This study investigates how working memory (WM) capacity and L2 linguistic knowledge affect L2 literal and inferential reading comprehension, considering the presence or absence of background knowledge. Eighty upper-intermediate to advanced adult English learners participated, completing tasks to assess WM capacity, background knowledge, L2…

This study examined the extent to which textual enhancement incorporated into the post-task stage of task-based reading lessons can promote development in second language (L2) grammatical knowledge. The participants were 49 child language learners who participated in task-based reading lessons in their own classroom contexts. They were randomly…

Digital flashcard apps allow students to learn and practice foreign language vocabulary independently and efficiently, leaving more classroom time for communicative activities. However, words learned this way may be forgotten. Previous lab studies have shown that vocabulary retrieval practice can be optimized for long-term memory by employing…

Morphological awareness is the metalinguistic realization that words consist of meaningful roots and affixes that can be isolated and manipulated. Learners at different proficiency levels use various forms of background knowledge such as cultural knowledge, technical knowledge, religious knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, and contextual visuals. The…

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…

Well-being has been recognized as a basic human right, a core determinant of success in education, and a skill that can be developed. In language education, the literature suggests that higher well-being is likely to lead to more classroom engagement and ultimately greater success for learners. For English language teachers, there is a need to…

Aim/Purpose: This exploratory qualitative case study examines the perceptions of high-school learners of English regarding a pedagogical intervention involving progressive reduction of captions (full, sentence-level, keyword captions, and no-captions) in enhancing language learning. Background: Recognizing the limitations of caption usage in…

This study explores whether and to what extent the background information supplied by 10,155 immigrants who took an official language test in Norwegian affected their chances of passing one, two, or all three parts of the test. The background information included in the analysis was prior education, region (location of their home country),…

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…

Globally, there has been increasing adaptation of curricula frameworks in early childhood education, providing overarching principles of practice rather than subject specific templates for teaching and learning. While such a movement is to be commended as supporting a socio-cultural approach in meeting each child's unique social and cultural…

Reading research has recognized the strong relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension. However, we are still perplexed by the precise nature of how readers access and retrieve word meanings while reading. We have not reached a consensus on "what it means to know a word" (e.g., Anderson & Nagy, 1991; Nation, 2001) or…

Digital learning has become an inevitable trend with many benefits for students' learning performance and motivation. However, Virtual Reality, a pervasive mode of digital learning nowadays, has incurred ambivalence among teachers over the years due to its high cost and other technical concerns. Panoramic image VR (PIVR) is a cost-efficient…

The prior language knowledge of learners for whom the target language is not the first foreign language poses a different starting learning situation that should merit pedagogical attention. The present paper seeks to contribute to the question of which pedagogical considerations can be made in regard to the role of prior language knowledge beyond…

The vast development of digital technology and the widespread use of social network platforms have reshaped how we live in the world. For L2 learners to maximally utilize their language proficiency to function effectively as members of modern society, they need not only the necessary L2 knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) but also essential…

This investigation examined the approaches bilingual education elementary teachers implemented to develop student science and English language understanding. In this investigation, teachers used Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) to assess bilingual-ELs' (BLs) English writing understanding. Teacher interviews, student writing samples, and the…