Malta, a former British colony, has inherited a legacy of formal education, which remains stubbornly in place even after almost 60 years of independence. Similarly, persistent are arguments in research and policy highlighting democracy and children's rights in early years practice and boys' underachievement in literacy. This paper examines 5- to…

Teaching English in second language contexts seems to have succeeded in implementing only target-language policy allowed during class time. However, the problem persists in teaching English in foreign language contexts where English is not the official and/or first language in those countries. Such situations kept the question unanswered; whether…

Language is a contextual factor of an education system as it determines the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT). In order to provide for diversity in South Africa, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, makes provision for 11 official languages and the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) promotes respect for not only these…

This article explores French L1 speakers' attitudes toward French L2 speakers' negation use. Negation in prescriptive grammars calls for a pre-verbal ne and a post-verbal element like "pas." Although orally "ne" deletion is frequent, it is rarely or never taught. One common, albeit meagerly supported, explanation is that L1…

This study investigated the issue of L1 use in the L2 classroom from the students' perspective. Specifically, the focus of this study was on the characteristics of learners who desired L1 classroom support in their L2 learning. For the purposes of the study, a convenience sample of 380 Japanese university-level EFL participants completed a series…

This corpus-based study explores the expression of gratitude in the acknowledgement section of doctoral dissertations in both English and Arabic. The objective is to analyse how gratitude in academic discourse is structured in these languages and to explore any differences related to gender. The study examines 80 dissertations (40 in English and…

Multilingualism is often associated with advantages for acquiring additional languages. Theoretical approaches explain these advantages by assuming a Common Underlying Proficiency or a Metalinguistic Awareness. At the State Europe School in Berlin, students from different language backgrounds receive instruction in German and a partner language…

Discourse markers (DMs) are linguistic forms characterized by their use as conversation organizers or pause fillers (Fox Tree, 2010). Although used frequently in both speech and writing, DMs are not often taught in L2 classrooms, despite incorrect usage causing potential misunderstandings (Polat, 2011). Additionally, L2 learners have been observed…

This study aims to investigate the attitudes of non-Arabic students towards reading short stories in Arabic at universities in Malaysia, with a focus on three variables: the students' university, gender, and mother tongue. A mixed-methods approach was employed, using a questionnaire and semi-structured focus group discussion with 58 participants.…

Curriculum experts have long argued that adopting content-rich language arts curricula would help to remedy the knowledge deficit. Another approach is simply to devote more classroom time to subjects like science and social studies. It is an open question whether more time spent on such content-rich subjects in elementary school classrooms might…

As a World Language teacher, I often focus my efforts on students' language development. However, I have struggled to help students find relevance and meaning in the cultures of people from distant countries and communities. My Spanish classes were full of teenagers with different backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, language, gender, sexuality, and…

Utilizing Utah state data, the aim of this study is to examine the association between language program types programs (dual language programs [DLI], sheltered instruction [SEI], and English as a second language [ESL]) since first grade and third-grade basic literacy skills of Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) in the United States. We employ…

This longitudinal mixed methods study investigated the relationship between self-reported L1 and L2 willingness to communicate (WTC), observed (actual) L1 and L2 WTC behaviour, and academic achievement, as well as gender differences. Whereas early studies on WTC have focused on examining WTC as a trait, a few later studies have examined WTC as a…

While much has been written about teacher cognition in grammar teaching, research investigating non-native English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher cognition in grammar teaching remains limited. This study intends to investigate non-native EFL teacher cognition in teaching grammar to university students in the Saudi Arabian context. More…

Foreign language learners frequently use words from their previously acquired language(s) in the target language, especially if these languages are related (Ringbom, Håkan. 2001. Lexical transfer in L3 production. In Jasone Cenoz, Britta Hufeisen & Ulrike Jessner (eds.), "Cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition:…