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This paper highlights as issues of concern the rapid changes in technology and the tendency to report on partial validation efforts where the work is not identified as forming part of a larger validation project. With close human supervision emerging technologies can have a significant and positive impact on language testing. While technology seems to be constantly changing and improving, there is still a lot to learn in the approaches these papers take in identifying aspects of the constructs of interest amenable to operationalization and measurement through technology. In terms of validation, the paper suggests a number of important things to consider. These include presenting assessment arguments in a form that meets the needs of the stakeholder groups most clearly affected by the claims being made; working towards an interactive communication-based argument approach, ideally involving validators who are independent of the developer; and ensuring that any "partial" validation is explicitly linked to a broader argument. The paper ends by predicting that technology will see the practice of language testing changing radically from where it is today and while fairness, justice and validation will always be primary concerns, the challenges associated with establishing evidence of these will only increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing foreign language students with opportunities to engage in meaningful and purposeful communication and culturally authentic interaction with peers and native speakers is critical to successful second language acquisition and the development of intercultural competence. This paper describes research that investigated how selected native speaker mentors supported foreign language university students as they completed authentic collaborative tasks in an online community of learners. Intermediate and advanced level students of Italian at an Australian university collaborated with each other and with their assigned mentors through online resources provided in the course website. Data were collected and analysed through multi-data sources including online interactions, forum posts and individual and focus group interviews with mentors and students. Findings suggest that native speaker mentors actively supported students' learning and provided effective scaffolding across a number of domains. The paper concludes with specific recommendations to guide mentors and language educators in the process of assisting student collaborative learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the implications for teachers and teaching of the Ofsted Curriculum Research Review for Languages [Ofsted. 2021. OCRR Series: Languages. Published 7 June 2021. Available online OCRR series: languages – GOV.UK (). Accessed 8 June 2021.] (OCRR) and the content of 24 Languages Subject Inspections (LSI) in primary school foreign language provision carried out between October 2019 and March 2020. It illuminates practice by a single foreign language (FL) primary specialist. Her practice is compared and contrasted to the new Ofsted guidance and the National Curriculum requirements for English primary schools. This research adopts a phenomenological exploratory or discovery case study approach and data collection tools that respond to this overall design: Semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, emails, planning documentary analysis and a review of children's work. The findings show there are a myriad of factors which affect how languages are delivered in primary schools, including the number of language graduates, primary teachers' workloads and curriculum time. The paper concludes by considering the challenges that other teachers, not in the same situation as the FL teacher in this research, would have to overcome, without additional time or funding to also meet these requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on Open Learning. Topics include Open University distance learning tutors enhancing the expertise and practice through training and development, support, and resources; and focusing on higher education, secondary and primary education, and corporate training as a Foreign Language (EFL) students based at a language school in Tehran.

This paper constitutes the introduction to the special issue of Pedagogy, Culture & Society, titled 'Intercultural Communication Pedagogy and the Question of the Other', which emerged from the launch event of the Institute for Language Education at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. It proceeds from the arguments that intercultural communication pedagogy has clung too long to essentialist competency models that erase all differences, and that to counteract their effects one needs to pay greater attention to the most pre-original and non-synthesisable ethical relation between self and other. To do so, the paper draws on debates that have problematised competency models, discussing in depth two interrelated central themes that these debates have tended to overlook. The first theme refers to the possibility of the oppressed turning into oppressors in their efforts to free themselves from the unified notion of culture that competency models support. The second theme refers to the emancipatory mission of critical pedagogy which, despite its best intentions, operates within a normative framework from which self and other become the same. The paper culminates with the questions that drive contributions to this special issue, offering an overview of the papers that it contains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of UK Arabic language teaching in supplementary and mainstream schools from available research papers and provides a synopsis of recent developments in supporting Arabic teaching at school level and pathways to Higher Education. The largest study cited is the 2016 research collaboration between the British Council, the Universities of Leeds, Edinburgh, Goldsmiths, and London, and Alcantara Communications [Snowden et al. (2016. Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language in the UK – Strand 1 Research: How Arabic is Being Taught in Schools. London: British Council)], exploring current teaching techniques, teachers' perceptions of diglossia and variation in Arabic, and these are incorporated when designing teaching activities and materials. With surveys, interviews and lesson observations, Snowden et al. show teachers believe in the importance of communication as a learning aim and are familiar with the communicative approach but many base learning activities on traditional writing tasks and less on listening and speaking. It shows that Arabic diglossia remains a challenge with teachers stating that learning dialects is important, yet they struggle to find appropriate approaches and materials for it. This paper presents challenges faced by Arabic teachers including foundational teacher training, continuous professional development and material design, concluding with recent developments in supporting teaching Arabic as a community language and recommendations for addressing current challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign language learning is highly interactive and requires opportunities for academic speaking. The focus of this paper is how foreign language undergraduate students experienced this process in an online learning context. Through semi-structured interviews with seven undergraduate French, German and Spanish students, participants highlighted the challenges of speaking in a foreign language in an online environment and articulated the need for speaking skills which could compensate for the lack of visual clues. Drawing on the Oracy Skills Framework, this study suggests that certain skills were particularly pertinent and others could be added to fully reflect the reality of engaging in oral communication in an online environment. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we propose an adapted Oracy Skills Framework for a foreign language learning context which is timely and relevant for both online and face-to-face contexts. Second, we suggest ways in which teachers and students in higher education can support foreign language learners in speaking in online spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) as a secondary school subject is affected by two policies, namely the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and Progress 8, which contribute to the measurement of performance in exams at age 16 (GCSEs). In this paper, I discuss the concept of performance measurement in schools and the purpose it purportedly serves, before outlining these two policies and considering how they contribute to the culture of performance measurement and a non-neutral discourse around 'standards'. I argue that the two policies act in tension in a game of tug of war with one another in such a way that the net positive effect on the subject of MFL is zero, but that the negative effect on students is substantial. I suggest that the policies act to impose middle-class notions of what it means to be educated on students, with a substantial negative effect on students from low socio-economic status backgrounds both in terms of their interest in the subject and their perceptions of their own value within the education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have two goals in this paper: (1) To present an iteration of an instructional protocol in mathematics designed to simultaneously promote the mathematical reasoning and learning of the mathematics register by multilingual learners (MLs) and (2) to analyse empirical data to provide evidence of the viability of the instructional protocol for MLs. Using social-constructivism as our theoretical framework, we demonstrate how the ‘Discursive Mathematics Protocol’ (DMP) builds on Pólya’s problem-solving heuristic by integrating research-based ‘language practices’ and ‘essential teaching practices’. To address the paper’s second aim, we analyse videotapes and student work from two problem-solving lessons to examine the interplay of the language practices and essential teaching practices found in the DMP and how this interplay supports students to develop their mathematical reasoning, while learning the mathematics register. This study contributes to an emerging research field that considers the interplay among instructional design principles, language and students’ mathematical learning. This research is also an important contribution to the literature for practical reasons; it demonstrates that instruction promoting language acquisition and mathematical reasoning can be integrated during problem-solving lessons and benefits MLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper systematically reviews 150 (VR/AR)-supporting language learning articles from 2008 to 2019 and summarizes the development trends. The definition of VR/AR is given firstly, and then the model of VR/AR supporting learning is proposed. This model's language types, research participants, learning devices, learning goals, research issues, research methods, research domains and learning strategies act as a coding scheme here. Meanwhile, through review and analysis, empirical study has been proven to be in its peak period; the VR/AR is increasingly applied, and larger numbers of immersive devices are being used. Under such circumstances, higher education is the principal of research, and speaking/expressing and words are still the most significant learning goals. As for research issues, the first period (2008–2013), which focuses more on learners' opinions, learning behaviours, learning attitudes and learning performance, is still the main scheme even though the second period (2014–2019) has more research issues and wider research scale. Right now, research about teaching and learning has already drawn the most attention, and task-based learning, situated learning, and game-based learning are the most commonly used learning strategies. Finally, this paper analyses VR/AR used in language learning through SWOT analysis to provide more profound suggestions and further discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on language learner emotions mainly focus on Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE). They are primarily conducted in offline learning settings. This paper reports the empirical findings of an exploratory investigation conducted in a fully synchronous online learning environment for ab initio Korean. Through an Achievement Emotions Questionnaire administered to 117 students in an Australian university, this study measures learners' pride as well as their enjoyment and anxiety during four teaching weeks. In addition, this paper examines how learner emotions correlate with academic achievement as well as crucial learner and teacher variables. The study confirms many patterns of learner emotions in offline teaching environments, such as the association of positive emotions with positive outcomes and with some teacher