This paper sought to examine psychological grit, defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals, and its efficacy in determining postgraduate retention among historically disadvantaged students enrolled at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The Grit-S scale was used to gauge the level of grit among the participants (n = 594) followed…

Mathematics is a gateway to science-related careers and all stakeholders want to improve the achievement levels in mathematics. In this study we use data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2015 to investigate the association between the learner situational factors of gender, grade level age appropriateness, school…

The past decade has witnessed a surge of research interest in diverse emotions that foreign/second language (L2) learners experience. However, research on L2 boredom is just starting. The current study focuses on foreign language learning boredom (FLLB) and foreign language enjoyment (FLE), and examines how they are associated with a wide range of…

Although language learners' knowledge of second language (L2) speech acts is postulated to be substantially influenced by learner variables, there is little empirical evidence of the influence of pragmatic motivation (PM) and willingness to communicate (WTC). To address this gap, this study sought to investigate the impact of PM and WTC as two…

Reading self-concept plays a significant role in academic achievement. Considering increasing numbers of English learners (ELs) in the United States, there is an urgent need to investigate self-perceptions of ELs in comparison to those of native English speakers (NES). We applied Elastic Net analysis (ENET), a machine learning approach, to PISA…

This study examines whether and to what extent video, voice and text-based communication in a synchronous online foreign language classroom affect the university students' willingness to communicate (WTC) and what impact anxiety, online disinhibition and online attention control exert on the level of WTC. Applying a cross-sectional design, a…

The purpose of the present study was to explore university students' views and perceptions of emergency remote learning (ERL), their self-reported degree of learner autonomy, and the use of the first language (L1) in asynchronous classes (i.e., pre-recorded video lectures) during their transition to ERL in Spring 2020.The participants were…

Individuals entering college from disadvantaged economic backgrounds often face multiple obstacles to successful academic performance. Nonetheless, many such students are successful. In this study, we explore the personal characteristics of students from poverty who do well academically in comparison to their economic peers who were less…

Objectives: The importance of breastfeeding exposure and children's development of self-regulation, independently, are well established. Each of these domains also has been linked to better cognitive development and academic achievement in children. However, little is known about how breastfeeding affects development of early self-regulation…

Approximately one in 10 children in the United States is diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a disability that can negatively affect academic achievement, yet relatively few children with ADHD are in special education. To better understand factors that determine which students with ADHD are in special education, we…

This paper investigates the relationship between multilingualism, code-switching, target language contact and pragmatic and grammatical awareness in learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Participants (N = 144) were university students enrolled in English language courses at a German university. The study employed a cross-sectional…

Objective: This study examined how a set of theoretically derived factors predicted the educational attainment outcomes of Latina/o community college students. The guiding research question was, "What precollege and background characteristics, college experiences, and environmental pull factors uniquely predict persistence, certificate or…

Learning analytics focuses on extracting meaning from large amounts of data. One of the largest datasets in education comes from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that typically feature enrollments in the tens of thousands. Analyzing MOOC discussion forums presents logistical issues, resulting chiefly from the size of the dataset, which can…

The development of speaking fluency is a major goal for many EFL language learners and several researchers have proposed frameworks for fluency instruction based on theories of cognitive science. It is unclear however, whether EFL students with restricted opportunities to use English outside of language classrooms can benefit from fluency…

In a nation where monolingualism predominates, heritage language (HL) has been downplayed as less important in educational contexts in the U.S. Disproportionately little attention has been given to the role of HL in language minority (LM) students' attendance to postsecondary education (PSE) (cf. Brutt-Griffler, Janina, and Manka Varghese, eds.…