This study aims to understand how bilingual college students constructed literacy spaces across their lives rather than an in-school/out-of-school dichotomy. Drawing on Lefebvre's (1991) spatial triad as a lens to examine the participants' spatial literacy practices, the findings show that some participants repurposed planned spaces into literacy…

This study explored the diverse responses of Japanese university-level learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to lexically easy short poems. These participants had attained a high level of English proficiency and were able to grasp the literal meaning of the poems. The investigation employed confidence level and reading time as…

Research on students' self-assessments has reported their usefulness in supporting their learning processes. However, little research has specifically focused on its role in students' use of open educational resources (OERs), which are important learning resources in the digital age. Consequently, this qualitative case study reports on university…

Although the emergent bilingual status of foreign language (FL) students is often overlooked, that is not to say that students do not, on some level of consciousness, experience changes in their identity as a result of their emergent bilingualism. The continuous process of identity (re)negotiation, that is, the reorganising of one's subject…

This study investigated the relationship between learner beliefs about peer feedback and development of second language (L2) pronunciation skills after peer feedback on pronunciation had been used in the classroom. Seventy-four first-year learners of German were assigned to a peer feedback provider group, a peer feedback receiver group, and a…

The enormous importance of second language learning, paired with the rapid development of mobile-assisted language learning, has led to the increasing use of mobile dictionaries by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at Chinese universities. Although many studies have explored the role of dictionaries in English language learning, few…

The differential impact of growth language mindsets on second or foreign (L2) writing feedback-seeking behaviour (FSB) is an important yet underexplored area of research. How perspective-taking, a less-researched construct in L2 writing, directly predicts FSB or mediates the paths between growth language mindsets and FSB remains unknown, either.…

This study examines the relationship of achievement emotions to academic performance and to learning styles in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, a largely unexplored area of research. Employing a quantitative research design, 300 participants from the Applied College at a public university completed an adapted version of the…

How does cultural background moderate the relationship between enjoyment and willingness to communicate in second language (L2) Chinese learning? This study addresses this question through an empirical investigation involving 457 international L2 Chinese learners in Shandong Province, China. The participants completed a paper-based questionnaire.…

Chinese vocabulary is characterized by compound words composed of monosyllabic morphemes. Compounds sharing a common lexeme often exhibit polysemous meanings, forming a cognitive semantic network. Systematic instruction on these high-frequency compounds can help learners access their meanings and underlying structure, making learning more…

This paper is concerned with the integration of informal language learning into university language modules in a foreign language environment. It begins by exploring the evolving nature of formal and informal language learning. This is followed by analysis of a pedagogic innovation intended to integrate foreign language activities in an informal…

Research shows that sojourning L2 learners are often eager to speak with their native-speaker peers, but they may not realize how these interactions differ from their experiences in the L2 classroom. Using the Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles & Ogay, 2007) as a guiding principle, this mixed-method study aims to, at two different time…

This study implemented the lexical approach (LA) with integrated learning activities (ILAs) to determine its effectiveness in enhancing EFL university students' linguistic knowledge and English communication skills. The objectives were twofold: (1) to assess student progress in language achievement, specifically in English grammar and vocabulary…

Corrective feedback plays a critical role in enhancing writing skills among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, but large class sizes often hinder the provision of personalized feedback. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT have emerged as promising solutions that offer immediate and individualized feedback for writing. This study…

The present study, based on a cross-lagged panel design, was to examine the directionality of the relationships between anxiety, self-efficacy, and motivation in the context of online English learning. A total of 420 university students in China completed self-efficacy belief, motivation, and anxiety measures twice, eight months apart. The…