Word frequency has a long history of being considered the most important predictor of word difficulty and has served as a guideline for several aspects of second language vocabulary teaching, learning, and assessment. However, recent empirical research has challenged the supremacy of frequency as a predictor of word difficulty. Accordingly,…

Learners entering higher education may learn specialized vocabulary of new disciplines in their second language (L2) with or without support from their first language (L1). However, these learners cannot rely on an established conceptual representation in L1 when learning L2 specialized vocabulary. The effects of learning a new concept in L1 prior…

This paper proposes the design of an instructional model, referred to as the universal genre sphere, for teaching academic writing in a manner appropriate to all learners, but developed especially with consideration for the needs of English as additional language students with or without diagnosed learning differences. Despite growing research on,…

The current research set out to explore how Chinese-English bilingual scholars utilize their linguistic and cultural resources in teaching and academic inquiry. Adopting the theoretical lenses of translanguaging and multilingual perspective on creativity, I explored the teaching, research, and academic writing practices of three bilingual…

Relatively little is known about the long-term academic literacy development of refugee-background students, particularly at the postsecondary level. The purpose of this study was to understand how refugee students leveraged their cultural and linguistic resources to navigate a competency-based online college program. Using a multiple case study,…