This study examines the potential roles of self-guides (ideal L2 self/outght-to L2 self), enjoyment, and gender in language achievement. A total of 727 Chinese high school students participated in this study and data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Path analysis showed that ideal self was positively related to both enjoyment and…

This study investigated English first language (L1) speakers' motivation for learning Chinese as a second language (L2) in Australia and the links of underlying motivational components to learner sociobiographical (e.g. gender and reasons for learning) and language learning variables (i.e. experience abroad, hours of self-study, and speaking with…

Online eikaiwa, or English conversations via teleconferencing platforms, is a popular informal English learning avenue among Japanese nationals. Although online eikaiwa has received scholarly attention in recent years, only a few studies have investigated the current diversification efforts in the industry in terms of hiring teachers from various…

In this research, the relationships among social support, including parents', teachers', and peers' support, goal orientation, and reading amount in English were examined directly and indirectly in a sample of Hong Kong senior primary school students (N = 570) using a questionnaire survey. It was assumed that parents', teachers', and peers'…

An analysis of data collected from 2347 users of English on their self-reported swearing behaviour in English revealed significant higher values for the 1159 native English (L1) users than for the 1165 English foreign language (LX) users. Parallel analyses on the data of the L1 and LX users revealed that the interlocutor effect was slightly…

This paper presents a study on the use of learning strategies in foreign languages, and more specifically Spanish. The study was conducted with 376 Chinese and American students who were studying Spanish in their countries of origin. The results obtained from a latent class cluster analysis identified five groups of participants based on the…

This article empirically studies the impact of bilingualism on educational achievements. This relationship has been thoroughly studied in a number of countries around the world, but not in Russia. We used a sample of 709 ethnic Tatar school students aged 15-16 (in the ninth grade) in the spring of the year 2010. We found a positive significant…

Stimulated by studies on South Korean students' early and later-on study abroad and Japanese companies' practice of hiring monolingual college students, the present literature-based discussion advances the knowledge of commonalities and distinctiveness between the two nations that manifest in either a textbook-case or a non-linear relationship…

The present study is a nationwide survey of language identity among English language learners in Iran. The participants who completed the survey in this research included 1851 English language learners from different parts of the country who belonged to different genders, age groups and English language proficiency levels. The main instrument was…

Seventy-eight native English speakers rated the foreign-accented speech (FAS) of 24 international students enrolled in an Intensive English programme at a public university in Texas on degree of accent, comprehensibility and communicative ability. Variables considered to potentially impact listeners' ratings were the sex of the speaker, the first…

The gendered speech in a foreign language has been found to pose barriers for learners due to different gender norms associated with their mother tongue and the foreign language. The problem is especially serious with the masculine and feminine forms of speech in the Japanese language, as these are strongly linked with social inequality between…

This paper discusses culture-specific learning strategies of 177 students learning Greek as a second/foreign language in an academic setting. The study reports on descriptive statistics of the data collected through implementation of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and processed in order to determine frequency of learners'…

As learner-centred approaches are gaining popularity in many language classrooms, the affective dimensions of learners and the interaction effects of learners and teachers have become an important theme for research and assessment. This paper explores how Japanese learners of English as a foreign language evolve in two geographically distinct…

An analysis of 100 Flemish high-school students' attitudes towards French and English (both "foreign" languages) revealed complex links between personality factors, gender, politicocultural identity, communicative behaviour and foreign language attitudes. Attitudes towards English were found to be much more positive than those towards French,…