Extensive and repeated language exposure is essential for second language learning. While not all learners can get such exposure routinely in face-to-face contexts, English language learners today create pathways to opportunities for learning English through participation in social media communities. The informal exposure to English they obtain…

Reading Fluency is a key skill that is classified as the bridge to comprehension and overall factor in student academic achievement. While the official language of Belize is English, the vast majority of Belizean Students are English Language Learners (Handbook of Policies and Procedures, 2000). Therefore, they may be at a disadvantage if they are…

Social media applications can significantly impact English language learning in the classroom and outside of it thanks to new technologies and the widespread use of mobile devices. This paper compares the effectiveness of teaching English through Instagram and TikTok educational online blogs and online courses to traditional academic education to…

This study aimed to determine if the T3 framework for technology in education impacts students' vocabulary learning, oral language, and reading comprehension, specifically for students labeled as English Language Learners (ELLs). Students were asked to learn two root words a week for four weeks. During each instructional week, students were asked…

This study examined the effects of using "captions", "subtitles" and "keyword captions" on the comprehension of audiovisual materials by English as a foreign language (EFL) learners, who were divided into two different groups, proficient and less proficient learners. It also investigated the participants' awareness of…

Many teachers struggle to engage English Learner students in the classroom as they feel students may be disconnected both academically and socially. In addition, many teachers have minimal intercultural experiences and limited training that could help them connect with these students. This qualitative study seeks to explore the use of video…

Existing research shows that identical cognates are read more quickly than noncognates. However, most studies focused on words presented in isolation or embedded in sentences. To address this gap, our exploratory eye-tracking study is the first to investigate the processing of cognates and noncognates in English subtitles. First, we tested whether…

High-immersion virtual reality (VR) is an increasingly valued environment for language learners. Although reading constitutes a core language skill, practicing reading in VR has received little attention. In this between-subject, quantitative study, 79 intermediate learners of English at a German university were randomly assigned to view an…

Research has explored how science teachers can create equitable learning environments. In addition, research demonstrates that representations can be powerful tools for supporting disciplinary learning and inviting and leveraging students' diverse ideas and practices. Yet, professional development (PD) about representations has primarily focused…

Design and content of classroom activities are crucial to foreign/second (L2) language learners' motivation, be they children or adults. Lifeworld relevance and learner autonomy are two important aspects in building motivational L2 curricula for adults (e.g.), but such considerations rarely filter through to primary school learners due to…

Background: Vocabulary learning in a second language (L2) encompasses crucial aspects, including single words and collocations. Research indicates that L2 learners can incidentally learn single words from captioned videos, but less is known about the incidental learning outcomes of collocations, let alone the differences in learning gains for…

This study aimed to compare item characteristics and response time between stimulus conditions in computer-delivered listening tests. Listening materials had three variants: regular videos, frame-by-frame videos, and only audios without visuals. Participants were 228 Japanese high school students who were requested to complete one of nine…

The present study set in Denmark explores how social media use may help to facilitate English as a second language (L2) development by means of social media literacy socialization. The data consisted of English language Ariana Grande (AG) fan TikToks made over the course of a year by a Danish girl, aged 11-12, and semi-structured interviews.…

Aim/Purpose: This exploratory qualitative case study examines the perceptions of high-school learners of English regarding a pedagogical intervention involving progressive reduction of captions (full, sentence-level, keyword captions, and no-captions) in enhancing language learning. Background: Recognizing the limitations of caption usage in…

This ethnographic, qualitative case study empirically explores how six youth from refugee backgrounds positioned their identities through design choices in producing reaction videos--a popular YouTube genre--at school in their settlement context. Through reflexive thematic analysis, we identified three ways in which youth took ownership of how…