characteristics, and the association of anxiety with negative outcomes. However, it also reveals patterns that appear to be new, warranting further empirical studies. The pedagogical implications of results for L2 teaching and learning are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses key themes of the 15th biennial conference of the Association for Language Awareness (2020), with a focus on increasing digital engagement in language education. The COVID-19 pandemic occasioned an abrupt transition to emergency remote language teaching and learning (ERLTL) worldwide. The ALA 2020 conference was also affected by this transition; originally planned as a located conference in Geelong, Australia, it was eventually held online, a first in ALA's conference history. The current paper engages with contemporary debates of language teaching and learning in two ways. Firstly, it traces recent discussions by presenting key findings from five papers given at the conference, and secondly, via a scoping review of literature focusing on critical lessons from the pandemic regarding language teaching and learning. The review captures recent research from the Australasian region. Key debates identified in the literature include the needs of teachers and learners during the transition to online learning, and how student engagement was affected. The literatures highlight that both educators and students have been developing new practices in teaching and learning resulting from the shift to online and blended modes, which may continue to shape language education and new pedagogies in the future. The 15th Conference of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA) was hosted online in late 2020 from Melbourne, Australia after the global pandemic had disrupted travel. In this paper, we present five papers from the conference and a literature review. The conference theme addressed how language teaching and learning are changing because of digital practices. The papers included focus on two main themes. The first theme relates to current beliefs and perceptions of educators about languages and language teaching. A second theme considers how the development of language awareness can be supported in the classroom, and with digital tools. The scoping review of literature contributes to these debates by examining findings from recent studies investigating the effects of the pandemic on language teaching and learning. This research snapshot focuses on the Australasian region where the conference was remotely hosted and where the authors of the current paper live and work. The Australasian region is also considered as one of the regions where the strictest lockdowns in the world were imposed, with far-reaching effects on teaching, learning, and research. We conclude with implications of the changes for language teaching and learning after the pandemic, and for the development of critical language awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, students learn content knowledge and a second/foreign language (L2) simultaneously. It follows that both content and language are assessed, although research on how to do so remains scarce. This study explores the interplay between cognitive and linguistic demands of CLIL assessments. Having analysed over 4900 questions in Science/Biology textbooks, workbooks and examination papers in Hong Kong, we observed that junior secondary assessments were dominated by low-level cognitive (i.e. recall of knowledge) and linguistic (i.e. no production or word-level production) demands, whereas senior secondary assessments required higher-order thinking skills (i.e. application and analysis of knowledge) expressed in sentences or even texts. Also, based on the analysis of 70 junior secondary students' performance in school examination papers, we noticed a potential hindrance of linguistic demands to students' performance in CLIL assessments. These findings together underscore the integral role of language in CLIL assessments and raise questions about the adequacy of existing pedagogical practices in preparing students to tackle both cognitive and linguistic demands in CLIL assessments, particularly when they proceed to higher grade levels where the demands in both dimensions leap. These have significant implications for CLIL assessment design, pedagogy and teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss the journal's theme of Special Education Needs, commenting on articles in the issue on topics including foreign language education, inclusive education, and dyslexics.

The article invites manuscripts focusing on language learning strategies (LLS) in foreign language learning and teaching from authors for the articles to be published in the June 2018 issue of "The Language Learning Journal."

What do pupils learn from bilingual interventions of civic education? This paper addresses this question by analyzing survey responses of 301 pupils who participated in a bilingual role-play about a televised debate on the 2022 French presidential election in French foreign language classes. The study shows, first, that the intervention significantly strenghtened the specific interest in the election campaign. Second, both internal efficacy and subjective knowledge increased, as did, third, pupils' actual knowledge about the election. Fourth, it appears that the pupils were able to sharpen their understanding of French political culture. However, it should also be noted that all other constructs that can be attributed to intercultural learning did not experience any changes as a result of participation in the intervention. This is also true for participants' general interest in politics, basal and advanced participation intentions, and external efficacy. I identify subjective knowledge about the French presidential election, internal efficacy, advanced participation intentions, and pupils' cultural self-reflexivity as key drivers for strengthening intercultural understanding about the French political culture. Our paper concludes by discussing the limitations of the study and its implications for empirical research and practice in bilingual civic education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reporting on the relationship between homework, foreign language learning and self-regulated learning, this paper examines how a teacher used homework to promote Japanese language learning in a Year 4 class at an Australian primary school. The study drew on naturally occurring data including classroom observations and student-produced