This study examines the predictive effects of motivational beliefs and self-efficacy on multiple dimensions of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing. Undergraduate students (n = 389) were recruited voluntarily from four universities in mainland China. They were invited to complete a set of…

Although boredom can be regarded as a ubiquitous emotion in most educational settings, including foreign and second language classrooms, and this condition can have a detrimental effect on the process of learning, it has to a large extent escaped the attention of second language acquisition researchers dealing with individual learner differences.…

This study investigated the effect of explicit reading strategy instruction on reading comprehension, reading strategy use, reading motivation, and reading self-efficacy in Chinese university EFL learners. A total of 117 first-year university students were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group. Students in the…

Introduction: Since self-efficacy is a belief about one's capability in doing something successfully or unsuccessfully and it relates to academic achievements directly and indirectly. The understanding the sources of one's self-efficacy could assist that person to achieve a better result in learning or doing something, or, at least, to minimize a…

Cook argued that the learning of a new language leads to a state of multi-competence, with the learner's mind changing in ways that go beyond the linguistic realm. The present study follows Dewaele's suggestion that multilingualism is linked to both cognitive and psychological changes. It explores one particular under-researched relationship,…

Bilingual children experience more variation in their language environment than monolingual children and this impacts their rate of language development with respect to monolinguals. How long it takes for bilingual children learning English as a second language (L2) to display similar abilities to monolingual age-peers has been estimated to be 4-6…

As part of a larger study on individual differences and language learning in Turkey, this study explores the relationship between foreign language anxiety and two operationalisations of multilingualism: any experience with a third language and Perceived Positive Language Interaction; it also illuminates connections among the aforementioned…

The present study investigates inter-individual variation (linked to personality traits, multilingualism and sociobiographical variables) in the attitudes that 2035 multilinguals have of their own and others' foreign accent (FA). Data were collected through an online questionnaire. We found that multilinguals who were extraverted, emotionally…

This paper describes a narrative-based design framework that organizes three narrative elements (i.e., storyline, character, and quest) to support a contextual game-based environment for language learning. Using this design framework, a PlanetAdventure system was developed to examine its feasibility and its effects on student language learning. A…

Motivation as a variable in L2 development is no longer seen as the stable individual difference factor it was once believed to be: Influenced by process-oriented models and principles, and especially by the growing understanding of how complex dynamic systems work, researchers have been focusing increasingly on the dynamic and changeable nature…

The present study examines the effects that a 3-week study-abroad (SA) experience and a set of individual differences have on the foreign language (FL) development of a group of 64 Catalan/Spanish speakers, learners of English as an FL. Moreover, the present study attempts to account for the outcome differences between successful and less…

With 24 adolescent students enrolled in a French language summer camp, the present study examines the relationship between self-assessment and oral production in French, interpreting results through a framework of individual learning variables. Participants were surrounded by French inside and outside the classroom. Self-assessment was measured…

This present study investigated the relationships among L2 readers' reading attitude, reading strategy use, and reading proficiency in order to identify patterns caused by individuals' differences. For this study, 153 Korean university students replied to a reading attitude and reading strategy questionnaire. An ANOVA and frequency analysis were…

This study investigated the views of teachers and learners regarding the timing of grammatical instruction, conceptualized as a distinction between isolated and integrated form-focused instruction (FFI) proposed by Spada and Lightbown (2008). Both types of FFI are described as taking place in primarily meaning-based communicative classrooms. They…

Human behavior is not constant over the hours of the day, and there are considerable individual differences. Some people raise early and go to bed early and have their peek performance early in the day ("larks") while others tend to go to bed late and get up late and have their best performance later in the day ("owls"). In…