Self-regulated learning (SRL) is considered a critical competence for lifelong learning that requires explicit instruction and consistent practice, especially for college students. Despite the abundant intervention studies on the role of SRL in students' academic performance in the Western world, very little is known in China in English as a…

Motivational drivers and emotions that students experience play an important role in the process of learning a new language (L2). This has been recognised by researchers and educators, and extensive research has been conducted in recent decades to examine the psychological and emotional factors involved in L2 learning. However, two ubiquitous…

Language ideologies can powerfully shape language learner perceptions and progress. This qualitative study investigated and reports findings based on analysis of interviews with 14 participants who self-identify as advanced users of Spanish. While dominant language ideologies in the U.S. often undermine learners reaching high levels of language…

This study examines the impact of teacher metapathy, or teachers' capacity to comprehend and sympathize with students' emotional and cognitive requirements, on the academic outcomes of IELTS applicants, such as total band scores, motivation, and language learning orientation. Ten IELTS teachers from five language training centers and 100 IELTS…

This paper examines the relationship between ethnocentrism and motivation in language learning, focusing on the Ideal L2-Self and Ought to L2-Self constructs of the L2 Motivational Self System. Additionally, the study examined the potential moderating effect of gender on the relationships between ethnocentrism and both the Ideal L2-Self and Ought…

Motivation and a positive attitude play a decisive role in learning any foreign language. This study aims to investigate the motivation behind learning Chinese language in Central Asia and Russia and to identify the main problems related to mastering this language in those countries. The study draws on an anonymous questionnaire survey involving…

The field of SLA is not without other distinguished contestants, but in the history of controversial concepts, motivation alongside emotion must, by any reckoning, emerge as the overall victor. Acknowledging the controversies surrounding the concept, this study aimed at presenting how foreign language learning as a motivated behavior can be…

Over the past few years, the concept of gamification has gained increased attention in foreign language teaching research as it demonstrates potential to promote motivation and learner engagement. The authors of the paper believe that gamification can become an innovative and promising tool to help students overcome their motivational…

Task motivation is critical to learners' task performance. However, scant studies have examined learners' task motivation in the translation continuation task based on the "xu"-argument, an emerging view on language acquisition. This exploratory study examined how Chinese English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners' task motivation…

Conducting a survey research on demotivating factors in business English majors can enrich the theoretical research findings on demotivation and meanwhile help to explore effective methods to enhance the students' learning motivation. This study explores the construct of demotivating factors in business English majors in a Chinese university, the…

Increasing numbers of Chinese students are pursuing graduate degrees in Catalonia. Although highly proficient in both Castilian and English when they arrive, they find themselves in a bilingual society where Catalan, not Castilian, predominates both at universities and in the broader social context. Acquiring Catalan is hence important for both…

This study investigated motivation in the context of L2 Chinese in the USA. A total of 120 college students took the survey and 27 of them participated in post-survey interviews. Through a mixed-methods design, the study captured interactions between motivation and the learning environment in the learning process. The results revealed six…

The affective turn in the second language (L2) acquisition literature has witnessed a shift from the periphery to a clear focus on emotions. Nevertheless, this shift tends to examine emotion separately from cognition. Vygotsky's "perezhivanie" provides a theoretical lens to explore the inextricable interconnectedness of emotion and…

Fun facts--facts that are interesting, unusual, and often little-known--are a popular form of entertainment throughout the world. There are countless books, TV quiz shows (Jeopardy!), board games (Trivial Pursuit), and museums (Ripley's Believe It or Not!) dedicated to trivia and the unusual that fascinate people of all ages. Short oral…

While the existing literature on collaborative writing has implied the benefits of its implementation in second language (L2) classrooms for students' language learning, the assessment of collaborative writing has received scant attention in both language assessment literature and L2 writing literature. This study proposes an assessment scheme…