In this quantitative study, we investigated the relationships between parenting and young learners' English learning--specifically parents' sociocultural influence on elementary school children's motivation--within the framework of self-determination theory (SDT). We surveyed 212 dyads of Japanese parents and their children (8-12 years old) and…

Siblings play crucial roles in each other's cognitive and language development because they observe, imitate, and receive guidance and support from each other during their interactions. In this research, we examined trilingual siblings (ages 6 and 9) from an immigrant family with a rarely explored cultural background (American-born children of…

A great deal of research has focused on tasks, particularly for adult second language learners. In this paper we provide an account of studies that have investigated children and tasks -- an age group that have received far less attention. We consider, in particular, the impact of tasks on children's language learning, how their design features…

The present study examines a family language transmission project in which a child, learning Polish in Australia, created video documentaries with her own voice annotations in Polish. The project generated numerous parent-child interactions at the time of videorecording, a focus of the present study. The data in the study were seven…

Drawing on theories of family language policy and literacy environment, this inquiry explores and describes how family language policy is managed through literacy resources and literacy related activities in transnational families in the UK. A total of 66 families, each with at least one child between the age of 2 and 8, participated in this…

This article tells the story of a child immigrant's L2 acquisition process. The narrative demonstrates the effects of social and academic factors on motivation to acquire an L2 and the result of immigration at a young age on cultural identity formation. The article begins by discussing the need for research into sociocultural factors in the second…

Today a significant number of Korean mothers come to the United States (U.S.) with their children for their children's English education, while their husbands stay in Korea. Now these overseas families are called "wild-geese families" in Korea. Although some of these mothers have been attending U.S. adult and postsecondary educational…

This paper investigates informal learning, literacy and language development occurring in the home through exchanges between children of three to six years of age and their grandparents in Sylheti/Bengali-speaking families of Bangladeshi origin and monolingual English-speaking families of mixed ethnicity living in east London. A survey identifying…

This study examines the language experiences of two distinct Chinese immigrant groups in the U.S.: a Mandarin-speaking group and a Fujianese-speaking group across two generations. The different language trajectories of the parents' generation, along with their social class and different settlement patterns in the U.S., shaped the second-generation…

This section presents brief synopses of empirical research and theoretical discussions in peer-reviewed journals. The aim is to disseminate findings and perspectives in fields related to TESOL and to provide access to the diverse conversations among scholars in the field.

This article considers the implications of two central constructs of sociocultural theory (SCT) for second language (L2) development: mediation and internalization. It first discusses Vygotsky's general theoretical claim that human mental activity arises as a consequence of the functional system formed by our biologically specified mental…

In this paper, we explore the intersection of practice, identity, resources and literacy central to the New Literacy Studies and recent second language research informed by sociocultural theories of learning and language. Drawing on the construct figured worlds of literacy that describe how representations of literacy practices invoked in relation…

Highlights the potential demands for the services of the speech therapist. In a linguistic assessment, the therapist needs to differentiate between first and second language learning problems. An assessment procedure must allow a child to respond in either of his/her two languages and be given credit for such responses. (Author/PJM)

Argues that a transcript of a whole class of primary children who were video-recorded while engaged in a role-play activity provides support for the view that children's learning can be seen as a socio-historically and culturally-constituted dialogical process of meaning making. Draws on Bakhtin's ideas about the power of dialogic engagement to…

Provides an evaluation of a 30-year experience in teaching Italian to German-speaking elementary school children in an upper northeast region of Italy. Analyzes degrees of bilingualism and sociocultural contact, emphasizing the need for culturally oriented, carefully structured materials and instruction by specially trained teachers. (MES)