Language learners' identity construction and language learning through narratives (Norton 2010; Johnson 2015) and multimodal technologies (Lam 2006; White 2007) have been found to be effective ways to facilitate ESL learning. Additionally, Multimodal pedagogies and narrative practices in the language classroom facilitate L2 learning, investment in…

Translanguaging, an emergent theoretical orientation to language, has become a widely discussed topic in writing studies with the rise of translingual movement in composition. Challenging the ideologies of standardization and monolingualism, translanguaging forwards towards a pedagogy of difference and facilitates transcending the…

Educative Curriculum Materials (ECMs) are teaching materials that have the dual function of providing learning activities to students and providing professional development to the teachers that use them. Answering a call for professional development opportunities, and with input from English teachers in rural Nicaraguan schools, the designers…

This study examined subject-object asymmetry and developmental sequence in the second language (L2) acquisition of three types of "wh"-extraction, i.e., English headed relatives, headless relatives, and embedded "wh"-questions. Sixty-four L1 Korean learners of English completed an elicited imitation task and a grammaticality…

In light of the growing interest in the cognitive approach to task in second language (L2) research, comparatively little has been done to examine such effect over time and the role of individual differences (IDs). The present study was designed to verify some longitudinal evidence for the role of tasks in L2 production and whether IDs, in the…

Teachers' understanding of the process of speech perception could inform practice in listening classrooms. Catford (1950) developed a model for speech perception taking into account the influence of the acoustic features of the linguistic forms used by the speaker, whereby the listener "identifies" and "interprets" these…

This commentary offers a brief reflection on the state of CALL in 1997, when "Language Learning & Technology" was launched with my paper entitled "CALL in the year 2000: Still in search of research paradigms?" The point of my 1997 paper was to suggest the potential value of research on second language learning for the study…

The process of learning a second language requires vulnerability, and vulnerability demands trust. To put students into a language-learning environment where they are unsure of their abilities, do not know their classmates, and are getting a grade for their performance can lead to an atmosphere of hesitation and fear. It has been said that…

There remains considerable disagreement about which factors drive second language (L2) ultimate attainment. Age of onset (AO) appears to be a robust factor, lending support to theories of maturational constraints on L2 acquisition. The present study is an investigation of factors that influence grammatical and lexical complexity at the stage of L2…

There has been a great deal of research on first language (L1) and second language (L2) learning through meaning-focused input since Nagy, Herman & Anderson's (1985) seminal study of incidental vocabulary learning through reading. Two strands of research within this area are incidental vocabulary learning through listening and guessing from…

Studies examining age of onset (AoO) effects in childhood bilingualism have provided mixed results as to whether early sequential bilingual children (eL2) differ from simultaneous bilingual children (2L1) and L2 children on the acquisition of morphosyntax. Differences between the three groups have been attributed to other factors such as length of…

This paper provides an outline of the origins, the current shape and the potential directions of task-based language teaching (TBLT) as an approach to language pedagogy. It first offers a brief description of TBLT and considers its origins within language teaching methodology and second language acquisition. It then summarises the current position…

Proficiency is a key variable in late second language (L2) learning, but one that is undermeasured in current research. This study investigates whether L2 oral proficiency can be quickly and reliably assessed via the Spanish "elicited imitation task" (EIT; Ortega, Iwashita, Rabie, & Norris, 1999). Thirty-seven L2 learners of Spanish…

We present a framework of second and additional language (L2/L"n") acquisition motivated by recent work on socio-indexical knowledge in first language (L1) processing. The distribution of linguistic categories covaries with socio-indexical variables (e.g., talker identity, gender, dialects). We summarize evidence that implicit…

The present conceptual analysis begins with an assertion that the most fundamental act in any educational endeavors is establishing their goals. The discussion proceeds to reviewing recent pertinent literature that presents Vygotsky's theory of development as a useful source in providing guidance to establishing the goals of education in rapidly…