video of themselves completing homework as well as interviews and a collection of documents and artefacts. Using a sociocultural analytical lens, the study found that homework can be a vehicle for the development and practice of self-regulation strategies as enablers of successful language learning, but only within certain conditions established by teachers, parents and the students themselves. The study found that in some instances teachers may not recognise or adopt opportunities for student self-regulated learning. The paper concludes with a pedagogical homework cycle to assist teachers to mobilise the potential of homework as a means of scaffolding foreign language learning beyond the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can Levinas's work help language educators respond ethically to encounters with students? This paper considers this question in the context of adult immigrants learning an additional language, and is interested specifically in the existential aspects of language learning. How does the experience of coming into being in a new language play out in the classroom encounter, and how, if at all, can language teachers respond ethically to this experience? The paper discusses three challenges when considering Levinas's ethics to answer this question. The first is that language education is dominated by what Levinas calls 'the Said'. The second is that the impossibility of knowing whether one has responded ethically results in a compulsive return to the pedagogical scene. The third and final challenge involves the tensions between Levinas's ethics and political critiques of language education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore how advanced college students use the past history and experiences of others to understand the present while learning a foreign language through a content-integrated curriculum. To assess student learning we operationalize Norris (2006. "The Why (and How) of Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in College Foreign Language Programs." The Modern Language Journal 90 (4): 576–583) learning outcomes model (content, skills and dispositions) through linguistic indices. The learning is documented throughout a semester via learners' written production, comparing the changes and expansion in the use of meaning-making resources that demonstrate their understanding of others through choices in the wording, logical organization of texts, and their positioning in relation to those contents. The participants have varied language trajectories ranging from heritage to L2 language learners of Spanish. The findings show how a content and language integrated curriculum focusing on a historical theme (i.e. Southern Cone dictatorships) through a particular genre (i.e. film review) can reveal students' content, skills and dispositions in an L2. Learners demonstrated their developing capacities in a foreign language and history through their production of written texts that allow them to use knowledge about the past to interpret the present via academic genres. The paper provides a framework for describing content, skills and dispositions learning outcomes with linguistic features that evidence the achievement of those outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing popularity of Virtual Reality (VR) has provoked scholars' and educators' interest to explore its potential as a learning environment for various fields of education. Along this line, several literature reviews have analysed and synthesised the educational use of VR; however, scholar activity is lacking a recent review of VR on a specific field of interest such as language learning. Thus this paper delineates the contour of scholarly literature on VR as an emerging technology in language teaching and learning. Using 17 high-impact journals and conferences in the fields of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Educational Technology as a source, 26 scholarly manuscripts were retrieved from 2015 to 2018, analysed and synthesised under the following foci: (a) technologies used, language learning settings and duration of educational activities; (b) benefits and limitations from using VR as an educational tool in the language classroom; (c) future research directions regarding the educational use of VR based on the reviewed literature. This paper argues that VR is an invaluable tool in the language classrooms but entails challenges regarding its technical configuration, as well as its pedagogical grounding. The study concludes with some discussion and implications for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(English) language teaching in Mexico occurs within 'coloniality. Hence, it is imperative to raise the critical multilingual language awareness of future language teachers in terms of colonial practices. In order to promote decolonizing pedagogies, this paper presents the results of a critical-ethnographic-action-research study, whose main goal was to unveil the discourses of coloniality present in the daily lives and personal stories of 37 student-teachers enrolled in a language teaching BA program while connecting the student-teachers to language teaching in general and the position of Spanish and English vis-à-vis Indigenous languages in Mexico in particular. The data originates from student-teachers' stories about (self)discrimination, their collection and analysis of memes, videos circulating in their social media, samples from their language textbooks, and a written piece in which the student-teachers identified and reflected on words and phrases stemming from coloniality. Based on an iterative and recursive analysis of the data and utilizing a decolonizing theoretical lens in connection to race theories in Latin America, this paper addresses three emergent themes: (1) race and physical appearance; (2) colonial linguistic hierarchies; and (3) awareness of the discourses of colonial difference. Mexico was conquered by Spain and endured colonialism for 300 years. Even though Mexico has been an independent nation for the last 200 years, there are still vestiges of colonialism in people's minds and daily practices. Consequently, the teaching of foreign languages, such as English, may carry some colonial practices, which may show in face-to-face conversations and through social media. Hence, the purpose of this study was to discover how colonial practices might be present in the daily lives and personal stories of 37 student-teachers enrolled in a language teaching BA program and how these