Recent l2 items

Contesting Standard Language Norms: A Study of Wuhanese Families’ Language Practices in the United States in the Post-Pandemic Era

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This ethnographic study examines language ideologies and practices in Chinese American families in the U.S. in the post-pandemic era. Our specific focus here is the families’ use of a dialect of Southwest Mandarin, Wuhanhua (literally, “Wuhan Vernacular”), with their children at a time when Wuhan was marked by stigma due to its association with the initial COVID-19 outbreak. In our ten-month longitudinal study with the three focal families who came from Wuhan, each with U.S.-born children, data were generated from home visits, semi-structured interviews, and audio-recorded family interactions. While the three families shared a prevalent adherence to Standard Mandarin, our results show how the parents’ stated ideologies become contested in their everyday language practices. These ambiguities and inconsistencies in the planning and regulation of Wuhanhua use at home illuminate the translocal nature of heritage language learning, which is shaped not only by movement between countries...

Multidialectal Practices in L2 Arabic Pragmatics Research: Methodological Implications

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Research on learning second language (L2) pragmatics has undergone substantial methodological development in recent years (Taguchi & Roever, 2017; Taguchi, 2019), but it remains limited by a lack of attention to a key feature of pragmatic competence: multilingual and multidialectal practices. In a field dedicated to helping L2 students learn “how-to-say-what-to-whom-when” (Bardovi-Harlig, 2013, p. 68), methodological approaches that do not account for multidialectal practices miss key aspects of pragmatic development that are directly related to learners’ agency and identity. Current research methodologies are still highly influenced by monolingual ideologies often missing crucial layers of the learning process and environment, resulting in an incomplete view of pragmatic development. This article synthesizes existing methods and proposes ways to address these limitations by adopting a multidialectal perspective. Taking research on L2 Arabic pragmatics learning as a case...

Multilingualism Meets Multidialectism in L2 Study Abroad

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines how second language (L2) learners engaged with both multilingualism and multidialectism during a short-term study abroad (SA) program in Vienna, Austria and Freiburg, Germany which featured a course on German sociolinguistics. While the multilingual turn in L2 education has challenged monolingual ideologies (May, 2013; Diao & Trentman, 2021), it often overlooks linguistic diversity within languages. Focusing on German, a pluricentric language with rich dialectal variation, this research analyzes nine students’ reflections through questionnaires and diaries. Qualitative text analyses reveal that students developed critical awareness of language variation, connecting dialects to broader multilingual ecologies and deconstructing ideologies of standardization and linguistic purity. Students observed translanguaging practices, reflected on heritage languages, and contextualized language use within sociopolitical frameworks. These insights underscore the pedagogical...

Countering Negative Language Attitudes: Adopting a Critical Multidialectal Approach to Language Teaching

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Language attitudes have been recognized as an important area of study in sociolinguistic research (Evans & Preston, 2023; Preston, 2013), and the consequences of prescriptive ideologies and negative attitudes toward non-privileged varieties extend to language instruction. These ideologies regard certain uses of the language as unacceptable if they diverge from what is considered the “standard” variety, established through linguistic imperialism and a colonial heritage (Benaglia & Smith, 2022) and perpetuated by linguistic authorities. Adherence to a prescriptive perspective without questioning its ideological and discriminatory function leads to the reproduction of a “deficit perspective”, in which those who use alternative varieties of a language are considered academically deficient (Quan et al., 2025). These attitudes can influence students’ feelings about themselves, their abilities, and their academic performance, especially for speakers of heritage languages (Loza,...

Introduction to the Special Issue: Multidialectism in the Multilingual Turn

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

While the Multilingual Turn has critically shifted the field of Second Language Acquisition away from monolingual ideologies, it has often ignored the irreconcilability of the prescriptivist standard ideologies that devalue the diversity within named languages. This oversight perpetuates linguistic hierarchies, marginalizes non-standard variety speakers, and misrepresents the complex nature of real-world language use. The contributions to this special issue dismantle monocentric, native-speakerist, and prescriptivist standard language ideologies in second language education in order to explore the potentials of a multidialectal and multilingual approach. In so doing, they raise questions about social justice implications of dialect representation and erasure and showcase successful pedagogical applications of second language dialect instruction. By integrating multidialectal perspectives, this issue seeks to foster a more robust and inclusive Multilingual Turn that accurately...

Teacher Talk in Multidialectal Classrooms

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As a diglossic language, Arabic has high and low varieties of the same language that are used in different contexts. Arabic classrooms traditionally focus on the acquisition of the high variety, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), with the expectation that learners can pick up local dialects abroad. This creates challenges for learners who find themselves ill-equipped to deal with everyday situations outside of the classroom. In recent years, advocates of integrated approaches have emphasized the need to teach both MSA and a dialect, whether in the same or separate classes (Al-Batal, 2018; Younes, 2014). Yet this leads to questions about which dialect to choose, as learners and teachers may come from different dialect backgrounds or have different dialect interests. Trentman & Shiri (2020) advocate for a multidialectal approach, where learners are encouraged to develop their ability to understand multiple varieties of Arabic and the meta-linguistic awareness...

General Editors’ Introduction

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We are exceptionally pleased to introduce the first special issue of 2026, Multidialectism in the Multilingual Turn, guest edited by Dan Walter, Associate Professor of German and Linguistics at Oxford College of Emory University, and Julia Ruck, Assistant Teaching Professor at Emory University. Dan and Julia bring a robust mix of experience and expertise to the table, making them ideal editors for this particular special issue: their training in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and world language education is coupled with extensive experience in the world language classroom; this combination has yielded important research and practitioner guidance on numerous important contemporary issues in world language teaching, including multidialectism in the classroom. Our sincere thanks go out to the guest editors, who have shaped and shepherded the volume with care.

The NOLC Model: A Framework for Inclusive and Sustainable Language Instruction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the Non-Level Concept (NOLC), an instructional model that integrates learners of differing proficiencies into a single, content-based classroom. Originally developed in a study abroad context, NOLC offers an alternative to traditional, proficiency-sequenced curricula by emphasizing collaborative learning, differentiated expectations, and inclusive participation. In response to institutional enrollment challenges and equity goals, this study explores the adaptation of NOLC within a small, under-enrolled Italian program at a North American liberal arts university.

Using a mixed-methods approach—including classroom observations, student questionnaires, self-assessments, and interviews—this research investigates how the NOLC model was implemented in a thematically-organized intermediate-advanced course and how students perceived their own success and self-efficacy within this framework. Instruction emphasized real-world content and differentiated...

Practical Strategies for Developing Speaking Skills in Asynchronous L2 Courses

Tue, 7 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article presents a curricular model designed to strengthen oral production in asynchronous second language (L2) instruction. Developed within a Spanish L2 program at a large public university in the southern United States, the model responds to a persistent pedagogical challenge intensified by the post-pandemic shift toward remote learning: fostering communicative competence without real-time interaction. Grounded in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the Output Hypothesis, Sociocultural Theory (SCT), and the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, the model integrates two complementary asynchronous oral activities: (1) Video Conversation Threads and (2) structured, proctored Oral Description Tasks. The first promotes interaction, confidence, and social presence through multimodal, low-stakes exchanges, while the second reinforces grammatical accuracy, lexical control, and procedural familiarity with formal assessment formats. These tasks establish a scaffolded progression...

