The excessive anxiety male EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students feel in their foreign language classrooms may have considerable drawbacks on their verbal and productive performances. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of self-disclosure in the relationship between masculine gender role stress and foreign language classroom…

This study examines creative uses of emerging image-based social media for informal language learning. Adopting the ecological concept of affordances, it investigates new technological features on Instagram and TikTok and how they are utilised as resources for language learning. Using public data of Instagram photo/video and TikTok video posts,…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the opportunities and challenges to the application of portfolios as an assessment tool in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms at different educational levels in Vietnam, as explicitly and implicitly reported in the literature. Design: This study is a combination of a narrative review,…

Purpose: Despite substantial research on students' perceptions of collaborative writing, only a few studies have provided a deep understanding of their perceptions and attitudes toward computer-supported collaborative writing (CSCW). Previous studies have examined learners' perceptions and attitudes using questionnaires or interviews at a specific…

The purpose of this paper was to examine the role of social Funds of Identity (FoI), as expressed in significant others, in the promotion of language learning for a young refugee-background child. It is based on an ethnographic study that spanned across two years, shortly after the relocation of the child and her family in the U.S. The findings…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine Saudi EFL learners' autonomy beliefs, the relation between their autonomy beliefs and autonomy practices, and the major obstacles against their autonomy. Design/methodology/approach: In this quantitative study, a survey questionnaire was administered to 350 (N=350) students in the English Language…

Purpose: Despite the acknowledged benefits of digital storytelling in fostering language development, investigations into its cognitive and affective dimensions in English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) education, especially concerning high and low achievers, have been scarce. This study, therefore, aimed to scrutinize the effects of multimodal…

Second language (L2) researchers have often studied how L2 speaking anxiety and self-confidence influence various aspects of the language learning process whereas the sources of these emotions have remained under-explored. Drawing on Dweck's (1999) theory of motivation, the present study examined L2 learners' mindsets (beliefs about the…

Self-construal refers to the process by which individuals define the self in relation to others. It underpins cognition, motivation, and social behavior. While the importance of the self is well acknowledged in the field of second language (L2) learning motivation, how self-construal is associated with L2 learning motivation in project-based…

Purpose: This paper is a proposal for improving ESL text comprehension by merging a multimodal perspective on language (Kress et al. [2005]. "Urban Classrooms, Subject English: Multimodal Perspectives on Teaching and Learning." London: Routledge Falmer.) with an integrated psychological (or 'metacognitive') approach to language learning…

Purpose: This research investigated college student preferences for and engagement in mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) classes and whether the level of class engagement differed among students according to class preferences. Design/methodology/approach: Using a mixed-methods approach, 115 first-year college students who were experiencing…

The sudden global shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic required teachers to place more emphasis on strategies that increased student engagement and supported their online learning. Emotional scaffolding is one such strategy that assisted learners by creating positive emotional experiences and representations during the learning…

Purpose: This mixed-methods study proposed a digital-storytelling-based (DST-based) online flipped learning approach during the pandemic, and investigated its impact on EFL learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) and their perceptions of the approach. Design/methodology/approach: A 16-week quasi-experiment was carried out in a college English…

Among various factors contributing to autonomous language learners' success, the beneficial role of out-of-classroom activities (OCAs) has been largely neglected. The present case study sought to explore successful language learners' OCAs, their perceptions of the efficiency of these activities, and their purposes for engaging in them. To this…

This study aims to fill the gaps in measuring foreign language reading enjoyment by developing an English reading enjoyment scale for Chinese university students. Scherer's [(2000). 'Emotions as Episodes of Subsystem Synchronization Driven by Nonlinear Appraisal Processes.' In "Emotion, Development, and Self-Organization: Dynamic Systems…