This study seeks to empirically explore the relation between multilingual learning experiences and language aptitude. Through employing LLAMA aptitude test battery (Meara, 2005) and a probabilistic version of the serial reaction time (SRT) task (Kaufman et al., 2010), scores from 24 Chinese-English bilinguals and 24 Tibetan-Chinese-English…

Research has shown that second language (L2) learners generally lack multiword expression knowledge, and L2 researchers and practitioners have tried various techniques to assist L2 learners to acquire it more efficiently. This study adopted an under-researched technique-- repeated oral reading--to enhance the retention of high-frequency multiword…

In this article, we present our vision of a transformed second language acquisition and teaching (SLA/T) disciplinary community that approaches second language (L2) education through four pillars. The first pillar is praxeology (i.e., the study of human action) to highlight the sociocontextually emergent nature of L2 competence. It locates the…

Teachers' conceptions of assessment are a significant indicator of teacher assessment literacy. This study contextualized pre-service teachers' conceptions of assessment in Chinese second language education. An exploratory factor analysis generated eight first-order factors and the following confirmatory factor analysis found a hierarchical model,…

This study examines how three Chinese as a second language (CSL) teachers in a Chinese university setting appropriated the communicative approach through influences from their past language experiences. Although communicative pedagogy has been in place for decades, research reports that it still largely challenges teachers' conceptions of teaching…

This study employed speech-enabled language translation (SELT) technology in lectures presented in English as a medium of instruction (EMI). Previous research had students viewing pre-recorded lectures with incorporated content translations in controlled laboratory settings. In contrast, students in the present study experienced live lectures in…

Educational entrepreneurship refers to the competence of educational entrepreneurs in making changes and taking initiatives in vision-driven innovation and value creation. Research of educational entrepreneurship needs further investigation, especially in the context of complementary education. This paper explores the educational entrepreneurship…

Research suggests that prediction is important for language comprehension and learning. Accordingly, it becomes crucial to understand factors that can influence prediction. In this regard, speakers' prior linguistic experience such as parsing bias has been claimed to affect prediction in the error-based learning account. To test this claim, the…

This study investigated the foreign language anxiety (FLA) construct of U.S. college learners of Chinese as a foreign language (N = 149) and examined whether the following factors, "gender," "language class level," and "whether foreign language(s) were learned prior to learning Chinese," had significant influences on…

This dissertation investigates the longitudinal development of Chinese language proficiency among students in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) Flagship Program at an American public university from 2014 to 2024. Using Bayesian multilevel regression models, this study assesses the trajectories of listening, speaking, and reading proficiency…

Answering calls to map college-level proficiency development (Modern Language Association, 2007) and longitudinally chart language learning (Barkaoui, 2014; Ortega & Byrnes, 2008), we mapped the oral proficiency growth of 1,922 lower-division college students of Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish (in the second, third, or fourth semester of…

In this dissertation, I investigated how cognitive resources as well as formal, and informal language experience impact language learning in two studies. In the first study (Chapter 2), I examined the learning of Spanish grammatical gender by Chinese international students who were studying abroad in the US. The goal of that study was to uncover…

Although much research on English for specific purposes (ESP) has been conducted, little focus has been placed on investigating the mechanisms involved in ESP readers' comprehension process. This case study explored the reading process that characterizes a competent ESP reader's comprehension. A juris doctor student attending a major university in…

This study investigated order-of-learning effects on the acquisition of classifier-noun associations in Chinese in two experiments modeled after Arnon and Ramscar's (2012) study of artificial language learning. In Experiment 1, learners with no prior exposure to Chinese showed better learning of classifier-noun associations when exposed to larger…

This article reports on a case study that investigates the learning preferences and strategies of Chinese students learning English as a second language (ESL) in Canadian school settings. It focuses on the interaction between second language (L2) learning methods that the students have adopted from their previous learning experience in China and…