Promoting Student Critical Thinking through Integrated Peer and Teacher Feedback in Online Writing

Tue, 7 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact on students’ critical thinking of integrating peer corrective feedback (PCF) with teacher feedback (TF) in online L2 writing instruction. Specifically, it examined how this integration affected students’ focus, logic, and argumentation. 90 second-year undergraduate students from the English Education Department at a large public university in Bengkulu, Indonesia participated in the study. They were divided into three groups, with 30 students each: an anonymous PCF+TF group, a named PCF+TF group, and a TF group. At the beginning and end of the study, all groups completed pre- and post-tests. Data were gathered from writing assignments and semi-structured interviews. The anonymous PCF+TF group scored significantly higher on the post-test for critical thinking in argumentative essay writing compared to the other two groups (p < 0.05). Furthermore, both PCF+TF groups showed significant improvements across the three critical...

Machine Translation and L2 Anxiety Among L2 Learners: Patterns, Motivations, and Pedagogical Implications

Tue, 7 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper reports findings from an empirical study that investigated the relationship between machine translator (MT) use and second language (L2) anxiety. Previous research has documented widespread MT use among learners, especially in recent years; this increase can be explained not only by MT’s accessibility and accuracy but also by students’ favorable perceptions of MT functionality and the higher quality of their work when aided by MT. Fewer studies have focused on the psychological factors that may be driving learners’ growing reliance on these tools. The present investigation examined MT use patterns, reasons for use, and L2 anxiety levels in lower-level and upper-level college students. The results revealed a high level of MT use by learners even at the more advanced level and high-frequency MT use among learners who reported more L2 anxiety. Furthermore, students reported anxiety and fear of judgment as predominant factors driving their MT use, which suggests...

Generative AI for L2 Materials: Disruptor or Perpetuator of the Status Quo?

Tue, 7 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Generative AI has been called a disruptor of the status quo. However, what does status quo mean when it comes to World Language (WL) education? In this reflective essay, I describe my forays into generative AI tools wearing the hat of a language program director and foreign language teacher-educator to explore the affordances and constraints of generative AI tools for materials development in WL education. First, I discuss what I consider to be the status quo in WL education, followed by a discussion of how materials creation is a literacy process. I then describe several use cases with AI tools (Twee, Questionwell, ChatGPT, Claude.ai), demonstrating uses that might constrain innovation in WL education, either by producing materials that align with past practices or by not affording a dialogic process of co-construction between user and tool. Finally, I explore ways that generative AI can serve as a helpful collaborator in language teacher workflows and conclude with implications...

Teaching for Social Justice: Incorporating Gender-Inclusive Language in World Language Classrooms

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From the perspective of two instructors of Chinese in US postsecondary education, this article provides insights into integrating social justice education in intermediate-level world language classrooms. Guided by the multiliteracies pedagogy framework for language education (Paesani et al., 2023) and the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition’s (CARLA) “Social Justice Lesson Plan Template” (2024), we introduced new text types—including a movie trailer and dating app profiles—for a lesson on the topic of dating and scaffolded social justice content for language learning. Instructors worked with students to identify existing stereotypes of gender and sexuality. Together, we challenged the hegemonic norms represented in the textbook and created new materials for gender-inclusive language. To empower student voices, we invited them to adapt the dating stories and design a dating profile. After presenting their work in small groups, students further engaged in critical...

Teaching Intercultural Competence in Higher Education Language Classrooms Using Virtual Reality

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this globalized world, technology has created opportunities for cultural learning within virtual reality (VR) environments, facilitating second language acquisition (SLA). Recent studies have reported that VR-assisted language learning reduces learners’ anxiety and influences learners’ positive affective factors in and beyond the classroom. However, little attention is given to VR’s potential in promoting cultural learning in language classrooms. In this article, I present VR’s potential for cultural learning and its practical application for language learning in higher education through a series of practical task-based and semi-structured activities using language-focused VR applications such as Immerse and Mondly. As a starting point for cultural learning in the classroom, these activities are designed to simultaneously develop learners’ intercultural, pragmatic, and symbolic competence by simulating authentic interaction in the target environment. These activities not...

Principles and Practices for Integrating genAI in Formative Language Assessment

Wed, 1 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Recent developments in generative artificial intelligence (genAI) have ushered in a shift in the educational paradigm. Despite the potential pitfalls in genAI, research in this field has also indicated that these technologies possess the capability to improve teachers’ workflows and have broader impacts on educational accessibility and effectiveness (e.g., Sullivan et al., 2023). Nevertheless, a significant gap persists in practical, in-class applications and clear, principled guidelines for integrating these technologies into everyday teaching. This article seeks to provide actionable strategies and prompts to ease teachers’ workloads and improve teaching by demonstrating how ChatGPT can generate formative language assessment items. In this investigation, we utilized three of TESOL International’s principles for exemplary teaching to develop formative language assessment items. By aligning genAI technology with established pedagogical strategies, this research highlights the...

Using ChatGPT in Learning Chinese Mandarin: An Interactive Dictionary Rather Than a Content Facilitator

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As a widely discussed AI tool in recent times, ChatGPT has been the subject of extensive research, particularly in EFL learning contexts where it is often utilized as a sophisticated grammar reviewer. This study shifted its focus to exploring ChatGPT's role in Chinese Mandarin acquisition. Seven senior students from an undergraduate Chinese-Portuguese/Portuguese-Chinese translation program in Portugal participated, with six completing a structured four-task learning activity. Analysis of participant conversations with ChatGPT, a written test conducted immediately after the activity, and a questionnaire assessing satisfaction, perceived learning effectiveness, prior tool usage, and learning outcomes revealed that ChatGPT can function as an interactive, adaptable, and comprehensive real-time dictionary for Chinese Mandarin. It effectively explains word meanings and expressions in specific linguistic contexts and suggests appropriate idiomatic expressions based on learners’ prompts....

Metaphors We "Language" By

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In recent decades, language education research has broadened its scope to examine personal perceptions of language(s), and different methodological approaches have developed to give voice to these perceptions. Seeing our relationship to language learning as an ever-evolving project of engagement (an autobiographical identity project) helps us to think differently about what motivates people to learn languages. First-person perspectives also highlight cultural patterns in our perceptions of different languages, and how these perceptions are shaped by politics and ideology. One way to challenge the view of languages as fixed or discrete systems is to look at how people use metaphors to describe and understand languages and their learning of them. In this article, I draw on Kramsch’s (2009) concept of the multilingual subject to offer a personal reflection on how my own view of learning has changed, namely from seeing it as a process of individual skill building to understanding...