colonial practices might be connected to the teaching of languages in general and the position of Spanish and English versus Indigenous languages in Mexico in particular. For this study, the researchers collected student-teachers' stories about (self)discrimination, and student-teachers' analysis of memes, videos circulating in their social media, samples from their language textbooks, and a written piece in which student-teachers' identified and reflected on words and phrases stemming from Mexico's colonial past. It was discovered that colonial practices were connected to race and physical appearance and linguistic hierarchies; that is, how certain European languages were perceived as better than local or Indigenous languages. Furthermore, the result show that student-teachers become aware of these colonial practices once they start analyzing language practices in different languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes Nepal's language education policy from a decolonial perspective, examining how rights-based (neo)liberal ideologies and policies do not necessarily contribute to creating space, either ideological or implementational (Hornberger, 2005), for Indigenous languages in education. Drawing on the theory of "decoloniality" (Quijano, 2007), I have argued that the efforts to create equitable Indigenous language education should go beyond a language-centric perspective and pay attention to recognizing and reinforcing critical historical consciousness of Indigenous communities. The data for this paper are drawn from a larger ethnographic study of multilingualism and language policy in Nepal. The analysis of ethnographically grounded dialogues with teachers and community members and the close observations of community activism and pedagogical practices shows that Indigenous communities transform discriminatory language ideologies, policies, and practices by embracing the centrality of their history, culture, and place as the fundamental aspects of Indigenous language education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language teaching preparation programs in Mexico have been part of the modernity/coloniality legacy favoring so-called "modern" languages (e.g., English and French) over Indigenous languages. The alleged neoliberal benefits these languages bring and their connection to "modernized" individuals and cultures overshadows the learning of Indigenous languages, whose speakers struggle with the colonial difference, the discourse that transforms otherness into inferiority. Situated in Oaxaca, the most culturally and linguistically diverse state in Mexico, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of an ongoing, longitudinal, critical-ethnographic-action-research project that has documented the recent inclusion of the Indigenous language Diidxazá/Isthmus Zapotec as part of a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree program in language teaching. Adopting a decolonizing theoretical lens and using vignettes co-constructed from participatory classroom and extra-curricular activity observations, photographs, and video recordings, ethnographic field notes, and on-going dialogue in formal and informal debriefing sessions, this paper presents the story of Kiara, the first Diidxazá teacher in this BA program. Based on an iterative analysis of the data, this paper addresses three main themes: (a) Indigenous teachers challenging the coloniality of being; (b) (Indigenous) women repositioning themselves; and (c) reflective activism decolonizing language teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has long been considered a global policy in language education. It has been borrowed and adopted by different polities across the world. However, it is still not clear why the CEFR, intended for European usage, has become a ubiquitous tool for overhauling the quality of teaching and learning English in many education contexts. In this paper, we examine the CEFR in Vietnam in order to gain an understanding about the underwritten socio-economic and political conditions, which induced the employment of this global language education framework. The paper proposes to consider the borrowing of the CEFR in Vietnam as a socially constituted phenomenon to elucidate the historical and social background of its local adoption. We argue that the Vietnamese authorities' decision to adopt the CEFR can be explicated on the basis of at least three sociocultural conditions: (1) recent changes in English language policy; (2) need for concrete economic and political innovations, and current efforts to reform higher education; and (3) the current tendency for administrators to look outwards for solutions to domestic issues in contemporary Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language textbooks have been –and still are- the centre of attention of substantial research in the field of applied linguistics, language education and instruction, and language studies, among others. This paper synthesizes results and findings from the current Special Issue 'The language textbook: representation, interaction and learning". In particular, it discusses how -and to what extent- this collective work expands our current undertstanding of the field. By drawing on the concepts of representation/communication, interaction and learning, the paper calls for more attention to empirically and situated research in the field so as to better account for textbook discourse circulation and use and to better capture the agentive role of students and teachers in negotiating textbook discourse, representations and contents. It is in this sense that a deeper articulation between representation, interaction and learning is needed to further explore the dynamics of structural and situated power and agency in language textbook studies. This can inform not only researchers, but also practitioners and other educational stakeholders, including textbook publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work explores how comic-based digital storytelling can support children and teachers in combining foreign language and content teaching in the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) framework. In particular, we focus on investigating three specific aspects: (1) the use of digital storytelling in terms of collaboration, engagement and ease of use, (2) the adoption of comic-based digital storytelling in the CLIL framework, and (3) the benefits and limitations in using digital storytelling in comparison to a paper-based version. In