From early in their learning experience, foreign language (FL) learners at American universities explore socio-cultural connotations that, it is argued, are signified by FL words. Textbook authors and teachers follow an implicit canon of difference, a list of iconic words that over time--and without the benefit of empirical evidence--have come to…

This study examined the efficacy of using Quizlet, a popular online study tool, to develop L2 English vocabulary. A total of 9 Japanese university EFL students participated in the study. The learners studied Coxhead's (2001) academic vocabulary list (AWL) via Quizlet over the course of 10 weeks. Results of the pre- and post-tests revealed that the…

Giving additional learning materials such as Chinese fantasy novel to non-native learners can be strenuous. This study seeks to render empirical support on the usefulness of the use of new words in Chinese fantasy novel to enhance vocabulary learning among the non-native learners of Chinese. In general, the students agreed that they like to learn…

This study aims to examine language dominance and language switching effects in a series of monolingual and multilingual lexical decisions in which participants have to decide if the presented letter string is a word or not, regardless of language. Thirty participants (12 French-English bilinguals and 18 French-English-Spanish trilinguals) were…

Mobile learning delivery platforms include cell phone based SMS technologies that provide access to learning materials without being limited by space or time. Sophisticated technological advances in the domain of pedagogical delivery have led to flexible, motivated, user-friendly, controlled and adaptive learning using cell phone based delivery…

The paper reports on a study designed to examine the relationship between the thickness of ego boundaries and attainments in FL pronunciation after a clearly structured form-focused practical course of phonetics. The research involved 45 first-year students of the Institute of English Studies in Wroclaw, Poland, who had attended around thirty…

The present article provides an exploration of ultimate attainment in second language (L2) and its limitations. It is argued that the question of maturational constraints can best be investigated when the reference population is bilingual and exposed on a regular basis to varieties of their first language (L1) that show cross-linguistic influence.…

In the field of vocabulary acquisition, there have been many studies on the efficacy of word lists. However, very few of these were based on research in a classroom setting, and therefore, their results may not be applicable to standard classroom situations. This study investigated which of the five types of word lists (synonyms, antonyms,…

The study aimed at finding out whether teachers can identify the courses of reading disabilities in learners. It intended to establish whether teachers have adequate knowledge of identifying learners with reading disabilities, determine the proportion of non-readers in grade five. It also investigated the existing methods and materials teachers…

Adult L2 learners are often encouraged to acquire new words through reading in order to promote language proficiency. Yet preparing suitable reading texts is often a challenge for teachers because the chosen texts must have a high percentage of words familiar to specific groups of learners in order to allow the inference of word meanings from…

This survey was conducted in order to provide a resource for those interested in revising existing Chinese teaching materials and/or writing new materials. A study of the vocabulary in several texts for first and second year Chinese classes in American colleges was used as the basis for constructing a questionnaire consisting of a list of commonly…