Second language learning success relies on instructional methodologies that foster guidance, engagement, motivation, creativity, and active learning in an inclusive environment. As language educators, it is important to establish instructional modes to entice positive behavior and stimulate the senses. The problem to be addressed by the study is…

This study examines the impact of High-Immersion Virtual Reality (HiVR) as a tool for teaching English L2 pragmatics to international students enrolled in an Intensive English Program at a US university. This research focuses on integrating HiVR into explicit L2 pragmatics instructional treatments. A quasi-experimental design was employed to…

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…

The field of Heritage Language has experienced a great deal of advancement in the past few decades. Much research effort has been dedicated to analyzing and understanding different aspects of heritage language speakers, but less work has been done in the topic of pedagogical approaches. The few recent studies on pedagogical approaches have focused…

The purpose of this comparative study is to determine whether the linguistic input approach based on Krashen's (1989) comprehensible input (CI) and supported by Kolb's (2015) experiential learning (ELT) and Siemens' (2005) connectivism theory (CT) to improve eighth graders' Spanish speaking and writing linguistic proficiencies. Previous research…

This mixed methods study draws upon theoretical perspectives from usage-based linguistics (UBL) and variationist sociolinguistics to explore four learners' use of second language (L2) Spanish present tense indicative verbal inflectional morphology (i.e., simple present conjugations). The study compares the frequency and distribution of students'…

English learners (ELs) are a growing demographic in schools nationwide. ELs are expected to demonstrate proficiency in core subjects like their non-EL counterparts. However, an achievement gap exists. To address the achievement disparity for ELs, schools seek certified ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers to provide the support…

The assessment data in La Frontera School District suggests a need for improving instructional practices for middle school emergent bilingual migrant students' language and reading development. One possible solution to the language and literacy issues maybe introducing cognates. Cognates are words with identical or similar orthography and meaning…

Native Arabic speakers used idiomatic expressions such as idioms, formulas, and collocations, in their daily communications. In learning Arabic as a second language (L2), effective communication requires "the ability to understand and use idioms appropriately and accurately in a variety of sociocultural contexts, in a manner like that of…

Digital multimodal projects (DMPs) are both common and popular. Adolescents and young adults compose digitally and multimodally in their daily lives, and digital multimodal composition projects are incorporated in K-12 (Smith, 2017, 2018) and university settings (Balaman, 2018; Dzekoe, 2017), including writing programs (Blakely, 2016; Ericsson et…

Stakeholders at DoD language training organizations seek to improve foreign language learner test scores. The method selected for the researched organization was to add foreign language immersive virtual reality games into the learning environment at the current institute. Earlier studies provided evidence of other organizations pursuing similar…

The digital age has profoundly changed the film industry and how consumers are able to access media. To foster language development, this mixed methods study takes advantage of this technological progress and investigates how an audiovisual media-based curriculum can be designed for and implemented in an intermediate German language course. In…

The present study sought to evaluate trial designs and training designs that are commonly used in popular commercially available computer-assisted language-learning (CALL) programs. The first two experiments (Experiment 1a and 1b) compared the effects of passive viewing and active student response methods in vocabulary learning. Contingencies on…

Growing up in the digital era, young children are exposed to numerous educational applications and programs, some with well-designed curricula and others focused more on entertainment or game-like qualities. With the increasing popularity of mobile language-learning applications among young children, this dissertation raises a crucial question: do…

Emergent bilingual (EB) students are a growing population in the U.S. school system currently comprising over 10% of the total population. U.S. school districts have educated EB students using a myriad of practices, including dual language immersion (DLI). Many studies have looked at the academic achievement of native-Spanish speaking EB students,…