To respond to recent calls for examining oral fluency from a broader social and communicative perspective, the current study aimed at investigating the effects of task communicative function on second language (L2) and first language (L1) speakers' fluency. Designing tasks that represent three different communicative functions (congratulations,…

The recent dynamic turn in second language acquisition research has called for an investigation in learner agency by taking its complex dynamic nature into account. Informed by complex dynamic systems theory (CDST), this study investigated the agency of learners in a complex educational context where mainstream schooling and private tutoring…

The interactions among cognitive, affective, and linguistic factors have received scant attention in task-based writing research. To address this gap, this study aims to examine the relationships among task complexity, task motivation, task engagement, and syntactic complexity in second language (L2) writing. One hundred L2 learners enrolled in an…

Extramural exposure, through activities such as watching TV, gaming, networking, and online reading, has become an important source of vocabulary acquisition in English as a foreign language, particularly when learners' first language (L1) has many cognates with English. Our study examined extramural vocabulary acquisition of 10th-grade L1…

Although core in the teaching of academic language skills, little research to date has investigated what makes video-recorded lectures difficult for language learners. As part of a larger program to develop automated videotext complexity measures, this study reports on selected dimensions of linguistic complexity to understand how they contribute…

There is a growing popular discourse that the intellectualization of the field of language teaching has resulted in a growing divide between language teaching researchers and professionals. Some scholars have called for more holistic professionals, that is, people who embody the identities of both researcher and practitioner. To explore such…

Although intelligibility is a core concept in second language (L2) speech assessment and teaching research, the vast majority of previous work relies on audio-only stimuli. The current study set out to examine how linguistic and visual information jointly interact to determine the degree of speech intelligibility. Both first language (L1) and L2…

In many language classrooms in multilingual nations, standard dialects are associated with and promoted in formal domains. Through classroom pedagogical processes that reify standard language use, other dialects are relegated to informal domains and therefore devalued in classroom settings. Informed by critical pedagogy, this article challenges…

This study investigated to what extent and how novice second-language (L2) Spanish learners use the cognitive linguistics-informed concept of boundedness to support their development of aspect--namely, the Spanish preterite and imperfect. The concept was presented within the framework of concept-based instruction (CBI) as part of a regular,…

This study investigates the impact of an inquiry-based teacher education course in nurturing second language (L2) teachers' research mindset, defined herein as their cognition and action toward research. One hundred and thirty pre- and in-service L2 teachers of various nationalities participated in a teacher education course on instructed second…

We describe a longitudinal (5-year) researcher-supported initiative designed to strengthen the research-practice link (RPL) and serve as an effective form of situated professional learning and development (PLD) in adult second language programs. We facilitated the formation of and supported 9 professional reading groups of 6-12 instructors (N =…

In foreign language learning, it is important that learners become autonomous and learn how to self-regulate their learning to continue language development. This article presents a self-evaluation procedure designed to promote self-regulation in speaking skills in a foreign language. This self-evaluation procedure was tested in a…

The study investigated the effect of task complexity (TC) on second language (L2) learners' affective responses and writing performance and how these were modulated by cognitive and affective individual difference (ID) factors. A total of 412 Chinese 8th-grade English-as-a-foreign-language learners completed a working memory (WM) test, a scale…

In this study I examine the construct of aptitude in learning Chinese as a second language (L2) to an advanced level. I test 2 hypotheses: first, that L2 aptitude comprises 4 components--working memory, rote memory, grammatical sensitivity, and phonemic coding ability--and second, that L2 aptitude affects learning both directly and indirectly…

As the school-aged English language learner (ELL) population continues to grow in the United States and other English-speaking countries, psychometrically sound instruments to measure their language learning strategies (LLS) become ever more critical. This study adapted and validated an adult-oriented measure of LLS (50-item "Strategy…