An Awful Lot of this and an Awful Lot of That: Symbolic, Poetic and Permacultural Competences for a Maximal Multilingual World

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Taking Kramsch’s characterization of language pedagogy (1993, p.12) as its point of departure, this article offers symbolic, poetic and permaculture design principles as an ideologically restorative way of transforming a “little bit of this and a little bit of that” into a holistic, ethical framework which begins from the frameworks established by Indigenous cultivation of the land and codified into permaculture design principles by Holmgren and Mollison (Holmgren, 2017; Mollison, 1988; Whitefield, 2004). In addition, the article offers a view of UNESCO’s Languages Matter: Global Guidance on Multilingual Education, for which I have been a key author and from which the connections to the multilingual and ecological fields have been set. Drawing extensively on project work in the global majority world (aka Global South and Indigenous Peoples as well as those forcibly displaced) and from work with people seeking refuge through languages and arts, the article will demonstrate the...

Fostering Symbolic Competence by Integrating Linguistic Landscapes into the Chinese L2 Curriculum

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

To help language learners navigate the complexities of communication in today’s multilingual world, Kramsch (2009) calls for the development of symbolic competence, a capacity that extends beyond linguistic accuracy and fluency. Symbolic competence enables learners to critically examine how language reflects and reinforces social hierarchies, ideologies, and cultural norms. It also empowers them to negotiate meaning across languages and cultures, while reflecting on how language shapes both their own identities and those of others.

Linguistic Landscapes (LL), the visual and textual representations of language in public spaces, offer a practical and powerful means of fostering symbolic competence. Building on this theoretical foundation, this report presents a classroom project that integrates LL into the Chinese L2 curriculum. It outlines the project’s design and implementation, showcases examples of student analyses, and evaluates learning outcomes. The report demonstrates...

Preface to the Special Issue

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this preface, the General Editors present the special issue, "Multilingual and intercultural perspectives in language learning: Essays in honour of Claire Kramsch," edited by Simon Coffey and Zhu Hua.

Coda

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A coda to the special issue.

Beyond Multilingual Advocacy: Subjectivity and Affect as Method

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper considers how Claire Kramsch’s work on subjectivity and language learning contributes to a critique of multilingual advocacy, in which linguistics’ efforts of social engagement tend to focus on sites of inequality characterized by structural linguistic difference ideologically attributed to racialized and minoritized communities. While much criticism has been raised against this tendency, this paper argues that Kramsch’s focus on multilingualism as subjective experience not only offers a resource for undoing dominant language ideologies of the discipline, but also provides a concrete alternative basis for the field’s social engagement, via the way it foregrounds the affective, material, and political realities of being a multilingual speaker. Drawing upon recent works in other disciplines that have been actively turning to affect as a way of rethinking hegemonic epistemologies, this paper suggests considering affect as method, which allows our affects, particularly...

Construire sans relâche un habitus de la pluralité

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How do researchers in the humanities and social sciences collaborate when each of them belongs to different linguistic, academic, and ideological spaces? This situation highlights those who dare to tread more transgressive paths than suggested by the term 'international collaboration', which is inherently prestigious scientifically. The article pays tribute to the figure of the border passer represented by Claire Kramsch.

While it is generally assumed that research must be disseminated in English, this article sheds light on the underlying theoretical assumptions behind this imperative and critically examines them within a field—didactique des langues in French or applied linguistics in English—that places linguistic plurality at the heart of its inquiry. Drawing on two academic contexts, one rooted in the European, specifically the French, tradition, and the other situated within the Anglophone academic sphere, this article seeks to unpack the processes involved when...

Transcultural Competence and Empathy in Language Education: Imagining the Unimaginable

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The 2007 MLA report offered guidelines and competencies for foreign language majors at American universities in the age of globalization. The notion of translingual and transcultural competence suggests that today’s foreign language education is not merely a matter of language acquisition, but humanistic learning. The ultimate goal for foreign language learners should be to gain alternative ways of seeing the world, namely, “imagining the unimaginable” (Ozick, 1987). This underscores the central importance of empathy in foreign language education. Yet the true challenge lies in how to assess such an abstract concept. Even eighteen years since its initial publication, the report remains highly relevant, especially today, as we witness cultural, ideological, political and socio-economic divisions and the accompanying conflicts rooted in a failure to imagine the perspective of “others.”

This paper explores a new approach to assessing learners’ transcultural competence,...

Multilingual Rebellion: A Decolonial Approach to the Subjectivity of Language

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Building on Kramsch’s body of work on the subjectivity of language, together with her more recent work on the decolonialisation of applied linguistics, this article discusses the implications of challenging the unequal power relationships and coloniality of language (Kramsch et al., 2023). This decolonial approach will be further expanded by drawing on the notion of “linguistic encirclement” (Wa Thiong’o, 1981, 1986), which will highlight the oppression of linguistic and cultural minorities and their knowledges. The discussion on decolonising through language will centre on the positionality of the researcher. Firstly, the notion of ‘the “locus of enunciation” will introduce how the subjectivity of the researcher can be amplified and foregrounded. Secondly, autoethnography will be presented as a methodology of decoloniality that allows the researcher to be congruent with such a decentring approach to language that challenges and restores inequalities of power through multilingual...

Educating the Multilingual Subject

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One strand of Claire Kramsch’s work has been a deep reflection on what it means to be multilingual. Kramsch has argued that being multilingual involves subjective and symbolic dimensions of engagement with languages, cultures and interlocutors that have often been ignored in much language education practice. This article will reflect on the consequences of this thinking for language education and the ways that it has in turn expanded the scope and understanding of language instruction. It will consider what it means to posit the language learner as a multilingual subject living and communicating in and between languages and cultures and negotiating identities, as well as how the teaching and learning of another culturally contextualized language can be designed with reference to the developing multilingual subject.

Introduction to the Special Issue

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Claire Kramsch has a long and distinguished career in the field of applied linguistics. This is not the first and nor will it be the last occasion to honour her contribution to the field of language education and applied linguistics more broadly. Yet we are pleased nonetheless to present this collection of essays which pay tribute to the reach of Claire’s scholarship. Claire has authored many texts that serve as key references in intercultural and multilingual research and has developed several seminal concepts that have guided generations of teachers’ and researchers’ thinking and practice. The aim of this special issue is to celebrate Claire’s influence through the voices of a range of scholars whose professional trajectory she has influenced. As well as being an outstanding scholar, Claire’s personable character and lucid, fresh manner of articulation have won her the admiration and affection of all those who have worked alongside her in different capacities, whether as...

Ten Moments in Symbolic Competence

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Symbolic Competence (SC) has emerged as one of the key intellectual and critical contributions from Claire Kramsch’s five decades of published research so far, though we scholars and teachers still hesitate at times to apply it in our analyses of practical, multilingual settings. This essay takes the opportunity to reflect personally on the concept, and on how the complex features it illuminates in everyday life have shaped the author’s own formation in various dimensions. The piece takes as its particular inspiration Kramsch’s 2023 “Poetic Equivalence: Key to the Development of Symbolic Competence” as a model for self-reflection, historical contextualization, for its rigorous, fresh understanding of what “symbolic” does and doesn’t mean in everyday, multilingual life, and—to use a Kramschian turn of phrase—for articulating “why it matters.”

