The number of English language learners (ELLs) has increased. The problem is ELLs in a middle Tennessee Charter School network meet challenges in achieving English proficiency, thus limiting academic and social prospects. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine if there was a relationship between leader-led…

This study explores the relationship between English Learners (ELs) in the Texas school system and their outcomes on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests and the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS). Schumann's Acculturation Model and Krashen's Input Hypothesis were used as theoretical…

This study examined the significance of the mode of delivery--aural versus written--in second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge and L2 comprehension skills. One of the unique aspects of listening comprehension that sets it apart from reading comprehension is the mode of delivery--language input is delivered not visually but aurally. Somewhat…

Despite some rises and falls in the numbers due to various reasons, including the political climate in the Trump era and the COVID-19 pandemic (Laws & Ammigan, 2020), each year universities in the United States host a large number of multilingual international students from different parts of the world. Based on their TOEFL scores, many are…

In English as a lingua franca (ELF) communication, in which English is used as a common language among interlocutors of different first languages, successful communication often features communication strategies that enhance mutual understanding and relationship management. Although prior research suggests that including such strategies in English…

Minority languages in diglossic situations with a majority language face the danger of eventual loss of vitality. The first sign of this is when child language acquisition begins to erode. This dissertation investigates the intergenerational transmission of the Isan language, spoken in the Northeastern region of Thailand. While the Isan community…

Many studies evidence the flexibility of speech perception in the first language (L1), which allows rapid adaptation to unfamiliar foreign accents. Two influential studies by Bradlow and Bent (2008) and a follow-up study by Baese-Berk et al. (2013) found that increased variability as a function of the number of talkers and accents facilitated the…

Teachers' beliefs about language and technology, pedagogy, and ability to integrate them can be challenging within the second language classroom. This study was a conceptual replication of previous work in the field of TPACK with world language teachers. This mixed-methods study included 59 current in-service world language teachers grades 9-12 in…

Accurately identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in students who speak a home language other than English has proven to be an enduring challenge. Consequently, students with DLD miss out on critical interventions, and those who are acquiring their two languages in a typical manner are placed in settings that do not meet their…

Discourse markers (DMs) are linguistic forms characterized by their use as conversation organizers or pause fillers (Fox Tree, 2010). Although used frequently in both speech and writing, DMs are not often taught in L2 classrooms, despite incorrect usage causing potential misunderstandings (Polat, 2011). Additionally, L2 learners have been observed…

Students must have a working understanding of the language of instruction to be successful in school. In the United States, English is the predominant language of instruction, and students who come from homes where a language other than English is spoken face the additional challenge of learning both subject matter content and the dominant…

The purpose of this paper was to study the effectiveness of language acquisition using speaker instruction and listener instruction and examining the emergence of bidirectional intraverbals using a non-sense language. Current research suggests that speaker type instruction is more effective in aiding untrained relations (Contreras et al., 2020;…

The present dissertation intends to investigate the syntactic nature and L2-acquisition of passive sentence structure in two Romance varieties, Italian and Spanish. First, I will present an analytic proposal couched within the Generative Approach (Chomsky, 1957, and subsequent work); from there, and following Perlmutter and Postal's (1977)…

Language is inherently variable, and learner language is particularly variable. The variationist paradigm considers learner language a heterogeneously variable yet inherently rule-governed system. Specifically, learners' alternation between native-like and nonnative-like variants of a variable or invariable target native speaker (NS) form…

Millions engage in learning a Second Language (L2) using their mobile devices with a wide range of success. Concomitantly, there exists a growing interest in research on the effects of mobile-assisted language learning and predictors of learner outcomes (e.g., Loewen et al., 2020; Sudina & Plonsky, 2023). However, few of these apps and studies…