This study explores the effects of participation in short-term summer study abroad (SA) programmes in Spain on second language (L2) learners' attitudes towards Spanish. Both quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that participants' international experience improved their attitudes with regard to L2 learning. More importantly, participant…

Increasing numbers of Chinese students are pursuing graduate degrees in Catalonia. Although highly proficient in both Castilian and English when they arrive, they find themselves in a bilingual society where Catalan, not Castilian, predominates both at universities and in the broader social context. Acquiring Catalan is hence important for both…

Given the fact that English is the global academic lingua franca, the implementation of English-mediated instruction (EMI) has inevitably gained momentum in higher-education institutes (HEI) in Taiwan. However, before the full-scale implementation of EMI education, it is imperative to gain an insightful understanding of Taiwanese EFL learners'…

This longitudinal inductive research unpacks the process of African post-secondary students' Chinese language identity (CLI) with the purpose of exploring a model of CLI development. We traced how 12 multilingual African students developed their CLI during the first year in a Chinese university. Data coded from three rounds of interviews conducted…

What drives provincial students in Korea to choose a college in Seoul? What role does English language learning play in their choices? This study focuses on two young academic migrants to Seoul, Joon and Lynn, to explore how macrocultural phenomena shaped their psychology and contributed to their language education. Previous studies have focused…

Based on Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory, this study investigates how Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE; consisting of "teacher appreciation, personal enjoyment," and "social enjoyment") mediates the relationship between Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) and EFL secondary students' willingness to…

Language-specific (i.e. the ideal L2 self) and plurilingual selves are now at the forefront of scholarly inquiry in L2 motivation research. Yet, there is a lack of empirical studies examining how language learners reframe their sense of self as speakers of an L2. This study draws on a questionnaire (N = 162) and on semi-structured interviews (N =…

International students' attitudes towards teachers' codeswitching to the first language (L1) have not been adequately investigated in cross-cultural English-medium instruction (EMI) settings, where teachers and international students do not share the same L1 while they interact in English as a lingua franca (ELF). To fill that void, this study…

This paper explores eight Kazakhstani postgraduate students' reflections of their international educational experiences in the UK after their immediate re-entry into Kazakhstan. Special focus was on their language identity development after their one-year stay in the UK. It was informed by Benson et al.'s ([2013]. "Second Language Identity in…

With English hegemony sustained in 'multicultural' Anglophone universities, non-English speaking research students often develop diverse strategies to improve their English. While such strategies demonstrate a form of resilience, the symbolic power of English remains intact. To grapple with this paradox, we draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to…

Little is known about how persons with autism spectrum conditions experience the process of learning foreign languages. To augment the research literature (reviewed here) with the experiences of autistic persons, online autism forums were scrutinised. Discussions pertinent to language learning were identified in English, Spanish, French and…

Although there is a body of research on the teacher first language (L1) use in English-medium-instruction (EMI) classrooms, very little research has probed into how international students perceive local teacher L1 use and their learning practices in the English as a lingua franca (ELF) context. To address the gap, the present case study explored a…

This study was conducted with two goals in mind: (1) to explore the mediating roles of L2 enjoyment as a positive emotion and L2 anxiety as a negative emotion in the relationship between Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) and L2 willingness to communicate (L2 WTC) in an exam-oriented EFL context, and (2) to further examine whether gender…

In contexts where schooling is delivered through a language of instruction (LoI) that is unfamiliar to learners, it has repeatedly been observed that students are reluctant to speak, passive, or even silent. This is commonly attributed to lack of understanding of the language in use in the classroom. Although this is, undoubtedly, an important…

Multilingualism is increasingly seen as a resource among researchers, educators and in society. Whereas positive beliefs about the benefits of multilingualism may foster increased motivation for language learning, little is known about students' beliefs about potential multilingual benefits. This study examined the beliefs of Norwegian secondary…