Rethinking “Action” in Critical Language Pedagogy: A Snapshot of Multimodal Resistance and Pedagogical Possibilities in China

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study explored the application of Critical Pedagogy (CP) frameworks at a Chinese university, focusing on a persuasive speech task in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speaking class. Situated within the theoretical foundations of Critical Language Pedagogy (CLP), the study investigated how first-year EFL students in China engaged with CLP-inspired materials and curriculum. The analysis of student-generated presentation slides revealed that the students adeptly undertook the CLP-inspired task, identifying issues, formulating solutions, and enacting local changes, albeit within the constraints of their challenging environment. The students’ strategic utilization of multimodal resources, such as personal anecdotes, metaphoric expressions, and visual aids, played a significant role in enhancing the persuasiveness and criticality of their arguments. The findings underscore the importance of considering contextual and situational factors when implementing CLP principles,...

Language Learning Affordances And Constraints Among English Teachers In Japan And Korea

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every year, many first-language (L1) English speakers move abroad to teach in international contexts. However, studies have not focused on these teachers as language learners themselves or considered how the ecology of L1 English Speaking Teachers (ESTs) workplaces may afford or constrain their access to speaking opportunities within the various communities of practice they participate in. This study attempts to fill that gap by examining the experiences of L1 ESTs in Japan and Korea to determine the roles that the workplace and co-workers play in the development of these teachers’ competence in Korean and Japanese. Quantitative survey data were collected from 40 L1 ESTs based in Korea and Japan, and qualitative interviews were conducted with a subset of 15 volunteers from the larger data set. Results show that various stakeholders such as co-workers and students as well as the physical environment serve as gatekeepers to the L1 ESTs’ legitimate peripheral participation as...

Reading‒Writing Connections: A Systematic Review Of Second Language Synthesis Writing

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Synthesis writing is a widely practiced form of academic writing in which students incorporate into their writing multiple perspectives from various sources. Although scholars have acknowledged that synthesis writing is particularly challenging for writers using a second language, few of them have systematically reviewed the relevant literature. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the discrepancy between extensive practice and the scarcity of reviews by assessing 92 empirical studies on synthesis writing produced during the last two decades (2004–2024). The aim of this review was a comprehensive examination of patterns in research contexts, theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and key research findings. The main findings suggest that most previous research was conducted in higher education settings, predominantly focusing on undergraduate students in North America (the US and Canada), followed by Asia (e.g., China, Japan, United Arab Emirates,...

Asset-Oriented Approaches to Learner Corpus Data

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this article, we discuss how learner corpus data can be used to promote asset-oriented approaches to language learning. We discuss how four tenets of asset-oriented approaches—challenges to the native speaker norm, accessibility/authenticity, advocacy, and agency—can be encouraged through using learner tasks. We introduce specific activities for Portuguese and Russian classrooms to promote this approach, which are freely available through our blog, and provide preliminary results from our teacher and student feedback on these activities.

Characteristics Of Effective Language Teacher Professional Development Programs For K-12 Teachers And University Instructors: Insights On Integrating Educational Technologies

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study explores language educators’ insights to identify the characteristics of effective professional development programs for K-12 teachers and university instructors seeking to integrate educational technologies into language teaching. In pursuit of this goal, a group of language educators participated in a professional development program designed to enhance their skills in experiential and technological material development in language teaching. After completing the program, educators were invited to evaluate it and provide insights on what characteristics define a successful language teacher professional development program focused on the integration of educational technologies in language teaching. Multiple data sources were analyzed to explore participants’ insights and experiences. Data collection involved written open-ended questions, a focus group conversation, and individual interviews. The findings suggest that participants in the language teacher professional...

L2 Learner Anxiety And Perceived Competence: The Case For Task-Based Language Teaching

Mon, 9 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study explores task comfort and anxiety levels among learners enrolled in two equivalent yet pedagogically distinct online introductory Spanish language courses. The first course adopts a Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach while the other aligns with a more traditional Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) orientation. Results indicate that both groups of learners experience mild levels of anxiety, but learners in the TBLT course developed a stronger sense of competence and felt more empowered overall to successfully negotiate communicative tasks. Therefore, this study promotes the adoption of TBLT at the beginner level as an approach to advance the development of oral competence and appeal to populations of learners with diverse interests and needs.

Understanding L2 Online Peer Tutoring Participation Through Response Formulations To Advice: A Case Study

Mon, 2 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Applying the single case analysis methodology, this study investigates how a peer tutee demonstrated his understanding of his peer tutor’s advice by using a particular type of formulation, response formulations to advice, to negotiate the pair’s participation framework in second language (L2) online peer tutorials. Although the tutor initially held the floor more often during the verbal interaction in the online tutorial, the tutee was able to move from peripheral to fuller participation by offering response formulations to advice. Two types of response formulations to advice were identified: (1) expressing the gist of the tutor’s advice to indicate direct comprehension, and (2) constructing an upshot to add a new viewpoint to the previous utterance by conveying unstated information (e.g., offering an account of what was not discussed in previous discourse). The tutee’s response formulations to advice provided the tutor with an opportunity to access the tutee’s L2 knowledge...

Thanks to Reviewers

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The editors of L2 Journal are grateful to the following individuals who reviewed manuscripts in 2024. Peer review is a cornerstone of scholarship and relies on the contributions of reviewers who are willing to give of their time to support other scholars in the shaping of their work.

Designing a Decentering Learning Experience with Advertisements: Teaching to Broaden Learners’ Interpretive Disposition

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In line with the perspective of Álvarez Valencia and Michelson (2022) and Liddicoat and Scarino (2013), who see interpretation and meaning-making as core features of teaching for interculturality, this article delves into the potential of advertisements to foster the development of learners’ interculturality. Focused on a curricular sequence designed for an advanced French course, it offers an example of a classroom learning experience intended to create an increasingly dissonant context to decenter learners’ frames of reference surrounding symbolic representations of Frenchness. Advertisements are particularly effective in eliciting decentering because they are filled with culturally situated references. Whether explicit or implicit, these references can create both consonance and dissonance, thus exposing the subjective nature of interpretation and meaning-making. The article begins by outlining the approach and frameworks used to structure the sequence. It then details the...

Reconceptualizing the Role of L1 in Second Language Pedagogy

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This reflective report aims to reimagine the role of the first language (L1) in the second language (L2) classroom by challenging the prevalent monolingual approach in second language pedagogy. Drawing from personal teaching experiences and recent developments in applied linguistics, I argue for a more nuanced understanding of the L1's potential in the L2 classroom. Following a brief description of the historical context in which the monolingual approach gained prominence, I juxtapose the concepts of Common Underlying Proficiency and translanguaging with the artificial limitations imposed by adhering to a strict monolingual approach. By exploring how strategic L1 use can bridge cognitive-linguistic gaps and empower learners, I propose practical strategies for incorporating L1 into the L2 classroom. This report contributes to the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and advocates for a more inclusive approach that values learners' full...

Reframing the Language Classroom through Discovery-Based Frameworks

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The past four years have seen radical upheaval in language pedagogy due to restrictions imposed by the outbreak of COVID-19 and the advent of generative AI. Increasing evidence that remote learning options can be just as effective as in-person ones has additionally forced educators to re-evaluate and re-articulate the methods and purpose of in-person classroom instruction. This report suggests that a discovery-based framework can help transform classrooms into spaces in which students go beyond simple skill acquisition to become a community of learners through an increased focus on first-hand experiences. These experiences furthermore promote curiosity and ownership over projects in the target language, extending learning beyond the confines of the classroom. With discussion of a successful example conducted in Korean language classes, the article explores how discovery-based frameworks reinforce acquisition of the target language as a tool for cultivating students’ relationships...

