Given the exponential growth in the popularity of early foreign language programs, coupled with an emphasis of evidence-based instruction, assessing young learners' (YLs) foreign language abilities has moved to center stage. This article canvasses how the field of assessing young learners of foreign languages has evolved over the past two decades.…

This article reports the results of a study that assesses the effectiveness of a Philosophy in Schools (PIS) programme in developing students' thinking skills and English competence in Hong Kong. In the study, training and support were provided for three Integrated Humanities (IH) teachers to enable them to teach PIS to their Secondary 3 English…

The research´s main objectives were to develop a longitudinal assessment of students´ use of language learning strategies, examine their English proficiency and report their perception of online English instruction during the new normal in Lima-Peru. The sample involved 50 undergraduate students who participated in an online high intermediate…

This case study explores the challenges that Master's students encounter when learning to write in academic English as part of a UK postgraduate course, after having achieved the required IELTS entry score. Interviews with six Chinese and Japanese learners at different stages of the Master's study revealed more sophisticated writing difficulties…

Spanish native speakers are known to pronounce onset /sC/ clusters in English with a prothetic vowel, as in "esport" for sport, due to their native language phonotactic constraints. We assessed whether accurate production of e.g. "spi" instead of "espi" was related to accurate perceptual discrimination of this…

The purpose of diagnostic language assessment is to identify learner strengths and weaknesses so that subsequent learning activity can be planned according to learner needs, a purpose which aligns with pedagogical recommendations to individualize instruction. Indeed, the extent to which diagnostic assessment can inform the selection of…

Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of linguistic capital and Darvin and Norton's notion of investment, this study explores heritage language (HL) use among 1.5-generation Korean immigrants in the New Zealand workplace. The data were collected through interviews with heritage speakers of Korean working in diverse fields in Auckland. The majority of the…

A high-stakes Portfolio-Based Language Assessment (PBLA) protocol that was fully implemented in all Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programs in 2019 requires instructors and students to set language-learning goals and complete, compile, and reflect on numerous authentic language tasks. Due to the language barriers incurred when…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study that investigated how international students' personal network mediated their pragmatic choices during studying abroad in China. Data were collected over a year through different ways, including Study Abroad Network Questionnaire, role-plays, retrospective verbal reports, ethnographic interviews and…

This study provides a suggestive reassessment of the extent to which levels of English language ability among adult English language learners impact their ability to get things done in talk and text as discourse in a Canadian context where English is the lingua franca. The data are drawn from a Facebook Group for linguistic minority parents who…

This paper describes one approach to focusing on Connections, one of the five Cs from the World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, as a means of exposing introductory language students to culturally diverse authentic texts through drama-based pedagogy. Our approach focuses on an instructor working within an established departmental…

This article presents the findings of an online survey conducted amongst bi- (English, Italian) and trilingual (English, Italian and dialect) Italo-Australian youth, exploring self-assessed language competence, self-reported language choice in various communicative situations, and attitudes towards heritage languages. These young people appear…

The present study investigates the effects of two subsequent learning contexts, formal instruction (FI) at home and a 3-month stay abroad (SA), on vocabulary acquisition in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing and speaking. Data were collected from 30 Catalan/Spanish learners of English before and after each learning period using a written…

This longitudinal case study explored the language teacher identity construction of two novice native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) in an EFL context. Adopting a poststructuralist approach, Emily's and David's teacher identity construction were explored in relation to the emotional labor they expressed and experienced throughout their first…

Extensive reading (ER) has been shown to be an effective approach in helping second language (L2) students learn to read the target language. Of particular interest is how L2 learners in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses that included ER would react to ER since ER involves L2 learners reading easy, interesting books that they select…