German university degrees, at least in some countries, offer students only German literature courses in addition to language courses. Linguistics is often not a core component of German degree programmes. As a result, students who are not familiar with basic linguistic terminology do not know how languages work, including their mother tongue, or…

Post-communicative methodologies nowadays provide instructors with multiple curricular models to reimagine their syllabi, design creative assignments, and prepare their lessons. Yet, challenging topics are still often avoided, fearing students' limited language proficiency. Conversely, compelling content--carefully presented and pedagogically…

The present project is a research-based and practice-tested online synchronous curriculum for English language learners with the Russian language mother tongue. The curriculum's theoretical component is grounded in Vygotsky's, Leont'ev', and Engestrom's "Cultural Historical Activity Theory" as well as in scholarly papers on the influence…

Foreign language (FL) acquisition requires not only the development of target language skills, but also a cultural understanding of the region and its people. While this article addresses the development of an advanced Chinese language and culture course using film, the principles illustrated can be adapted for use in other advanced-level FL…

Syntactic complexity has long been used to gauge language learners' performance, proficiency, and development, offering language teachers valid recommendations for syllabus design and materials development. Progress in syntactic complexity research foreshadows the imperative of measuring syntactic features at a high level of granularity, which…

The research discussed in this article is specifically aimed at non-Afrikaans-speaking international students served by the Language Centre at Stellenbosch University. As a result of students who would like to become proficient in Afrikaans during their stay in South Africa, many of them choose the course "Beginner Afrikaans Vlak 1"…

This mixed-methods study explored the effects of employing a genre-based approach (GBA) to descriptive report writing on the understanding of text structure and ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings among Japanese university students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) over a 15-week course divided into three units. Applied within a…

The present study looks at pre-service teachers' beliefs about multilingualism in school and to what extent these can be influenced. It is based on the pre- and post-test evaluation of a seminar concept promoting linguistically responsive teaching, which was tested with N = 27 pre-­service teachers in Germany during the course of one semester. The…

Sociolinguistic awareness is crucial for L2 learners because language is not just a set of grammatical rules and vocabulary; it is deeply intertwined with social and cultural context. The linguistic landscape serves as a conduit for discerning facets of language use in a given community. This study focuses on raising sociolinguistic awareness…

This paper describes one approach to focusing on Connections, one of the five Cs from the World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, as a means of exposing introductory language students to culturally diverse authentic texts through drama-based pedagogy. Our approach focuses on an instructor working within an established departmental…

This study aimed to develop a tailor-made online course called "Engineering English for Intercultural Communication (EEIC)" for undergraduate engineering students based on the self-report on English language proficiency, intercultural communication competence (ICC) as well as needs of a diverse set of stakeholders in the engineering…

This study explored students' learning behavior before and after participating in an introduction to learning how to learn. This four-week intervention included the Massive Open Online Course "Learning How to Learn," further discussions on the content of this MOOC, and hands-on practice using learning platforms. Its purpose was to…

The purpose of this study is to examine the appropriateness of using the "TOEFL Primary®" tests to evaluate the language abilities of students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) through an online-delivered curriculum, the VIPKid Major Course (MC). Data include student test scores on the TOEFL Primary Listening and Reading tests…

Using open educational resources (OER) in post-secondary settings has shown to reduce costs for students, advance accessibility and equity, generate motivation, boost enrollment, and improve academic outcomes. This article details innovative coursework and assessment tools for a Spanish for the Professions course designed around OER content…

This article reports an English language needs analysis of Colombian Social Science master's students. Information from faculty interviews, course syllabi, and student surveys shows that students need English to access and update their disciplinary knowledge through research articles and book chapters to successfully participate in class…