Exploring the Impact of Handwriting vs. Keyboarding on L2 Assessments: Biases, Integrity, Authenticity, and Literacies

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Is paper or computer better for assessing L2 students’ writing? The ineluctable transition to technology might suggest this question has already been answered. However, the technology divide in L2 assessments may have indeed widened since the pandemic: whereas some teachers have fully embraced technology in assessments as in instruction, others are reluctant to eliminate paper, owing to concerns about the reliability, integrity and authenticity of L2 production on computer. This article shares observations from several French classes at an American high school in which assessments that were otherwise identical were offered to students on both paper and computer. These observations revealed several overlapping areas of L2 research that merit further consideration, including instructor bias between media, academic integrity of student work, and the need to align the technological literacies between instructors and students. The reflection that follows points to specific...

Enhancing the Textbook’s Cultural Content within the University Museum: Students’ Perceptions of Two Activities

Fri, 4 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The authors, a language instructor and a museum educator, collaborated to enhance a textbook’s cultural content in a Spanish L2-third semester class. We integrated the university museum’s artifacts and one exhibition within regular classroom instruction and co-designed two activities. The activities were connected to the textbook’s cultural content. Each activity included a visit to the museum, a worksheet to work in the museum, and a written and oral task after the visit. Thirty-five students completed a questionnaire at the end of the semester to rate the integration of these museum visits with the rest of the Spanish curriculum. Most students were positive about the effects of the experience on their learning and did not see the activities as something extraneous to the language curriculum. This article offers food for thought to other language practitioners and museum educators regarding textbooks’ cultural content and university museums.

AI in the L2 Classroom: Serving Language Educators through Professional Development

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The spread of generative AI has been praised and criticized for engendering new possibilities and limitations for language education. While educators have praised AI’s ability to serve as a conversation partner, generate novel ideas for lesson plans, and offer tailored feedback, many instructors and scholars have voiced concerns related to AI’s biases and its impact on student learning and academic integrity. Responding to a need for further training and dialogue about AI, members of the Davis Language Center organized a professional development event in which instructors, students, and instructional technologists shared their perspectives and strategies for AI-mediated language education. The event also included guided practice on using these tools for pedagogical purposes, including writing effective prompts, interacting with AI tools, and engaging in an iterative, reflective process. Through our planning process, we discovered that balancing scheduled asynchronous tasks...

Antecedents of Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) in the French Classroom

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Antecedents of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) are important for practitioners and researchers to understand as FLE has been linked to important concepts like motivation and language achievement. The literature on antecedents is, however, rather scarce and overly dependent on top-down qualitative coding to fully understand this phenomenon. This report seeks to add to the knowledge of sources of FLE by investigating the antecedents of FLE in U.S. learners of French. The present study uses data collected from an open-ended survey and analyzed via an interpretive approach. The survey was sent out to students enrolled in undergraduate French courses at a large Southeastern university and a total of 50 participants responded to the questionnaire out of 183 directly solicited, for a response rate of 27%. The results revealed that content, teacher personality, and a sense of community were sources of FLE, with the sense of community taking the lion’s share of responses. This report...

Defining Graduate Academic Yiddish Proficiency: Results of an Evidence-Based Study

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In the field of second language pedagogy, it has become increasingly common to consider the real-world usage for language when strategizing goals and curriculum development for language instruction. Emerging from a reverse design perspective, which prioritizes desired outcomes as a starting place for curricular design, language instructors identify and define the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) they aim for their students to acquire. In cases in which existing proficiency guidelines are not well aligned with the real-world language use that a particular course is targeting, it is becoming increasingly common for instructors to design Languages for Special Purposes (LSP) courses that reflect the unique uses certain bodies of students may have for the language. This paper considers one such case, that of Yiddish for Academic Purposes. Using domain analysis, a multidimensional research framework that supports and undergirds the development of new LSP courses in an assessment-driven...

Reconceptualizing the Teaching of the Five-Paragraph Essay Through Concept-Based Language Instruction to English as a Second Language Writers

Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This case study reports a pedagogical approach informed by Concept-Based Language Instruction, which aimed to orient English as a second language learners to a systematic conceptual understanding of rhetorical skills in five-paragraph essay writing. The 12-week pedagogical intervention focused on teaching the organizational structure of the five-paragraph essay and modes of persuasion through SCOBAs (Schemas for a Complete Orienting Basis of Actions) in a test preparation course for the writing tasks in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Six participants completed three writing assignments and one analytic essay of a writing sample across the 12 weeks and received one-on-one individual tutoring sessions in the last week. The results demonstrate a holistic quality improvement in students’ five-paragraph essays and an observable improvement in the use of rhetorical appeals of Ethos and Logos strategies. In addition, the student-generated SCOBAs showed learners’...

Communicating with Humor: Poetic Exchanges in the L2 Classroom

Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As we strive to improve speaking skills in the L2 classroom, we often aim at “correct,” standardized language over the actual meaning of the spoken words. With less investment in the content, it is difficult for L2 students to appreciate the interactions and enjoy, for example, humor using the target language as they tend to remain continuously passive in the learning process under the pressure to speak accurately. In order to motivate students to communicate with their own voices in a relaxed learning environment, this report introduces a new way of expression and communication using a target language, that is, the use of linked poetry, in which students follow the rules of a mora/syllable pattern and exchange written poetic expressions with one another. This exercise of student-driven word choice in a stress-free setting triggers laughter and enjoyment that increase students’ incentive to appreciate the meaning of each word and the possibility of word combinations in the...

Ideology, Indexicality, and the L2 Development of Sociolinguistic Perception During Study Abroad

Mon, 6 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article explores one second language Spanish learner’s development of sociolinguistic perception in Peru involving target language variation and social indexicality in a study abroad context. Specifically, it investigates the perceptual mechanism that evolves in this context and enables L2 learners to interpret dialectal target language forms by linking them with elements of character, group traits, and other social attributes. An analysis of ethnographic data revealed two phases in this development. While the initial phase was characterized by the learner’s formation of contrastive social and linguistic categories and first-order sociolinguistic indices linking ways of speaking to kinds of people, the latter phase involved a rationalization and justification of these links. I claim that this produced an ideological field in which the learner located specific morphosyntactic variants as indexing social qualities like ‘licentiousness’ and ‘ineptitude’ via their association...

Thanks to Reviewers

Mon, 6 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The editors of L2 Journal are grateful to the following individuals who reviewed manuscripts in 2023. Peer review is a cornerstone of scholarship and relies on the contributions of reviewers who are willing to give of their time to support other scholars in the shaping of their work.

Introduction to the New Co-Editors

Mon, 6 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The new editors of the L2 Journal, Emily Hellmich and Kimberly Vinall, introduce themselves and re-introduce the journal.

