Background: In linguistically diverse contexts, language learning and the building of quality relationships are key -- and intertwined -- educational goals. These aspects are particularly important in learning communities where the language of instruction may represent an additional language for most students. It is, therefore, essential to…

Literature on adult settlement and integration education in Canada documents the limits of public services supporting the settlement of female newcomers. This study provokes deeper understandings of these limitations by examining the gendered experiences of mature Tamil women who have resided in the province of Ontario, Canada for more than 10…

Interactions with classroom friends may be an important contributor to first and second language development, but to date this hypothesis has not been tested. Using a longitudinal design, the current study investigated the relationship between classroom friendships and oral language development in children. In 8 classrooms, we assessed the…

During the rapid shift to remote teaching and learning that came with the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020, for many students and instructors, important interactions and collaborative learning took place via online platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Our study focuses on the impacts of remote learning on first-year English as an additional…

The focus of the current study was to explore and describe the shared experiences of international students as they adapted academically and socially to a Christian university in North Texas. The research focus resulted from the gap identified in the literature review: the lack of knowledge about the experiences of international students as they…

This chapter details two key aspects of the scholarship students' accounts of their experiences in the elite school context. Firstly, the chapter discusses the required adjustments the students felt that they needed to make to fit in by drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of developing a "practical sense" for the "game" of elite…

The literature exploring study abroad students' social networks and intercultural communication traditionally considers three categories of social ties: the co-national network, the multi-national network and the host national network. However, the data collected from a yearlong digital ethnography and the narratives on the social media posts of…

Employing a social capital framework, this study investigates teachers' role in influencing the peer dynamics between English learners (ELs) and their non-EL peers. Participants include 713 students (211 EL students). Observed teacher-student interaction quality and teacher self-reports of their peer network management were used to operationalize…

The lack of meaningful interaction between domestic and international students is a persistent concern in international higher education. Conversation partner programs are a promising measure to promote the rich and repeated contact necessary for the development of intercultural relationships and communication skills. This article describes the…

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence international students' sense of belonging. An in-depth review of existing research on sense of belonging helped me identify 18 factors closely connected to the sense of belonging of international students. I categorized these factors into four groups: (a) academic integration,…

This study was designed to explore the experiences of Chinese international students attending a research university in the United States, from the time they received offers of acceptance to study abroad until they left China (pre-arrival period) through the end of their first quarter as freshmen (early post-arrival period). The researcher sought…

This study investigates two types of high schools in South Korea as a social environment for the formation of social capital: selective (foreign language high schools, FLHS) and non-selective (general high schools, GHS). By analyzing in-depth interviews with 22 graduates of FLHS and GHS who attended the same elite university, we found that FLHS…

This study identifies how the contextual features of an elementary school setting shaped and often restricted bilingual kindergarten students' access to friendships within their grade-level English-dominant classroom. Data demonstrate how students utilized a teacher-designed lunch card routine to initiate, maintain, and display friendships in…

While some studies have examined second language (L2) learning in young children who have at least one peer who speaks the same first language (L1) in the same preschool classroom (Clarke, 1999; Damhuis, 1993; Fraser & Wakefield, 1986), little research has been done concerning a young child learning an L2 through play in a natural setting in…