Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is well known for providing authentic opportunities for second and foreign language (L2) skill development. However, for many learners the use of traditional grammar within TBLT lacks the functional support necessary to create accurate and fluent L2 output. The current study replaced traditional grammar…

This study examines second (L2) and third (L3) language learners' pitch perception. We test the hypothesis that a listener's discrimination of and sensitivity (d') to Japanese pitch accent reflects how pitch cues inform all words a listener knows in an additive, nonselective manner rather than how pitch cues inform words in a selective,…

This study examines first language (L1) English transfer in the acquisition of plural noun semantics in second language (L2) Arabic. Drawing on previous research on the L2 acquisition of plural noun interpretation, the study presents and discusses new production data of specific and generic definite plurals by English-speaking learners of Arabic…

This paper tests a new method of teaching vocabulary to young second language learners through the medium of drama, specifically the effect of drama teaching techniques on vocabulary acquisition among primary school learners of Welsh. Vocabulary Acquisition via Drama (VAD) is based on principles derived from both process drama and communicative…

In this article, we address the issue of targeted instruction on interpretive contrasts between native and second-language grammatical meanings. Such mismatches are predicted to create challenges for learners. We illustrate this with French and English pronouns. In French, clitic pronouns (le, la) point to human as well as inanimate referents,…

This study was conducted as a twofold investigation. Firstly, it focused on refusal strategies and modification tools employed by a group of Turkish EFL learners. Secondly, it aimed to compare the content of data collected via two different data collection tools popular in interlanguage pragmatics research: Discourse Completion Task and open role…

Recently, there has been considerable L2 research on interfaces between different modules of grammar (internal), such as syntax-semantics, or between grammar and other cognitive systems (external), such as semantics-pragmatics. Sorace's (2011) Interface Hypothesis proposes that L2 learners, even at highly proficient levels, often fail to integrate…

In 2013, Stockwell and Hubbard published an article on emerging principles in Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). In that article, they mentioned three issues that could perhaps impede learning in the domains of the physical, pedagogical, and pyscho-social. The physical issue they imply, refers to the general size of screens, which at the…

The use of the Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRE) sequence is common in education and, although classroom research does not preclude its practice in pedagogy, it recommends introducing other forms of talk into teaching. The present study, inspired by Task-Based Language Teaching research on learner language, uses Conversation Analysis to explore…

This paper reports on the reanalysis of Suzuki's (2017) experiment and investigated the extent to which learning schedules influence automatization of second language (L2) morphology. Sixty participants were separated into two groups, which studied morphological rules for oral production under short-spacing (3.3-day intervals) and long-spacing…

While most of the L2 writing literature focuses on tertiary L2 writing, there is relatively scanty research conducted with adolescent L2 writers. The present study aims to explore Chinese adolescent L2 writing from the perspective of writing as meaning-making in systemic functional linguistics tradition. Drawing on the framework of process type…

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a pedagogical approach that involves identifying real-world tasks that learners need to be able to do in the target language and then developing classroom-appropriate, context-specific versions of these tasks. In this paper, we use Long's methodological principles for TBLT to evaluate a task-based approach…

This paper reports on a qualitative inquiry into Japanese students' self-regulated learning processes to improve their listening proficiency outside the classroom in an English as a foreign language context. Four Japanese university students with different levels of self-efficacy and listening outcomes were closely examined from a social cognitive…

Despite its positive impact on students' learning and learning outcomes, studies documenting empirical evidence on how Flipped Classroom anchored in technology-mediated task can facilitate and promote students' learning in post-Earthquake EFL writing pedagogy context remain scarce. To fill this void, this action research, documenting both…

Models of reading development point to a role for knowledge about the orthography quite late in children's reading development; here we explore the contributions of early orthographic knowledge -- of the features of print -- to word reading development between kindergarten and Grade 1. We did so in a longitudinal study of 93 emergent bilingual…