We present findings from a 1-year study of students' plurilingualism across the disciplines in Canadian higher education. We analyze how students exercise their plurilingual competence, focusing on the use of Chinese languages as tools for learning at a university in Metro Vancouver, Canada. The following data are presented: field notes taken…

Previous studies comparing native English speaking (NES) and non-native English speaking teachers have stressed how each group can contribute their respective language advantages to language teaching and assessment. However, in an interpreting classroom where both groups know each other's native language, little is known about the different…

Past studies have shown that multimodal presentation of story can improve story-retelling performance in the first language. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether similar multimedia effects can be observed in second language learning and graphic novel reading. A total of 51 Chinese elementary school children, aged 7-8, who…

This article deals with the reality and complexity of emergent translanguaging in foreign language classrooms. The influx of international learners of Chinese has resulted in linguistically diverse classrooms, posing huge challenges to the monolingual teaching approach that prevails in most Chinese language classrooms. This paper explores what…

This study examined the differences in perceptions of the value of feedback for improving English speaking performance between students who received video feedback and those who received written feedback and their preferences for written or video feedback. A total of 43 English as a foreign language students participated in this study to produce a…

Meaning-making in a new era increasingly defined by digital communication is a complicated ensemble of both verbal and non-verbal modes. Following this trend of conveying information multimodally, digital memes have become a new and viral way to communicate and make meaning. Memeing, as a multimodal and social practice, may hold potential for…

In the context of education globalization and informatization, the open education resource movement supported the concept of "open sharing" is a crucial trend within the development of worldwide education. The large-scale online open curriculum (MOOC) could be a new development and breakthrough within the open education resource movement…

This study addresses the social-cognitive interactions that occur in code-switching and integrates social and cognitive factors from a usage-based perspective. It investigates code-switching in two different interaction modes -- speech and writing -- to consider not only the influence of social factors (social networks and attitudes) but also the…

This paper reports on a promising methodology for multilingualism studies that was trialled at the National Institute of Education (NIE) on the campus of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 2018. The methodology named the Aural-Oral Transect (AOT) is a systematic, easy-to-implement, unbiased way of collecting quantitative data on…

ChatBot has potential as a language learning tool, especially for learning Chinese vocabulary. This study aimed to investigate the impact of using a newly developed ChatBot to learn Chinese vocabulary by comparing how it works in different learning environments and to explore the ChatBot with reference to the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).…

The issue of phrasal verb learning has caused much discussion and attracted vigorous investigation. Inspired by the theory of conceptual metaphor, a pedagogical experiment was conducted to investigate whether an approach focussing on sense extension of particle "out" in terms of conceptual metaphors can enhance the learning of phrasal…

This paper presents findings of a qualitative inquiry into international students' experiences and perceptions of their language use in an English-medium international university in multilingual Hong Kong, with particular attention to the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in relation to other languages. Based on data collected from in-depth…

This study examines the language practices of Chinese visiting scholars on WeChat and explores the representational meanings of their translanguaging practices. An ethnographic approach combining with systematic observation, WeChat screenshot data and interviews with Chinese visiting scholars is adopted to get hold of the richness of situated…

Chinese idioms are mostly four-character phrases and are called Quadra-syllabic Idiomatic Expressions (QIEs). It has long been reported that learning of Chinese QIEs poses a great challenge for both young L1 speakers and adult L2 learners as the condensed form is often associated with complicated figurative meanings. The present study explored the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of songs in different languages on English language learners' (ELLs) music preferences. The participants (N = 62) were Chinese graduate students from a state university in the Midwestern United States. The survey contained nine excerpts from popular songs in three languages: Chinese (the…