The efficacy of the "integrated approach," which calls for the simultaneous integration of two varieties in teaching Arabic as a second language (L2), has not yet been rigorously examined, and the very few available studies suffer from many methodological limitations. The current study sought to bridge this gap in the literature by…

The field of Heritage Language has experienced a great deal of advancement in the past few decades. Much research effort has been dedicated to analyzing and understanding different aspects of heritage language speakers, but less work has been done in the topic of pedagogical approaches. The few recent studies on pedagogical approaches have focused…

The purpose of this comparative study is to determine whether the linguistic input approach based on Krashen's (1989) comprehensible input (CI) and supported by Kolb's (2015) experiential learning (ELT) and Siemens' (2005) connectivism theory (CT) to improve eighth graders' Spanish speaking and writing linguistic proficiencies. Previous research…

Students studying in beginning level foreign language classrooms often lack the opportunity to speak spontaneously (Kogan, 2023). Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a pedagogical approach to language instruction that advocates for the use of tasks to develop learners' second/foreign language (L2) abilities. Games can act as tasks that prepare…

At Grand Intermediate School, teachers work with a large population of English language learners (ELL). The teachers were all trained to use the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model (Echevarria, Vogt, and Short, 2017) to help ELL students increase their English fluency and succeed academically. The instructional strategies in place,…

The present study was focused on acquisition of Chinese relative clauses (RCs) by second language (L2) learners and whether this acquisition was influenced by RC linguistic features, learners' Chinese proficiency levels, and their first language (L1). Data were gathered via a Chinese reading comprehension test, a grammaticality judgment task, a…

"Theorizing Eloquence as a Means-Driven Process of Recursive Invention" examines the rhetorical nature of eloquence and the value of reimagining the term in rhetorical theory. Historically, eloquence has been used as a mechanism of gatekeeping in the academy that prevents underrepresented individuals and perspectives to enter. I argue…

Individuals with lower proficiency in a second language tend to produce more disfluent speech patterns in the second language. Speech disfluencies refer to interruptions in the forward flow of speech and are distinct from the colloquial use of "fluency," to characterize knowledge of a language. Prior research indicates that some speech…

Practice is necessary for developing oral English proficiency, but many Chinese learners of English lack the self-confidence to practice oral English; furthermore, students' self-confidence deficiency is perpetuated by insufficient oral English proficiency. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to discover pedagogical practices that break…

According to Boo et al. (2015), between 2005 and 2014, the majority of L2 motivation studies focused on general learner motivation, neglecting research on motivating learners in classroom contexts. Similarly, Sudina (2021) stated that most research on motivation focused on students' individual motivation, even though what teachers do to motivate…

The nature of this research study examines the relationship between text-talking and writing skills used by American Sign Language (ASL) and English speakers. When given ample opportunity to text-talk in academic settings, it is likely that students will improve their expressive communication and writing skills. The main research question asks:…

While recent research has shown that multimodal feedback and use of formulaic sequences (FS) are effective in improving student performance on writing tasks, there is a dearth of studies on the impact of these aspects on computer-based academic speaking assessments. This dissertation seeks to fill this gap by examining the impact of both…

Through this descriptive qualitative case study of three native speaking Arabic teachers in an L2 Arabic classroom in a private school setting in the U.S., this study presented a four-stage multi-layered analytical approach demonstrating functional, interactional and pedagogical analyses of the uses of Arabic Arabic pragmatic markers (PMs) in…

Studies in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) indicate that the use of discourse markers (DMs) in the academic writing of second language learners improves the overall quality of these texts by contributing to their cohesion and comprehensibility (Saif Modhish 2012; Jalilifar 2008; Intaraprawat & Steffensen 1995). However, despite the…

The purpose of this study was to explore if by integrating Brain-based learning principles with a constructivist approach to English oral communication at a higher education institution, ESL participants would develop their English oral communication fluency. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.) [The dissertation citations contained here are…