This chapter describes and analyses visual linguistic autobiographies of Spanish and French student teachers at Hamburg University, making use of the Dominant Language Constellation (DLC) perspective. In order to determine, compare and explain the constellations depicted by the two groups, the author makes use of dynamic systems' theory and…

The skill, awareness, and perhaps the competence, of language learners to engage in specific interactional behaviors are currently encapsulated in the term Interactional Competence (IC). While IC-oriented teaching materials propose learning targets beyond vocabulary and sentence level grammar, their action-oriented view of what language is and how…

Research on language assessment knowledge (LAK) of teachers has focused on two major topics: identifying the LAK needs of teachers and developing appropriate LAK tests. Although the prior research findings significantly contributed to our understanding of the parameters of LAK, they were mostly quantitative and did not provide much information…

Three case-studies, using longitudinal records of children's spontaneous speech, illustrate what happens when a child's syntax changes. The first, examining acquisition of English verb-particle constructions, shows a near-total absence of commission errors. The second, examining acquisition of prepositional questions in English or Spanish, shows…

Spanish monolingual speakers often produce recipient ("Pedro le da un lápiz a María") and nonrecipient constructions ("Antonio le lava la camiseta a Carmen") doubled by a dative clitic. Second language speakers and heritage speakers usually avoid clitics. This study examined whether structural priming could effectively increase…

Within second language acquisition research, L2 development has been traditionally analyzed through the dimensions of Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency (CAF) (Larsen-Freeman, 2009; Ortega, 2003; Skehan, 2009). Complexity within the CAF framework has gained the most attention and has often been examined through measures associated with clausal…

The 2023 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages was held in Columbus, Ohio on March 9-11. This year's theme, Empathy, Equity, and Empowerment is reflective of the vital work educators do in classrooms every day across the country. The Wikipedia definition of empathy is "the capacity to understand or feel what another…

The U.S. economy receives consistent and increasing benefits from international students in higher education, an estimated $41 billion during the 2018-2019 academic year. However, the existing research literature has failed to determine whether Intensive English Language Programs (IELP) adequately prepare these students for college-level…

This study investigated the effectiveness of using a social learning programme facilitated by Facebook to develop some creative writing skills and motivation to learn English among secondary-one school students. Seventy students in secondary-one grade in Al-Shahid Hussein A. Abdul-Raouf Mixed Secondary School in Al-Maabda in the second semester of…

This quasi-experimental study reports on the outcomes of a video-synchronous learning program in which an element of project-based foreign language learning was integrated. The project chosen was to cooperatively create a homepage. American students learning Japanese in the United States and Japanese students learning English in Japan made pairs…

The current assessment in language classrooms prevailingly utilizes the criteria provided by instructors, regarding learners as passive recipients of assessment. The current study drew upon sustainable assessment and the community of practice to highlight the importance of involving learners in co-constructing the assessment criteria and argued…

Recent research suggests that learners should be provided with opportunities to negotiate meanings with other cultures and critically evaluate and reflect on their own culture. Texts have a great potential to provide such opportunities, especially in contexts where learners do not have the chance to experience other cultures through real-time…

Effective teaching of English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) is considered to enhance workers' performance, efficacy, and professional development. Thus, what students and teachers believe to lead to effective EOP teaching is worth exploring. This study set out to compare students' and teachers' beliefs about effective EOP teaching. It employed a…

This study examined the validity of data collected from a novel online story retell task. The task was specifically designed for use by junior school teachers with the support of speech-language therapists or literacy specialists. The assessment task was developed to monitor children's oral language progress in their first year at school as part…

Purpose: Emergent bilinguals (EBs) from Spanish-speaking households are a sizable and quickly growing segment of the preschool population in the United States. However, there is limited research on the provision of opportunities for EBs to engage in language-rich classroom discussion, particularly in English-dominant contexts where most EBs attend…