We synthesize ideas from the foregoing articles in this special issue and from the broader literature on transfer to explore several themes. In many ordinary life circumstances, transfer proceeds easily, but formal learning often shows much less transfer than educators would like, making failure to transfer a focus of investigation. Transfer, like…

Cultural deficit theories have long been debunked, yet Spanish continues to be treated as an impediment to Latinos' school success. With over 5 million emerging bilinguals, of which approximately 75% are Spanish speakers, Latinos' biliteracy potential should be examined as a means to support their learning. This article focuses on the spontaneous…

School disengagement is linked to a lack of opportunities for students to fulfill their needs for independence and self-determination. Young people have little say about what, when, where, and how they will learn, the criteria used to assess their success, and the content of school and classroom rules. Traditional behavior management discourages…

This study examined the influence of integrative motivation, instrumental motivation and second language (L2) proficiency on socio-cultural/academic adaptation in a sample of two groups of international students studying Chinese in China. Results revealed that the non-Asian student group reported higher levels of integrative motivation,…

This paper reports findings of a pilot study examining the feasibility of a research design to investigate how achievement goals relate to the construct of math anxiety. In addition, we also consider how other important achievement-related behaviors, like self-efficacy, help-seeking, and self-regulation, might also relate to students' math…

New media are commonplace in children's lives. Speech and language therapists (SLTs), educational psychologists and teachers are sometimes called upon by caregivers to provide advice on whether or how children and young people with language impairments should be encouraged to use these media. This article aims to illuminate some of the key…

In this article, the authors argue that at the center of every English language learning moment lies desire: desire for the language; for the identities that English represents; for capital, power, and images that are associated with English; for what is believed to lie beyond the doors that English unlocks. However, despite its centrality within…

Within the context of English as a foreign language (EFL), using blogs has emerged as a language learning tool. However, how teachers effectively incorporate blogs within the confines of an instructional framework and what the current research shows about using blogs as a learning tool remain unsolved issues. Thus, the current paper presents a…

Speech therapy homework is a key component of a successful speech therapy program, increasing carryover of learned speech sounds. Poor return rate of homework assigned, with a lack of parental involvement, is a problem. The purpose of this project study was to examine what may increase parental participation in speech therapy homework. Guided by…

This article reports a study investigating the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) awareness-raising on Iranian university students' overall as well as variable-specific L2 motivation. The 136 participants (107 males, 29 females) were divided into a control group and an experimental group, both of which completed the same motivation…

Medium of instruction (MOI) is a highly controversial and thorny educational issue in Hong Kong. Despite the Hong Kong government's strenuous efforts to promote Chinese-medium instruction since 1984, social and community pressure for English-medium instruction (EMI) has been immense and continues to increase. However, the dominance of English as…

Studies have evaluated the outcomes of sexual harassment training, but considerably less research has focused on variables that influence sexual harassment training effectiveness. To address this need, we developed and tested a model of individual and contextual inhibitors of sexual harassment training motivation to learn. Survey data collected…

Several researchers have highlighted the potential of applying adventure video games in second language acquisition; however, few studies have investigated the impact of adventure games on foreign language learning. This study aimed to examine the effects of a commercial adventure video game on foreign language learning and learners' perceptions…

The rapid pace of change for knowledge workers competing globally necessitates ongoing continuous learning. Increasingly, knowledge workers will need to be ready--willing and able--to engage in self-directed learning. This makes it important to understand what factors in the work environment might be related to the self-directed learning…

Previous studies suggest that social relations can increase one's motivation to learn in school. However, other evidence showed that having more friends may also distract from one's academic involvement. To understand the mechanisms behind this apparent contradiction, this study identified and tested the effects of a potentially important positive…