With a focus on an under-studied group of immigrants in the UK, this paper examines Iranian families' language ideologies and practices at home in relation to Persian acquisition and maintenance for their children. Working within a family language policy (FLP) framework, we draw on sociolinguistic data from semi-structured interviews with eighteen…

A central question in multilingualism research is how multiple languages interact. Most studies have focused on first (L1) and second language (L2) effects on a third language (L3), but a small number of studies dedicated to the opposite transfer direction have suggested stronger L3 influence on L2 than on L1 in postpuberty learners. In our study,…

Histories of colonization conjointly with the current economic global climate have enabled English to become a dominant global language. The desire for citizens to attain English language proficiency on a nation-wide level is a common pursuit in developing countries, including the island nations of the South Pacific where English competency is…

The current study examined the extent to which first language (L1) utterance fluency measures can predict second language (L2) fluency and how L2 proficiency moderates the relationship between L1 and L2 fluency. A total of 104 Japanese-speaking learners of English completed different argumentative speech tasks in their L1 and L2. Their speaking…

The Imperfect/Preterite aspectual contrast is one of the most studied topics in Spanish as a second language research. However, there are few works focused on describing the acquisition of modal uses of the Imperfect by L2 speakers. This paper investigates the L1 Russian L2 Spanish speakers' mastery of politeness, evidential and nonfactual modal…

Previous research has shown that bilinguals respond differently to moral dilemmas posed in each of their languages, tending to make deontologically-based decisions (based on right or wrong) in their first language and utilitarian decisions (bringing about the most good) in their second language. In the present study, we tested several predictors…

This study proposed an innovative automated approach to differentiation of the vocabulary proficiency of Chinese speakers. A robust K-means algorithm was designed to compare the oral proficiency between L1 and L2 Chinese speakers regarding lexical richness and how relatively effective the various lexical measures were in performing the…

Bilingual parents must often make difficult and complex choices about which languages to use with their children. While existing research has explored family language practices and attitudes within certain language communities, the experiences of African parents are conspicuously absent from the literature. This study explores factors influencing…

This qualitative study, situated within an interpretivist paradigm, hypothesized that teachers who engage in their own classroom research are more likely to undergo changes to their habits of mind regarding their pedagogical practices, thus experiencing transformative learning. Twelve English language teachers from Singapore primary and secondary…

Bilingualism has become the norm--not the exception--in today's globalized world. The development of bilingual proficiency in English and other languages is increasing worldwide. Saudi Arabia is one of many countries within the expanding circle of nations in which English (although with no official status) enjoys a special position as the sole…

In this study, the relationship between the family language practice and the level of linguistic (in)security of adolescent Gagauz speakers is examined in the context of an endangered language. To this end, a language-use questionnaire and linguistic insecurity scale were administered to 674 participants. The questionnaire included questions…

As Chinese shows both satellite- and verb-framed properties (Slobin, 2004; Talmy, 2012, 2016), it provides a unique lens through which to observe the extent of first-language (L1) typological influence in second language (L2) acquisition of motion expressions. This study has dual purposes. First, it extends Wu's (2016) investigation on motion…

This study examines the developmental relationship between L2 Chinese oral fluency and self-repair in Dutch students learning Chinese. In this study, 76 junior Dutch students were split into two different groups based on level and were tested at two time periods (T1 and T2) for L2 Chinese fluency, which included the control variables of repetition…

This study examined structural priming during online second language (L2) comprehension. In two self-paced reading experiments, 64 intermediate to advanced Chinese learners of English as a foreign language read coordinated noun phrases where the conjuncts had either the same structure or different structures. Experiment 1 showed that the second…

Pragmatic markers, such as "well," "you know," and "I mean," serve as discourse-pragmatic elements in spoken language, facilitating discourse management, stance marking, and interpersonal communication. This study examines the acquisition of pragmatic markers by second language (L2) learners through a corpus-based…