Contrary to prevailing research on willingness to communicate (WTC) which treats spoken second language (L2) as the predominant indicator of WTC, this study examines a young English as a second language (ESL) learner's WTC expressed through multimodal means and her utilization of multimodal and multilingual resources for mediating WTC in…

Little is known about how hearing adults learn sign languages. Our objective in this study was to investigate how learners of British Sign Language (BSL) produce narratives, and we focused in particular on viewpoint-taking. Twenty-three intermediate-level learners of BSL and 10 deaf native/early signers produced a narrative in BSL using the…

The acquisition of communicative competence in second and foreign languages requires the incorporation of verbal and non-verbal elements. Notwithstanding, few studies have performed empirical research into the acquisition of non-verbal signs. This research studies the learning of emblematic gestures for students of Spanish in the USA using an…

This study examined translingual practices in two playdates of a Korean four-year-old boy (Theo) with a Korean boy and an American boy. The boys played a game called "Candy Land." In both playdates, the boys' naturally occurring English and Korean communication strategies were observed and analyzed based on Canagarajah's (2013) four…

Gestures and other bodily movements are frequently used as instructional strategies in second language classrooms. Research has demonstrated that gestures are an effective strategy to improve L2 vocabulary recall. However, previous studies have only used vocabulary items that are known to participants in their native languages. Additionally,…

The importance of oral interaction in language learning is well recognised, and this paper examines the factors that hinder English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' active participation in online discussions during Synchronous Online Communication. Using focus groups with 51 Cypriot Greek-speaking students from three tertiary institutions in…

The present work examines the impact of code-switching (CS) on novel word learning in adult second language (L2) learners of Spanish. Participants completed two sessions (1-3 days apart). In the first session, they were taught 32 nonwords corresponding to novel creatures. Training occurred across 4 conditions: (1) a sentence in English only, (2) a…

This study aimed to identify teacher perceptions of the causes of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) through feedback, and what feedback strategies teachers use to reduce FLCA. Feedback can be both a cause of FLCA and help to reduce FLCA. It is therefore important for teachers to understand how their feedback can affect FLCA. In the present…

A total of 97 monolingual and multilingual users of English participated in an adaptation of a matched-guise design to investigate the effect of visual cues (co-speech gestural intensity and facial expression) on perception of emotional intensity of the same speaker in two video stimuli in which verbal and vocal emotional information was kept…

Faculty who do not speak the language of instruction in their universities as their first language face additional challenges in teaching. This study aimed to investigate a non-native speaker faculty member, Eisuke Saito, who had attempted to manage and overcome language challenges in teaching. Through an autobiographical self-study of teacher…

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of non-Arab preschool teachers' experiences in assessing Arabic-English dual language learners (DLLs) in classrooms using a well-established, teacher scored authentic assessment of early childhood holistic development. Moreover, this study explored parents' experiences by discussing these…

Toddlers from low-income and language-minority immigrant families are at risk for language difficulties due to early disparities in the quality of their home language environment. The present longitudinal study extends previous research by investigating nursery teachers' communicative modalities and functions, and their relations with the…

This study explores teachers' perceptions and practices about the translanguaging approach in CLIL elementary and secondary school contexts in Taiwan. It first investigates 422 in-service teachers' perspectives toward teachers' and students' use of (1) a native language; (2) non-verbal behaviors; and (3) other meaning-making signs in the language…

This study examines language in conjunction with co-speech gesture awareness and use in relation to second language development, and as linked to identity-in-the-making for four Chinese international graduate students attending an American university in the U.S. Data collection took place at two different times: after three months of initial…

When learning a second spoken language, cognates, words overlapping in form and meaning with one's native language, help breaking into the language one wishes to acquire. But what happens when the to-be-acquired second language is a sign language? We tested whether hearing nonsigners rely on their gestural repertoire at first exposure to a sign…