The purpose of this study was to translate Arnold and her colleagues' (Arnold, Fletcher, & Daniels, 2013) Organizational Stressor Indicator for Sport Performers (OSI-SP) into Chinese and examine its psychometric properties with Taiwanese athletes. In study 1, the psychometric properties of the items and the underlying structure of the…

Contextualised mobile assisted language learning (MALL) has been known for its potential in language learning rooted in social constructivism theories. However, a consistent approach to constituents of contextualised MALL, in addition to a quantitative tool to evaluate it, is missing in reported case studies. The present research, drawing upon…

Numerous studies have demonstrated that native Mandarin speakers have pervasive difficulties processing L2 English agreement morphology. However, less is known about the lexical and morphological cues that may modulate Mandarin speakers' sensitivity to English number agreement. To investigate this, we examined subject-verb agreement processing in…

This paper describes an alternative and unique format to the customary culture and civilization course taught at the upper levels in a university foreign language curriculum. The semester-long course employed a content-based design that combined language instruction and learning with authentic music generated during distinct historical eras in…

This study considers the role of L1 phonological influence in L2 English past tense morphology production by native speakers of Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese. While these L1s share similar phonological restrictions on consonant cluster formation needed for English past tense morphology, differences arise in L1 syntax (only Mandarin lacks…

Flipped instruction has become a hot issue in foreign language teaching technology. In this study, we tracked learners in a beginner-level Chinese Foreign Language classroom to see if flipped teaching based on a MOOC made a difference to their oral proficiency development and rate of progress compared to a baseline group. Language development was…

This study examined pinyin (the official phonetic system that transcribes the lexical tones and pronunciation of Chinese characters) invented spelling and English invented spelling in 72 Mandarin-speaking 6th graders who learned English as their second language. The pinyin invented spelling task measured segmental-level awareness including…

Despite the current potential to use computers to automatically generate a large range of text-based indices, many issues remain unresolved about how to apply these data in established language teaching and assessment contexts. One way to resolve these issues is to explore the degree to which automatically generated indices, which are reflective…

The current project investigates developmental aspects of acquiring locative verb constructions in English as a second language. Locative verbs, such as "to pour," "to spill," "to spray," and "to sprinkle," constitute a prototypical case of an overgeneralization problem in language learning: Whereas some of…

Owing to its economic growth and social changes in the past two decades, China has become a popular destination for tourists, investors, and diverse communities of migrants. When foreign-language-speaking migrants interact with Chinese criminal justice system, they rely on interpreters to participate in the proceedings. Based on four-month trial…

The interaction between input frequency and constructional interference receives little attention in second language (L2) research. Two studies were conducted to test the effect of this interaction. Study 1 examined effects of both Zipfian frequency (ZF) and balanced frequency (BF) on L2 learning of English subject-extracted relative clauses…

Although much research has been done on the internalisation of education, issues related to intercultural professional learning, especially in the school education context, remain underexplored. This study examines the potential of boundary brokering in facilitating cross-cultural professional learning in an international school context. This…

Amidst the milieu of free and at-cost L2 language software applications coming into existence for use on mobile devices and computers, adult L2 learners are faced with the challenge of selecting their best choice for them to use in acquiring a specific second language. Their selection is based on their individual need and the context in which they…

What are the challenges faced by a research team in implementing translanguaging pedagogy in a multilingual classroom? What implications does this research project have for researchers in other geographies and other languages? This paper answers these questions on the basis of 7 English reading classes and interviews of teachers and students…

It is commonly believed that second language (L2) acquisition of lexical tones presents a major challenge for learners from nontonal language backgrounds. This belief is somewhat at odds with research that consistently shows beginning learners making quick gains through focused tone training, as well as research showing advanced learners achieving…