Informed by a postmodern perspective on language, culture and visual art education this article examines what a creative, visual art focus can bring to the experience of language-and-culture learning for secondary-age students of Arabic as a heritage language (HL). It builds on our previous research focussing on student interactions with works by…

Purpose: This study (1) used a person-centered approach to identify specific subgroups of 1,265 EFL learners who participated in Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) activities, and (2) looked at how different IDLE profiles are related to important affective variables. Design/Methodology: To identify IDLE profiles, we used cluster analysis.…

Postmemory, the narrativised intergenerational transfer of often traumatic experiences, is a crucial component of multilingual identity negotiation. In this article, we focus specifically on the curricular interactions and personal and collective aspirations of multilingual students who use English for academic purposes. We situate our discussions…

One of the challenging issues that has gained much attention, and has in fact sparked much debate, within the emergence and acquisition of World Englishes, is the Native- Non-native accent, especially its relationship with teachers' and learners' identity and selection of an appropriate pedagogic model. This paper investigates the attitudes of 260…

The main objective of this study is to explore how students who participate in virtual intercultural exchanges use evaluative language to build rapport and encourage collaboration. Data were gathered from 211 email messages sent by 40 Spanish and American university students and were tagged following Martin and White's Appraisal model.…

Adequately responding to linguistic diversity in the classroom is imperative in European school contexts, not least because of current migratory movements. This article presents the results of an intervention study with primary school English-foreign-language learners in Germany (N = 42, M[subscript age] = 8.70 years) from linguistically diverse…

During 2nd language acquisition, a learner's identity is consigned, juxtaposed, coconstructed, and reified through various affective positions and mitigating linguistic behaviors. Our study of adult Latino ESL students in Dallas, Texas, shows how language socialization experiences are shaped by the learners' affective stances toward the project of…

We analyze the way children and youngsters perceive the role of family in the use and acquisition of the heritage language (HL), through two complementary means: drawings produced by children and students participating in a discussion forum. Our study reveals: (1) the convergence of perceptions that children and adolescents have about family…

People studying an additional language in adult life do so through a diverse mix of self-directed and institutionally-situated efforts, extending over many years; and online and distance mode language learning offer increasingly flexible opportunities for formal study. Little is known, however, of the ways that long-term learners combine…

Code switching involves the interplay of two languages and as well as serving linguistic functions, it has social and psychological implications. In the context of English language teaching, these psychological implications reveal themselves as teachers' thought processes. While the nature of code switching in language classrooms has been widely…

This paper is a re-engagement with some ethnographic data, originally analysed using a sociocultural approach. It makes use of a recent proposal that Lacan's "mirror stage" when applied to an analysis of classroom settings and interactions can offer a fruitful way of explaining and understanding classroom lives, identities and…

Research into language acquisition and oral language use was examined in order to identify key factors that contribute to the successful acquisition of second language (L2) listening ability. The factors were grouped into three major domains: affective, cognitive, and interpersonal. It is claimed that in each domain, proficient L2 listeners have…

Since the inception of the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2005), which operationalises motivation as a function of learners' future identities, the field of L2 motivation has seen a growing interest in mental imagery. Numerous studies have examined the role of a future self-guide, that is, the ideal L2 self, and have confirmed it to be…

Affective learner factors were first considered as a cause of success in language learning. This was followed by a change in approach and recently authors (e.g., Edelenbos, Johnstone, & Kubanek, 2006) have considered them an important outcome, especially in early foreign language learning (FLL). Current research into affective learner factors…

Motivation to learn foreign languages is a significant determinant of successful language acquisition. The subject has been widely researched in the past, and since the early 1990s a great deal of empirical research related to the classroom environment has been proposed to expand theory into everyday classroom practice. I present an empirical,…