Study of language, like any other discipline, has naturally been developing ever since its inception. But it assumed an accelerated pace from the early twentieth century onwards with two or more paradigm-shifting outlooks, among which the 'socio-contextual surge onto the consideration of language functioning' led to the emergence of an approach…

This meta-analysis offers a snapshot of thirty-five years (1980-2015) of research on instructed second language acquisition (ISLA). Fifty-four empirical studies involving a total of 5,051 second language learners -- sampled from six applied linguistics journals, "Applied Linguistics, Language Learning, Language Teaching Research,"…

Recent currents in language learning research highlight the social and emergent aspects of second language (L2) development and recognize that learners need opportunities for interaction in meaningful contexts supported by explicit attention to language itself. These perspectives suggest new ways of conceptualizing the challenges faced by children…

A colloquium presented at the Second Language Research Forum on 16 October 2008 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

This review of research on the learning, teaching, and assessment of L2 German may be particularly timely due to developments from within the profession as well as recent political changes which continue to have a strong bearing on the way L2 German is promoted, learned, taught and assessed. Far from representing an isolated field of research…

This article explores recent changes in the landscape of second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language pedagogical (FLP) research. Firth and Wagner's (1997) proposal for the reconceptualization of SLA has been supported by SLA and FLP researchers who share the sentiment concerning the need for increased attention to social and contextual…

Argues that Firth and Wagner are justified in arguing that a broader, context-sensitive, participant-sensitive, generally sociolinguistic orientation might prove beneficial for second language acquisition research. Demonstrates a skepticism as to whether greater insights into second language learning will necessarily influence the process. (13…

The summary cloze technique offers an alternative to multiple choice. Summary cloze exercises are prepared by summarizing the content of the original text. The shortened text is transformed into a rational cloze exercise. The learner completes the summary text using the list of choices provided. This technique is a good measure of reading…

Suggests that to understand the interrelationship between technology and language learning, researchers must investigate the broader ecological context that affects language learning and use in today's society, both inside and outside the classroom. This involves expanding research paradigms to engage in critical qualitative research attempts to…

Presents an analytic foundation of English-as-a-Second-Language pedagogical research and application extending beyond the traditional "superficial" categories of morphosyntactic rule violations and false cognates. The study focuses on lexical-semantics, syntax, text-analysis, and pragmatics, and synthesizes major categories of…

Examines the idea that one goal of English language teaching should be to replicate "natural" rather than "traditional" classroom communication. The article argues that this goal is unattainable and that it would be more satisfactory to take an institutional discourse approach, where classroom discourse is regarded as an institutional variety of…

Examines the origin and current meaning of the labels, ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a foreign language). Places these acronyms in historical context, evaluates their current credibility, distinguishes three contexts commonly referred to as ESL environments and proposes a new nomenclature that better captures the role of…