order to investigate these aspects, we develop a case study in a primary school in Italy. A class of 18 children and 2 teachers used a digital tool, named ComicsCLIL, with the aim of creating digital narratives in the CLIL framework. The results provide some evidences that comicbased digital storytelling can be a beneficial educational tool for approaching CLIL lessons. It emerged, in fact, that digital storytelling, as supported by ComicsCLIL, can facilitate this practice by being engaging, easy to use, fully educational while considering the collaborative aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building upon the genre-based research in literacy and English as a Second language (ESL) education developed in Australia in the past three decades, this paper reframes a genre-based approach to teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) in a primary classroom. Grounded in Bernsteinian sociology while also working in transdisciplinary dialogue with systemic functional linguistic perspectives, this approach to genre is illustrated with respect to CFL curriculum genres built in steps through power and control relations as well as phasal shifts in ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings. The paper identifies four CFL curriculum genres in a particular classroom and instantiates a curriculum genre of Chinese language learning through song that inducted disadvantaged students into the knowledge about language and subject contents. I argue that the reframed genre-based pedagogy, as a pathway to educational and social justice, can help teachers chart their lessons and has important implications for theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the recent studies revealing that official bilingualism policies in Canada are often used to reinforce a specific racial and linguistic order, this paper addresses the impact of these federal-level policies on education policies at the provincial level. From the policy genealogy perspective, we examine Ontario's Heritage Languages Program (HLP), a highly contentious provincial policy that is still in place today. By analysing the discourses circulating in public and within the Ontario Ministry of Education around a proposed bill in the legislature to bolster heritage-language instruction and a subsequent Ministry initiative, we argue that official bilingualism and policies of multiculturalism functioned as discursive vehicles for resisting an enhanced HLP and to heritage-language education per se in politically more tolerable ways. The first part of the paper describes the research design, and introduces the historical context which produced the HLP and the early conflicts over it. The second part discusses three specific findings: (1) a discussion of the Proposal and its relationship to Bill 80; and (2) the discourses present in the general public; and (3) the discourses present in Ministry-internal deliberations of the HLP in Ontario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the study of the agency of children aged 10–14 in their language practices as they interacted with their family members. The study was located in a Vietnamese migrant community in Victoria, Australia. In using a thematic, interactional analysis combined with a relational approach to agency, it was found that children’s agency emerged on a continuum which ranged from a more negative end of the continuum – manifested through the children’s explicit resistance to parental requests for home language use – to a more positive end of the continuum – manifested through their flexible linguistic repertoire in accommodating their interlocutors’ needs. Findings also suggest that the linguistic practices in the family domain surfaced as dynamic co-constructions to reflect the adults’ and children’s constant (re)negotiation in their everyday language practices in the home, which was also influenced by other factors such as children’s linguistic competence and the families’ linguistic norms. The study builds on previous findings on the relational nature of children’s agency by bringing attention to the different manifestations of children’s agency that arise in situ as they interact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a mixed-methods approach, this paper explores student views of plurilingual foreign-language (FL) teaching of English among primary-school students in grade 4. We investigate whether students who were raised in the majority language only and those who grew up speaking an additional minority language differ in their appreciation of plurilingual FL teaching and whether plurilingual FL teaching appeals to students with different profiles in linguistic, cognitive, attitudinal, or individual background factors. One-hundred and thirty-two students took part in a six-month teaching intervention, in which 20% of FL lesson time was devoted to plurilingual teaching. A qualitative analysis of student interviews shows mixed views of plurilingual FL teaching, with students speaking additional minority languages evaluating plurilingual teaching more favourably than majority-language-only students. In a quantitative analysis, we compare the groups of students who appreciated and those who did not appreciate plurilingual FL teaching in terms of their linguistic, cognitive or individual background factors. Students who appreciate plurilingual FL teaching display significantly more positive attitudes to the FL and a greater sense of academic achievement. Moreover, students appreciative of plurilingual FL teaching demonstrate significantly higher learning gains in productive vocabulary than non-appreciative students. In all, these findings indicate that attitudinal factors modulate the appreciation and the learning outcomes in plurilingual FL teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often assumed that colonial administrators across North Africa were involved, explicitly or implicitly, in the suppression of fuṣḥā (classical Arabic). This paper adds nuance to such generalisations by examining debates over Arabic language pedagogy during the French protectorate in Morocco. Drawing on official correspondence and internal notes exchanged between the Direction de l'instruction publique (DIP) and local school administrators, this article shows that, far from disregarding Arabic as a school subject, French colonial administrators actively attempted to reform and modernise Arabic language pedagogy by drawing on European pedagogical methodologies and new trends in foreign language teaching. I