Prediction-based theories posit that interlocutors use prediction to process language efficiently and to coordinate dialogue. The present study evaluated whether listeners can use spatial deixis (i.e., "this," "that," "these," and "those") to predict the plurality and proximity of a speaker's upcoming…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become the focus of Foreign Language (FL) research within the last decades. CLIL provides a more complete, naturalistic, and meaningful context to FL learning, which has proven to bring many benefits to learners, such as a higher motivation and promotion of creativity, and better results in…

The purpose of this study, which employed mixed methods, was to document the implementation of a bilingual family literacy program with immigrant and refugee families from four different language groups in five different communities in a metropolitan area of Canada. Results indicated: 1) the program had a significant impact on children's early…

This study investigates the physical literacy environment of preschools in three Nordic countries. The environments were assessed using an observation protocol in a total of 131 classrooms with children aged between one and seven in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The results showed that children's books were common and accessible in all three…

The case studies of three Korean American families examined the directives and honorifics used by families to analyze how family members socialized each other into culturally appropriate ways of directing. Drawing from audio- and visual-recordings of interactions, interviews of parents and children, field notes, and artifacts, this study found…

For many preschoolers in Turkish kindergartens, English instruction starts in the third year of their lives when they have barely begun to articulate their thoughts in their own mother tongue, Turkish. Parents have a dual role as models and decision makers in their children's foreign language education. As the fifteen participant parents of this…

The purpose of this cluster randomized group study was to investigate the effect of multitiered, dual-language instruction on children's oral language skills, including vocabulary, narrative retell, receptive and expressive language, and listening comprehension. The participants were 3- to 5-year-old children (n = 81) who were learning English and…

In this thesis, I present three related papers that collectively investigate the instructional supports on screen and in the media viewing context that influenced English and heritage language vocabulary knowledge in DLLs. In study 1, I examine how specific pedagogical approaches used in educational media might benefit DLLs. In study 2, I…

This article reports a study which examined the effects of an "Awakening to Languages" (AtL) programme on preschool children's language abilities. This programme aimed at exposing children to language and cultural diversity as well as promoting positive attitudes towards different languages and cultures amongst children. However,…