Theorizing Transnational Language Teacher (Educator) Identities: An Autoethnographic Study of a Border Dweller

Fri, 8 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This autoethnographic narrative inquiry explores the lived experiences and identities of a transnational English language teacher (educator). The aim of this research was to gain insight into my own transnationality, in order both to better inform my beliefs and practices as an educator, and to highlight the value of exploring transnationality as an important dimension in language teacher identity (LTI) construction. Drawing on autobiographical writing and art work as data sources, constant comparison and line-by-line analysis were employed to identify themes in the data, which were synthesized with relevant literature to further make sense of and theorize (my) transnational LTIs. Featuring theme-focused experiences from my life, findings are organized in a past-present-future structure, looking back at how my past identities can inform my present identities, and how these past and present identities are informing my future imagined identities. Major insights gained from this...

Translanguaging In Applied Linguistics: A Comprehensive Systematic Review

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This article presents a comprehensive and systematic review of empirical studies on translanguaging in the field of applied linguistics, covering the period between 2008 and 2022. The review focuses on the characteristics of the studies, including the contexts and educational stages in which they were conducted, and the linguistic diversity of the participants. The review also examines the research methodologies and conceptual frameworks utilized by the studies. The major findings of the review reveal that translanguaging practices were employed for educational, social, and sociopolitical purposes. The article concludes with a critical discussion of the findings, recommendations for future research, and limitations of the review.

Tuning Learners to Linguistic Diversity using the “Your Words” Activity

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The “Your Words” activity invites students to explore how they vary the ways that they communicate in their various speech communities (Morgan, 2014; Rampton, 2020). Students may consider their speech communities in only general terms, such as “I am a speaker of English and Cantonese because I am a resident of Hong Kong.” Or “I am from Miami, so I speak English and Spanish at home. Or “I like to skateboard, and I share some jargon with my skate mates that I don’t use in other situations.” To help them reflect more deeply on communities for which they may not have names, the “Your Words” activity invites them to reflect on and share a word or phrase that they only use in specific social groups that form part of their lives. The discussion that follows encourages students to consider how they modify the way they communicate as they move through the different speech communities that are part of their daily lives. The activity is useful for raising awareness of speech communities...

Language and Integration of Refugee Children: Reflections on Delinking and Decoloniality

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this contribution we illustrate and discuss the decolonial approach adopted in a research project exploring the potential of including in education a language spoken by children and families from refugee backgrounds. The international project team from Palestine and the UK collaboratively designed a bespoke Levantine Arabic language course for beginners tailored to the needs identified by primary school staff, Arabic speaking pupils from refugee backgrounds, and their parents/carers. The course was offered to primary school staff in Scotland, enabling them to offer “linguistic hospitality” (Phipps, 2012) to Arabic speaking pupils and families. By delinking common assumptions and norms about language teaching/learning, the project strived to change the terms and the content of the conversation, unlocking possibilities for thinking and doing otherwise (Mignolo, 2007, 2018). In particular, the study questioned: who should be learning a language in an educational context; the teaching...

Language as power: Translanguaging’s interaction with Chinese international students’ English academic writing processes outside the classroom

Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

International students in the US face challenges in navigating university-level academic writing, particularly if English is not their first language. To succeed in their coursework, they must demonstrate mastery of course content, academic English, and writing conventions, while also balancing their native writing habits. Facing these difficulties, international students employ different resources (i.e., repertoires) to facilitate their writing. Understanding challenges international students face as well as resources they employ allows instructors to better support this population.This study examines the academic writing experiences of Chinese university-level international students through the lens of translanguaging in order to identify these repertoires and explore how students use them. The research question is: how does translanguaging interact with Chinese international students’ academic writing outside the traditional classroom setting? Through in-depth interviews...

Returning to Normal?: Reimagining Study Abroad and Language Learning for a Sustainable and Equitable Future

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Due to health and travel restrictions, COVID-19 has presented unusual challenges to international education. Meanwhile, the pandemic has also become a historical juncture overlapping with other political and cultural moments (e.g., renewed Black Lives Matter movement, resurgence of anti-Asian racism, extreme weather phenomena). These events have propelled a reconsideration of the complex relationship between access to and participation in study abroad, language learning, and social and environmental justice. In this paper, we draw on our collective experiences as practitioners and researchers across three languages (Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish) to argue that study abroad must be a part of equitable and sustainable world language education curricula. We begin by reflecting on existing issues related to access and participation in U.S.-based study abroad and the underlying ideologies that reinforce them. We then provide possibilities – within our spheres of influence – to reconceptualize...

General Editor's Preface

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Claire Kramsch introduces the Special Issue on 'Study Abroad During COVID and Beyond".

“I’ve a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore”: Negotiating the New Landscape of Study Abroad

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has wrought changes to the landscape of education abroad. This paper reviews some of the operational gaps exposed by the pandemic circumstances and then advocates for enhanced notions of communication, collaboration, and community needed to embrace change and close prior gaps. The paper concludes that developing a nuanced appreciation for the academic and personal realities of today’s students will facilitate increased access to the benefits of study abroad, thereby encouraging cross-cultural awareness and second language learning.

The Transformative Power of the Study Abroad Experience

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Language-related Study Abroad (SA) experiences can be catalysts for learner transformation in the areas of cognition, socialization, and/or affect by virtue of the location and experience. An Open Architecture Curriculum Design (OACD) framework can support, promote, and enhance such transformation, as evidenced in eight programs for young adults, including language students in government programs, referenced in this article. An educational philosophy that focuses on language learner transformation, Transformative Language Learning and Teaching (TLLT) has as its primary goals personal transformation that leads to multilingual/multicultural competence and learner autonomy; OACD is a fundamental principle of TLLT. Grounded in the work of Mezirow (1978, 1991), who first observed and described Transformative Learning (TL) in adult education, TLLT posits that the personal transformation cited involves cognitive, emotional, and cultural shifts occurring within the individual as s/he...

What Makes Study Abroad Transformative? Comparing Linguistic and Cultural Contacts and Learning Outcomes in Virtual vs In-Person Contexts

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

To what extent can the transformative power and language learning affordances provided by the study abroad experience be virtualized? The large-scale shift away from on-site study abroad to online learning in 2020-2021, caused by the COVID pandemic, has made it possible to compare data for in-person immersion learning versus digitally mediated forms of direct instruction and second language (L2) community engagement of otherwise similarly prepared L2 learner cohorts. The present study compares measured proficiency outcomes, as well as other performance-based data of late-adolescent and young adult U.S. participants in a group of federally sponsored overseas intensive immersion study programs for Arabic, Chinese, and Russian operating abroad for the period 2017-2019 and as virtual programs in 2020-2021 (in-person N=1388 and virtual N=770). Program data for early-stage learners, mid-level learners, and advanced learners are analyzed separately by target language, initial proficiency...

