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:…

The rapid digitization of communication in the last decade, especially in social networking spaces, has contributed to radical changes in the virtual language environment in Sri Lanka. It has not only reshaped the way individuals communicate, but has also fueled the emergence of new linguistic trends that reflect the dynamic nature of language in…

We propose a novel method for repurposing online course discussion posts to explore educators' language ideologies. Drawing on asynchronous discussion posts from a subset of 30 educators enrolled in an online, masters-level, sociolinguistics-for-educators course at a US Southwest university, we "smooth" posts into a dialogue resembling a…

Many studies have revealed multilinguals' reduced emotionality of a foreign language (LX) compared to a first language (L1). Contrary to the bulk of research so far, which has focused on multilinguals' own emotion experience or emotion processing, this study focuses on interpersonal communication and investigates how one perceives the intensity…

This article traces the history of college writing and suggests a different way ahead. To show why we need this approach, the article historicizes the start of postsecondary English as a paradoxical one, committed to egalitarian ideals while privileging narrow and exclusive English usage. To offer an alternative approach, the article synthesizes…

The prevalence of English monolingualism in the current sociopolitical public has well been documented in the field of educational linguistics. In the United States, the monolingual underpinnings of educational policies have been criticized extensively for putting language minority (LM) students at a disadvantage. An important consequence of such…

Recent research shows that transnational families draw on digital media in their language learning. However, little systematic knowledge exists on the nature of these practices, the tools used, and the families' views regarding digital media use for language learning. This article addresses this knowledge gap, presenting the results of an online…

This paper discusses the potential of immersing foreign language learners in Social Virtual Reality (SVR) in an international seminar, designed by the authors, called SpEakWise VR, combining the tandem language learning paradigm with gamification in immersive virtual environments. SpEakWise VR builds on an existing telecollaboration (SpEakWise)…

This study showcases an International Learning Exchange (ILE) program between North Korean (NK) refugee students in South Korea and American university students from the US. ILE programs connect two or more linguistic/ cultural groups for intercultural awareness, which provide authentic communicative environments. However, the prevalent use of…

Language interaction has been shown to positively impact second language development (Long, 1996). However, whereas research that examined interactionist approaches to second language acquisition (Gass & Mackey, 2006) has meticulously studied how different factors in the interaction (interactional context, type of task, etc) may affect L2…

We describe here strategies inspired by translation studies and implemented in a bilingual translation class pairing two student groups of native speakers of English (from Barnard College, Columbia University) and of French (from the École Normale Supérieure, Lyon). Student e-tandems use CMC (computer mediated communication) to collaborate on the…

Although the effectiveness of computer-mediated collaborative writing (CMCW) is confirmed by many recent studies, only a few have investigated whether linguistic knowledge and writing skills learned through collaboration can be internalized and transferred to individual writing. This study uses a pre-and post-test design to investigate the impact…

Research in computer mediated communication and sociolinguistics, have increasingly highlighted the concept of establishing an "online identity" through specific language use. However, while emojis or common netspeak abbreviations are often the focus of research concerned with cyber language, no studies have considered the function…

Due to the scarcity of studies analysing Spanish-speaking students' acquisition of pragmatic competence in English, this paper focuses on the preliminary stage of a longitudinal study on the impact that Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC) has on the use of apologies and the acquisition of intercultural communicative competence. In…

We explore how native and non-native English speakers interpret cues of emotional expression in native English speakers, text-only messages in two studies. In Experiment 1, 28 native English speakers and 28 Japanese non-native English speakers rated the emotional valence of 98 public Facebook status updates written by native English-speaking…