To date, attempts at empirically validating a construct of academic vocabulary in the form of a frequency list in languages other than English remain conspicuously absent in peer-reviewed journals. This study aims to close this gap by using Russian as a case study to develop an academic vocabulary list and prove its viability through a variety of…

Task-based research has shown the benefits of using tasks in various instructional contexts across different age groups. Although task-based language teaching promotes language learning through authentic real-world tasks, previous research has mainly used controlled pedagogic tasks. The current exploratory, intact-classroom, multi-case study…

This case study compares the discourse behaviors of 2 Chinese teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), one rated high and one rated low by their respective students. The teachers were each audio-recorded for a total of 100 minutes during the 'text session' of an Intensive Reading course. Drawing on Yang's (2010) model of EFL classroom…

What becomes of language students who participate in study abroad and then continue their study at home? What part can their memory of in-country living play in shaping subsequent classroom experiences, not only for the students themselves but also for their classmates and teachers? This study explores changes in the motives of a study abroad…

This study explored the role teacher education plays in influencing student teachers' pedagogical grammar cognitions--defined as what student teachers know, think, and believe regarding grammar instruction--on the premise that investigating the impact of teacher education (or lack thereof) is more fruitful when considering it the result of complex…

This study explores the development of multiple dimensions of linguistic complexity in the writing of beginning learners of German both as a group and as individuals. The data come from an annotated, longitudinal learner corpus. The development of lexicogrammatical complexity is explored at 2 intersections: (a) between cross-sectional trendlines…

Despite the accumulating body of research on teacher cognition and teacher learning in the field of second language (L2) teacher education over the past 2 decades, few studies have followed novice L2 teachers' development over time, and still fewer have focused specifically on teacher identity development. This study begins to fill this gap by…

This qualitative study followed two graduates from a master of arts in the teaching of languages program, who had taught for at least 3 years, into their domain of work in public school teaching. The study was carried out to better understand the day-to-day work, challenges, and social and interactive contexts in which language teachers engage. It…

This study investigates the case of 7 female heritage learners of Spanish who have chosen, as adults, to enroll in online Spanish language instruction at the postsecondary level. Drawing on symbolic convergence theory, it identifies a cultural fantasy metanarrative that participants collectively constructed as they made sense of their language…

According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities (2005), students with disabilities often must demonstrate failure in order to qualify for academic accommodations. For students with disabilities, this failure may be life-altering. The present article argues that alternative curricula (modified teaching and assessment plans) should be…

Incidental focus on form is one of several ways to direct language learners' attention to formal aspects of language within meaningful communicative contexts. Learners can benefit from focus on form, but the extent to which incidental focus on form, or any other type, is available to learners in advanced foreign language literature classes has not…

In this article, we extend Firth and Wagner's (1997) call for an ontological perspective that (re)unites the individual and the social by proposing some fundamental implications that this call has for second language (L2) classroom praxis and teacher education. We propose that the (re)unification of language and culture (re)establishes the unity…

Although the research literature on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has increased exponentially over the last few decades, it is not at all clear how its findings may or may not contribute to teacher growth or otherwise influence actual classroom praxis. The case study presented here shows one instructor, a native speaker of German, translating…

Using the methodological framework of conversation analysis (CA) as a central tool for analysis, this study examines a peer interactive task that occurred in a Japanese as a foreign language classroom. During the short segment of interaction, the students shifted back and forth between the development of an assigned task and the management of…

Research on second/foreign language teacher impressions, reflections, and beliefs continues to illuminate various facets of language teacher knowledge and practice, but it has only recently begun to question the relationship between these teacher characteristics and actual classroom discourse. This collaborative case study undertaken by a…