Perspectives and Motives Involved in Study Abroad: COVID, Race and SES

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The pandemic has impacted every aspect of academic life, including study abroad (SA), with 93% of programs canceled worldwide in 2020 (IIE, 2020). Long lasting consequences for SA are expected (Dietrich, 2020): a reduction in participation rates, an increase in online SA, and changes both in the nature and the importance of the factors that students consider for SA, with a potential new emphasis on health and personal safety. Our mixed-methods study relies on surveys and interviews to investigate Covid’s impact on students’ notions of the nature of SA as well as the factors guiding their choices. The MSA (Motivation to SA questionnaire: Anderson & Lawton, 2015) was adopted, adding two new factors: health and language learning. Two hundred twenty-nine participants were recruited during 2021; they belong in one of three categories: (a) students whose SA plans were canceled due to the pandemic, (b) students planning to SA, and (c) students who had not and will not participate...

Epilogue

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Afterword to the Special Issue

Learning from Locals: The Impact of Social Networks with Target-Language Speakers During Study Abroad

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Social network analysis (SNA) examines the relationships that an individual speaker creates and maintains with others in order to explain and predict language behavior. Over the past 20 years, SNA has been used by a growing number of researchers to better understand the language learner and the language learning process, especially in the context of study abroad (SA) in the target-language (TL) environment. Some of the earliest applications to L2 acquisition operationalized SNA through primarily qualitative data about learners’ attitudes toward the target culture and their interactions with TL speakers (Isabelli-García, 2006; Lybeck, 2002), while later studies have focused on developing quantitative measures of network strength based on criteria such as network density, multiplexity, and dispersion (Baker-Smemoe et al., 2014; Dewey et al., 2012, 2013; Kennedy Terry, 2017, 2022a, 2022b; McManus, 2019). This research establishes the central role of social networks in L2 acquisition...

Introduction to Special Issue on Study Abroad During COVID and Beyond

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Blake and Kimberly Morris intoduce their Special Issue on Study Abroad During COVID and Beyond.

Study Abroad in a (Post-) Pandemic World: Our New Normal and Some Reasons for Optimism

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We report on a survey study of a group of U.S. students studying abroad in 22 different countries in the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022 ( N = 261), as universities around the world began returning to in-person instruction but where a good deal of instruction was still conducted online or in some hybrid modality and where a range of COVID-19 restrictions were still in place. The anonymous online survey asked the students to estimate their concerns about the pandemic and study abroad prior to departure, gauge the level of COVID-19 restrictions in their study-abroad location, and then report on the impact of the pandemic on their learning, academic performance, and social interactions while abroad. Additionally, for those who were abroad for the purpose of improving or learning a language other than English, the survey had respondents share their perceptions of how the pandemic impacted their language learning. The survey also asked the students...

Interactive Cultural Activities in Virtual Study Abroad During the Pandemic and Beyond

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Some of the simplest affordances of study abroad became unavailable when students stayed stateside because of the pandemic-induced disruptions to international travel. These ranged from touring city and historical/cultural landmarks, having spontaneous and chance interactions with locals, participating in the performance of traditions and practices, visiting homes, engaging in domestic activities with host families and local peers, and developing a sense of community with other fellow students. This paper reports on three alternate, virtual cultural activities that were launched during the pandemic between a U.S. university and its study abroad partner institution in Morocco in order to help compensate for the health disruption. Survey responses, cultural products, and reflections from 118 participants were collected for this study over two Arabic summer intensive programs at the stateside university. The study explores the effectiveness...

When In Rome: Maximizing L2 Pragmatic Development in Study Abroad

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The onset of COVID-19 has prompted world language professionals to reconceptualize best practices in second language (L2) teaching and research during a time of limited interaction due to social distancing across the globe (Morris, 2022). Not surprisingly, study abroad programs that once fostered communicative and intercultural development were put on pause, also halting opportunities for the transformative learning that can occur in immersion contexts (Leaver et al., 2021). Because study abroad can provide L2 learners with authentic L2 input and opportunities for meaningful interaction in diverse social contexts in ways that traditional classrooms simply cannot replicate, it provides fertile ground for L2 pragmatic development, particularly when supported with explicit instruction (Morris, 2017). This paper provides evidence from two studies of pragmatics that justifies the importance of getting back abroad to maximize L2 pragmatic development. The first study of 16 advanced...

Study Abroad Programs in Transition from Pandemic to Endemic

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The language that is used to refer to COVID-19 is changing to reflect how the disease evolves. One of the changes is the use of the word endemic to replace pandemic , a modification that implies far reaching effects on goals for language acquisition and cultural integration, particularly in the context of study abroad. Study abroad programs need to be constantly responsive to living, working, traveling, and studying within a framework of the continued presence of a disease that shows no sign of abatement. In this chapter, the author will compare past goals of study abroad and new goals that administrators, faculty, and students are collectively creating as they adapt to acquiring language and culture in a learning environment that is now, by default, in flux requiring hybridized and flexible activities and objectives. Focal comments by administrators, faculty, and students are included in order to present perspectives...

Authors

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Author biographies for Special Issue

Does Collaborative Prewriting Discussion Always Help?

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Collaborative prewriting discussion (CPD) is one of the most popular activities in L2 writing classes. With the CPD task, students can discuss their writing plan with each other before they start to write. As a language teacher, however, I ask myself: does CPD always help? In fact, without providing instructions, EFL students typically talk about their ideas when they are asked to discuss, and they seldom provide feedback and discuss the organization of ideas on one another, which results in a meaningless discussion (Huang et al., 2021; Li et al., 2020; McDonough et al., 2018; Neumann & McDonough, 2015; Tatiana, 2021). Considering this important issue, I conducted a small project and I will share what I found from the two discussions and hope that these explorations will bring some valuable information about the CPD task to writing teachers teaching in similar EFL or ESL contexts.

Thank you to reviewers 2022

Wed, 4 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The journal would like to express its gratitude to the reviewers of 2022.

Equity, Access, and Inclusion in K-12 World Language Education: A System of Failure or Work in Progress?

Sun, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This qualitative study examined world language (WL) educators’ perceptions of equity in WL education. Using a sociocultural framework that emphasized the relationship between structures and agency, the analysis revealed that WL educators perceived key equity issues to include: a lack of access to WL study related to students’ race, socioeconomic status, and disability; world language teacher shortages; and a lack of culturally relevant, engaging curriculum. The participants described ways that they drew on their agency to effect change through professional development, curricular redesign, advocating for multilingual families, and engaging in efforts to overhaul policy and other institutional structures. The discussion and implications illuminate a need for a more systemic response to issues of WL access, equity, and inclusion that will require collaboration and action by educators, stakeholders, policymakers, and professional organizations.

Creating Social Justice Instructional Templates: Frameworks, Process, and Lessons Learned

Sun, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Although social justice and related critical pedagogies are rapidly growing areas of interest in language education, instructional materials for use across languages and levels and published as free and adaptable Open Educational Resources (OERs) are lacking. The purpose of this article is to describe the frameworks, process, and lessons learned related to the creation of three instructional planning templates that support social justice in language education and scaffold implementation of multiliteracies and social justice pedagogies. After defining social justice, the article summarizes the frameworks that inform the instructional templates, describes the process of creating, piloting, and revising the templates, and identifies the affordances and constraints discovered through this process.

Returning to the Classroom: an Autoethnography

Sun, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The following is an autoethnographic description of my participation, as a late-career French professor, in a summer language immersion class in Spain. My initial intention was to improve my Spanish and to assess how I responded to communicative pedagogy. I soon realized, however, that it was more intriguing to explore my L3 and professional identities, as well as the affective consequences of my experience.

