Despite the growth in the use of serious games to train and evaluate cross-cultural competence, few studies have examined the content and dialogue development methods associated with these training systems. This study presents a framework for generating content for serious games targeting culturally appropriate communication and an evaluation of a…

Recently, there has been considerable L2 research on interfaces between different modules of grammar (internal), such as syntax-semantics, or between grammar and other cognitive systems (external), such as semantics-pragmatics. Sorace's (2011) Interface Hypothesis proposes that L2 learners, even at highly proficient levels, often fail to integrate…

This mixed-methods study investigated the acceptability and outcomes of a mindful approach to teaching a foreign language in higher education institutions. The approach included Bilingual Guided Meditation (BGM®) in the classroom to reduce students' anxiety and foster a positive mindset. The BGM program combines bilingual positive suggestions with…

Language cannot be taught outside the culture of the society. A foreign language learner needs to learn the context and the cultural elements to avoid conflicts and misunderstanding arising from differing values, beliefs, and customs. Hence, foreign language instruction needs to emphasise intercultural communicative competence and include cultural…

This article addresses test translation review in international test comparisons. We investigated the applicability of the theory of test translation error--a theory of the multidimensionality and inevitability of test translation error--across source language-target language combinations in the translation of PISA (Programme of International…

This study investigated the durational features of English word-initial /s/+stop clusters produced by bilingual Mandarin (L1)-English (L2) children and monolingual English children and adults. The participants included two groups of five- to six-year-old bilingual children: low proficiency in the L2 (Bi-low) and high proficiency in the L2…

The research explores Hong Kong students' dispositions towards higher education and employment in relation to understandings of their schooling experiences in English Medium of Instruction (EMI) schools in Hong Kong. The research draws upon Bourdieu's theory of practice, Appadurai's notion of the 'capacity to aspire', and Taylor's concept of…

This article investigates the influence of the position of occlusion, structural composition, and design educational status on Chinese character recognition accuracy and response time. Tsao and Liao conducted an experiment using 18 of the 4,000 most commonly used Chinese characters and suggested that the primary and secondary recognition features…

The present study examines when second language (L2) learners read words in the L2, whether the orthography and/or phonology of the translation words in the first language (L1) is activated and whether the patterns would be modulated by the proficiency in the L2. In two experiments, two groups of Chinese learners of English immersed in the L1…

According to Chen's (2013) Linguistic Savings Hypothesis (LSH), our native language affects our economic behavior. We present three studies investigating how cross-linguistic differences in the grammaticalization of future-time reference (FTR) affect intertemporal choices. In a series of decision scenarios about finance and health issues, we let…

The present study uses a text data mining approach to automatically discover learner interests in open learning environments. We propose a method to construct learner interests automatically from the combination of learner generated content and their dynamic interactions with other learning resources. We develop a learner-topic model to discover…

We consider auditory and visual temporal processing and alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric rapid naming to separately examine the associations of temporal processing and rapid naming with Chinese character reading in children with and without dyslexia. A total of 112 Chinese children in primary school from third grade to sixth grade were recruited…

Emojis have been indispensable and efficient tools in online interaction with the booming Internet and dramatically fast emergence of electronic communication channels. The present research is to study the pragmatic functions of emoji in internet-based communication within the revised framework of Linguagem em (Dis) curso (special issue on…

With increasing global demand for English and Chinese language education, the existence of linguistic variation in (and varieties of) both languages has focused scholarly attention on the choice of language standards, norms and models. Using in-depth focus group interviews, this study compared bilingual learners' choice of English and Putonghua…

To develop and evaluate a comprehensive intervention combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and behavioral training that specifically targets orthographic awareness and reading fluency for in Chinese children with dyslexia, this study selected two Chinese children with different subtypes of dyslexia, i.e., the orthographic…