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…

Language learners are often required to negotiate classroom participation in pair and group work; therefore, willingness to communicate (WTC) could be a key determiner of second language (L2) success. Classroom WTC is volatile and influenced by interlocutor-related variables, such as reciprocal identities, group membership and atmosphere, and peer…

The use of films as teaching and learning materials can provide a variety of opportunities for interaction in second language classrooms. Research on the usage of films in language-learning tasks to provide opportunities for learning and interaction, however, is scarce. Drawing on a database of video-recorded interactions in an upper-secondary…

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…

In this article, we present our vision of a transformed second language acquisition and teaching (SLA/T) disciplinary community that approaches second language (L2) education through four pillars. The first pillar is praxeology (i.e., the study of human action) to highlight the sociocontextually emergent nature of L2 competence. It locates the…

Studies focused on motivation to learn languages other than English or more than 1 language simultaneously have been gaining attention in recent years. However, there are far fewer than those related to second language (L2) English learning. To fill this gap, this article explores the evolving motivation of 2 Japanese students who spent 1 academic…

In commercial materials for the teaching of second language (L2) pronunciation, common bottom-up approaches segment phonology into a series of discrete and decontextualized linguistic components with rules that students are encouraged to internalize. Such approaches seem out of step with recent second language acquisition (SLA) theory and research…

This article examines how second language (L2) interactional competence is manifested in students' use of "and"-prefaced turns when doing meaning-focused oral tasks in pairs and small groups. Drawing on video recordings from English-as-a-foreign-language upper-secondary classes recorded in Czechia and Finland, 86 sequences involving…

Motivational interactions during multiple language learning have been largely neglected in language motivation research. To fill this gap, we investigate longitudinal relations between Swiss German students' value beliefs in English, French, and German in upper secondary schools and whether there are differences in motivational development between…

Concept-based language instruction (C-BLI) is a pedagogy guided by sociocultural theory, which has been shown to be effective in facilitating second language learning. Typical activities include materialization by using a schema for a complete orienting basis of an action (SCOBA) and languaging, through which learners' internalization of…

The use of students' first language (L1) in additional language (L2) instruction has been a recurring theme in language education research. While research has documented the amount of L1 use and its purposes in L2 instruction, little research has investigated the multifaceted motives that influence language choices at the micro level of social…

Second language (L2) learners stand to gain substantially from mastering a wide range of multiword expressions (MWEs), and several studies have examined the benefits of language courses that regularly draw learners' attention to MWEs. However, most of these studies focused on the learners' retention of the MWEs included in the course materials and…

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 research interest in a variety of emotions in foreign and second language (L2) classrooms, especially since the introduction of positive psychology. However, research on the ubiquitous emotional experience of boredom is scant. Building on its prevalence and documented deleterious effects, I argue that research on the antecedents…

Second language (L2) learners hold different learning beliefs that influence their interpretation of classroom experiences and their L2 learning process. Developing a thorough understanding of such beliefs is therefore imperative. This article reports the representations of Iranian English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' beliefs about L2…