‘Teaching English as service’ in Spanish language programs: A Translanguaging approach

Sun, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

In the context of Spanish language programs, service-learning provides authentic experiences to use the target language while working with the Latino community. However, in many cases the language competencies needed to work in the community do not always involve an exclusive use of the target language. This is the case of service-learning programs in which students teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults or children. This study presents a ‘translanguaging pedagogy’ in which tutoring sessions are planned around the use of both languages to teach and learn. Using a Critical Language Awareness pedagogy academic content covered in the course examines the language experiences of adult ESL immigrants through. This study advocates framing target language use in service-learning as a “communicative performance” with the aim of shifting notions of monolingual language practices and integrate new conceptions about real-life communicative...

Reflections on Dialogism and Doing Community in the L2 Classroom

Sat, 16 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

While group work is commonly discussed as an important aspect of communicative language teaching, its configuration is usually considered to be small groups of students rather than an entire group of course participants. Drawing upon Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism (Bakhtin, 1984; Holquist, 2002), this paper explores a view of group work as potential community building activity in the L2 classroom through the use of a group reflection tool involving the whole class.

Gamification as a Course Organizing Principle in Second Language Curricula

Thu, 7 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Gamification within courses has offered great opportunities for students to engage further into the course material. Traditionally, gamification is used with one or two elements of a course. This study investigated full course gamification of a Second Language (L2) classroom, which has not been explored heavily within research. The researchers used a constructivist grounded theory methodology to deepen the understanding of the student perception and possible impact of a full course gamification. Course curriculum, including textbook and assignments, remained the same for the 71 students enrolled in the L2 classes. The pedagogical approach to the course organization was gamified. Participants responded to open-ended questionnaires at the beginning and end of the course. The data from the questionnaire was coded line by line to deduce categories and then themes. Overall, students experienced higher levels of mastery learning, engagement, motivation, and lower levels of stress....

The Future of Translation in Higher Education: Introduction to the Special Issue

Tue, 1 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This special issue brings together a set of papers which look to the future of translation in higher education. It is a direct response to the flurry of publications which over the last two decades have highlighted and explored the value of translation as a pedagogical tool in modern language learning. In a now oft-cited early example, Cook (2007, p. 396) decried the marginality of translation in “mainstream applied linguistic and English language teaching theory” and called for a return to translation both in the language classroom and as a “major topic for applied linguistic research”. This call echoes through subsequent publications and now, at the start of the third decade of the millennium, there certainly is an ample body of scholarship, theory, and methodology that centers on translation in the language classroom. The changes are so dramatic and the signs so positive that some have gone so far as to speak of a “translation turn” in language teaching (Carreres, Muñoz-Calvo,...

Reflections

Tue, 1 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This final article brings together reflections written by all of the contributors to the special issue on “The Future of Translation in Higher Education”. In August 2021, the final versions of each article were circulated to all of the contributors. Each person had the chance to read all of the articles together and to see the context in which their own contribution would appear. Each person was then asked to submit a short reflection. There was no set formula for the reflections: some general questions were shared to get the ball rolling but each person was free to focus on whatever they found to be most important.

Before submitting the reflections, most of the contributors were able to meet on Zoom in late September 2021. The aim of the virtual meeting was to personalize the process of contributing to—and editing—a special issue and to share ideas for the reflection pieces. That conversation was a highpoint for all of us as we talked about the experiences, both rewarding...

General Editor's Preface

Tue, 8 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Claire Kramsch introduces the special issue on 'The Future of Translation in Higher Education'.

Gender neutral and non-binary language practices in the Spanish language classroom: Tensions between disciplinary and societal changes

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper is motivated by growing, inexorable tensions between societal impetus to advance inclusive (non-binary) linguistic change across many Spanish-speaking communities, and the seemingly removed reality of the Spanish as a world language classroom. As a first step in reconciling these tensions and breaking free from apparent disciplinary inertia, we set out to map out extant scholarly literature around these complex matters. This critical appraisal inspired by and rhizomatically anchored in queer and decolonial theories and guided by the urgent need for radical (re)alignment of our language teaching praxis to advocate for diversity and inclusion beyond violently oppressive, colonial, cis-heteropatriarchal norms. We begin by tracing the genealogy of inclusive language change in Spanish, and various attempts across Spanish-speaking communities to broaden understandings of grammatical gender in ways that reflect inclusion of gender-diverse and gender nonconforming people....

Beyond the crime scene: designing a criminalistics module in a Legal Spanish course

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

One of the major challenges for any L2 teacher is to integrate vocabulary components into a course. Determining what words to select in order to satisfy the goals of the course and what instructional methodology best suits the purpose of vocabulary learning are not easy tasks. Even more difficult is dealing with the formulaic terminology of a domain-specific vocabulary that students have not previously encountered. In this paper, I describe a criminalistics module within a Legal Spanish course that has a mock trial as a final assignment. In order to learn the terminology for the final assignment, incidental vocabulary learning through reading, watching a movie, and listening to a talk was seen as complementary, but not sufficient. Instead, intentional vocabulary learning has proven more effective because it reinforces retention of novel vocabulary and leads to its eventual production in the final task.

Do You Speak Translate?: Reflections on the Nature and Role of Translation

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The world of language education is intimately and undeniably implicated in the presence, use, and development of machine translation software. On a classroom level, students are increasingly using machine translation in the classroom and in the “real world,” through travel, study abroad, and work internships. On a professional level, this increased use raises concerns about the relevance of language education: what role does or should language education serve? On a theoretical level, the very prospect of using technology to manipulate language brings into question the nature of language itself. As machine translation technologies advance, language researchers and educators find themselves implicated in these broader conversations that touch on its influence on meaning making, communication, and the very meaning of being human in a digital era. In other words, machine translation is not simply a matter of using software like Google Translate to translate words from one language...

General Editor' Preface

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This first special issue of 2022 is guest edited by two scholars with attested expertise in the use of digital technology in foreign language education, in particular machine translation, and the issues it raises for applied linguistic research and practice.

Racialized Experiences of Language Identities: Spanish Heritage Learners Studying Spanish in a Non-Heritage Country

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The most recent Open Doors report by the Institute of International Education (IIE, 2020) indicates that the number of non-white U.S. study abroad students has been steadily growing over the past 10 years, and now it accounts for 31% of all students pursuing part of their education abroad. This study focuses on four Spanish heritage language learners (SHLLs) of Dominican, Mexican, Peruvian, and Colombian/Venezuelan descent with differing Spanish proficiency who enrolled in a short-term study abroad (SA) program for Spanish in Quito, Ecuador during May-June of 2017, 2018, or 2019. This SA program was sponsored by a four-year college in the southeastern U.S. This study included a closed-ended questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, (classroom) observations, e-portfolios, journals, and e-mails. A poststructuralist lens and Norton’s theory of investment were employed to explore the identities of these four undergraduates, their social networks,...

Lessons from a distanced stage: embedding a Zoom-mediated drama workshop in a language classroom