Objective: Our objective was to examine the perceptions regarding the teaching and learning of English of students in 16 undergraduate programs at a state public university in Mexico. Method: In our qualitative case study, participating students responded to queries about their experiences learning English at the university, as well as their…

This study aims to examine the implementation of the sustainable international bilingual model at a polytechnic university in central Mexico. Drawing upon qualitative research, this instrumental case study explores teachers', students', and coordinators' experiences with the aforementioned model. Data were gathered through semistructured…

This study investigates postgraduate (PGs) and faculty needs concerning academic writing (AW) tutors' qualifications in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Tutors are the core element of a writing center (WC) (Hays, 2010). These professionals listen to (Burns, 2014), advise, and exchange information (Reid, 1993, in Hays, 2010)…

The present study contributes to our understanding of the effects of age and type of linguistic input in the acquisition of Spanish as a second language in adulthood. I examine the Spanish syntax (word order) of three groups of speakers, monolingual Spanish speakers from Mexico and two bilingual English-Spanish speakers born and raised in the…

Despite the extensive research on bilingual development, our understanding of how lexical competition unfolds in the bilingual mind remains limited. Previous studies have predominantly focused on crosslinguistic competition, neglecting the examination of the competition process within each language and the influence of diverse bilingual…

This case study investigated the effects of different speaking activities (oral presentations, discussions, debates) on the speaking performance of 11 young adult EFL learners at a university in central Mexico. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and an online survey and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed…

Proficiency in a second language depends on different factors; some of these are individual, while others depend more on the social context where the learning takes place. This article describes a study that examined variables that can lead to proficiency in English as a second language. The study was carried out among first semester university…

Recent communicative teaching approaches view learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as involving more than knowledge of grammar structures. Students are expected to develop communicative skills which allow them to interact inside and outside the language classroom. To this end, learning idioms plays a significant role because these…

This article presents the results of a research project carried out in 2017 at the Agricultural High School of Universidad Autónoma Chapingo in Texcoco, Mexico, with the aim of determining which vocabulary strategies students used, as well as the frequency of their use. A Likert-scale questionnaire with 5 points, adapted from Easterbrook (2013),…

This study examines how dominance and proficiency relate to Spanish heritage speaker vowel productions. Participants' normalized vowel measurements were compared to nonheritage native speakers of Spanish and English using the Pillai score, an output of Multivariate Analysis of Variances (MANOVAs) that allows comparisons across distributions of two…

The elicited imitation task (EIT), in which language learners listen to a series of spoken sentences and repeat each one verbatim, is a commonly used measure of language proficiency in second language acquisition research. The "TOEFL® Essentials"™ test includes an EIT as a holistic measure of speaking proficiency, referred to as the…

Due to globalization, many universities around the world have started to strengthen academic and research practices with the view to meeting international standards. However, the higher education context of the study has faced the challenge to provide our students with successful language learning to prepare them for the job market. This challenge…

Studies assessing the grammatical knowledge of speakers of Spanish as a heritage language have largely focused on the Spanish subjunctive mood and have concluded, almost unanimously, that heritage speakers' knowledge of the Spanish subjunctive is non-native-like and subject to incomplete acquisition. However, there is also evidence that while…

This study examines the perceptions of employers, university authorities, English teachers and students concerning needs to promote English achievement in a Mexican university. By drawing on data collected from focus groups and questionnaires, the evidence suggests that there are several needs which hinder the attainment of English objectives in…

This study examined the educational life histories of 13 students at a Mexican university in order to gather their perspectives of effective language teaching. Most previous studies on students' perspectives of language teaching have used quantitative and deductive methods, whereas this study employed qualitative and inductive methods. The main…