argue that these overlooked pedagogical reforms radically, if unintentionally, reframed classical Arabic from a divinely privileged language offering unique access to knowledge about the world, to merely one language amongst others, a token of a type, in need of being taught according to the universal rules of language pedagogy. In doing so, I suggest that protectorate-era Arabic classes in DIP-run schools helped lay the foundation for postcolonial debates over Arabisation and the status of Arabic dialects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamic and situated nature of language education policy in an Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centre through the lens of researcher-child relationality. Drawing on data from 4.5 months of linguistic ethnographic fieldwork in a pre-school in the Netherlands, one extended play situation that emerged between me as a researcher and a multilingual child is discussed in-depth. During our play, we interrelate with the pre-school's dominantly monolingual language education policy in multiple ways, ranging from manifesting it to challenging it, while we also constantly relate to the ECEC environment, and each other. Relationality is suggested as a fruitful pathway to understanding processual and dynamic language education policy processes, taking both child agency and researcher agency into account as it constantly emerges and intra-acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a qualitative study of 13 bilingual paraprofessionals at a university in the USA enrolled in a second language acquisition class that was part of a professional development programme. Drawing on socio-cultural theory, the study focused on documenting how the paraprofessionals negotiated the academic demands of a hybrid online second language acquisition class. Data collection was conducted in 2017 and then again in 2019 following completion of the professional development programme. Data was gathered through classroom assignments, a professional journal, and semi-structured interviews. Findings detail the ways in which and the conditions necessary for bilingual paraprofessionals to connect their own professional and personal experiences learning and teaching a second language to professional development. Classroom activities which provide a space for students to pair personal experiences with the academic were key. Suggestions for practice during professional development are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learner emotions represent sudden, dynamic, and complex adaptations to the language classroom environment. Recent Second Language Acquisition research calls for a more holistic perspective in approaching classroom emotions, one that considers emotional variations between and across learners, and which foregrounds the interconnections among emotions and between emotions and the learning environment. This paper approaches emotions from a complex dynamic systems perspective and investigates the classroom emotions of five university students of Korean as a foreign language using a Q methodology intensive single-case study design. Overall results show that students have sometimes similar, sometimes different emotional reactions depending on classroom events, indicating different levels of interaction between a learner's emotional system and other individual characteristics. Additionally, a more fine-grained analysis at the level of individual learners reveals clusters of emotions triggered by the same event and foregrounds the relevance of epistemic emotions for instructed foreign language learning. The results are discussed focusing on new hypotheses to inform future SLA emotion research and classroom practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the features of the growing prominence of English across the globe is the proliferation of English-medium instruction (EMI) programmes at all levels of education, driven by a neoliberal agenda which places a disproportionate value on English over other languages. While this spread has primarily affected more developed, urban contexts, EMI has also started to spread beyond the borders of large cities and into peripheral, rural areas, including those where minority languages are used. There is at present, however, a sparsity of research on how the introduction of EMI impacts the often delicate language ecology in such contexts. This paper presents the results of a study of how EMI policy was implemented at a primary school in the Deep South of Thailand, a region where the majority of the population speak Malay as their L1. The findings of this research, drawn on the basis of interviews, focus groups and classroom observations, highlighted the existence of a hierarchical linguistic ecology in which English and Thai, the international and national language, were privileged over the local language, owing both to their dominant position in official language policy and the attitudes of local policy arbiters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the links between learner corpus research (LCR) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) have long been debated, McEnery et al. (2019. "Corpus Linguistics, Learner Corpora, and SLA: Employing Technology to Analyze Language Use." Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 39: 74-92. doi:) claim that learner corpus data are not yet sufficiently integrated in SLA research. This article aims to go one way towards bridging the LCR/SLA gap by illustrating the benefits of collecting and analyzing data sets that better document multiliteracy practices. We first contextualize our work within the field of LCR where calls for more multidimensional data sets have been made. We then present a new database called MulTINCo - Multilingual Traditional, Immersion, and Native Corpus - collected in the framework of a project on Content and Language Integrated Learning in French-speaking Belgium. As our data set contains rich metadata and blends corpus data with other data types, we illustrate its potential for SLA research. In Sections 3 and 4, we describe the data collected and the interface. In the last section of the paper, we wrap up with a discussion on the methodological assets of such multidimensional data sets for SLA studies, and present directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the inter-relationship between attitude, language and ideology, a course in interculturality and language teaching, and language learning of South-East Asian marriage migrants.

Foreign language textbooks not only aid language learners in developing their linguistic skills and knowledge but also reshape their cultural identities. Drawing on theories of critical curriculum studies, this paper examines cultural representation in two sets of US-produced Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) textbooks for American college learners at elementary and intermediate proficiency levels. Verbal and visual data comprising text and images were discursively examined with content analysis focusing on the distribution of cultural representations, the selection of cultural content, and the editorial strategies of inclusion and exclusion. Findings indicate that the textbooks skilfully employ eclectic approaches to addressing culturally controversial matters among various Chinese-speaking groups, such as Mainland Han Chinese, Taiwanese and ethnic minorities in China, in line with an overarching pan-Chinese cultural ideology. Implications are derived from the findings for CFL educators and teachers of other culturally contested foreign languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms, it is assumed that non-language content subjects provide more authentic communicative contexts for students to learn a foreign/second/additional language (L2). However, learning abstract concepts and academic language in an L2 simultaneously is also challenging for CLIL students. It is thus important for CLIL teachers to unpack and repack both abstract concepts and academic discourse for the students. 'Semantic waves', which model classroom practices of both unpacking and repacking, is arguably a key to understanding cumulative knowledge-building. Applying the concepts of semantic profiles and semantic waves, this paper analyses the classroom discourse of two CLIL science lessons in Hong Kong. In one lesson, the semantic profile mainly consists of downward shifts. The teacher adopted various useful strategies to unpack science concepts, especially with multimodalities, everyday L2 and students' L1 resources. Yet, there was limited repacking. In contrast, some repacking was observed in another lesson, where the teacher provided explicit instruction on academic language and guided students through academic writing tasks. A semantic wave can thus be observed there. These findings on strategies for unpacking and repacking provide significant insights into knowledge building in CLIL contexts, and may hence illuminate CLIL pedagogical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embedded in a Systemic Functional understanding of education as an initiation into knowledge structures and specific activities, both of which are fundamentally mediated by language, this paper addresses one of the critical concerns around CLIL: a possible mismatch between students' cognitive level and their L2 proficiency. The focus is on acts of classifying, comparing and contrasting facts, objects, phenomena, abstract ideas and concepts. Such cognitive and verbal actions are key in the construction of specialist knowledge, having been bundled in an umbrella cognitive discourse function (CDF) categorize. To operationalize this CDF, we develop a conceptual map through an exploratory, data-driven analysis of an oral learner corpus in L2 English and L1 Spanish on science and history topics collected in primary bilingual schools in Madrid. We also use SFL tools to examine lexico-grammatical choices which students employ to realize categorize across the two subjects and languages. The analysis shows that students encounter a range of difficulties, both conceptual and linguistic, when forming complete and appropriate categorizations in both languages. The results obtained across subjects reveal clear subject-specific tendencies in how categorizing is carried out: comparing seems to be a defining figure of thought in history while classifications were predominant in science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of watching an entire season of a French series with the streaming service Netflix in an out-of-classroom context. University Dutch-speaking low- to high-intermediate learners of French were divided into two groups: a control group who only took the tests (N = 37) and a treatment group (N = 65). Learners in the treatment group watched six episodes with glossed captions provided by the Chrome extension Language Learning with Netflix (i.e., they could access the meaning of the words in the captions whenever they wanted) within a maximum of 21 days. We examined learners' incidental vocabulary learning gains by means of a form and meaning recall test and also analysed learning gains in relation to different variables: word-related factors, the use of glossed captions and learners' vocabulary size. Results revealed that participants recalled approximately 35% of the word meanings and 28% of the word forms. Besides, learning gains were positively influenced by the use of the glossed captions as well as vocabulary size scores. Findings also demonstrated that frequency of occurrence positively impacted learning gains, especially when target words appeared more concentrated in one episode rather than across different ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the importance of considering the wide variation among language learners has been brought to the forefront in recent years, the impact of such individual differences on the process of second or foreign language writing has been largely neglected. This paper aims to explore the ways in which individual students develop and transfer strategies within and between foreign language (FL) and first language (L1) writing. A two-phase intervention of strategy-based instruction was conducted primarily in the FL German classroom, and later also in the L1 English classroom of a Year 9 (age 13–14) class in a secondary school in England. This paper draws on in-depth qualitative data from writing tasks and stimulated recall interviews. A range of students' trajectories through the intervention were evaluated and four distinct writer 'profiles' were identified: the strategic writer, the experimenter, the struggling writer and the multilingual writer. Both the development and transfer of strategies for these students were shown to be influenced by a complex and dynamic range of factors such as the learner's proficiency level, their level of metacognitive engagement with the task, their attitude towards writing and their strategic use of other languages in their repertoire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language and learning advisors (LLAs) play a vital role in supporting the academic development of a fast-growing population of international students. This paper tackles the professional development practices for LLAs and barriers to their professional development. Using Bourdieu's concepts of field and habitus, the paper addresses the mutual interactions between the work environment and LLAs' thinking and actions regarding providing language and learning advice to international students. The analysis of 44 semi-structured interviews with LLAs from 18 institutions shows that there was a scarcity of targeted professional development opportunities for LLAs to improve their expertise directly related to international students and internationalisation of education. Financial shortage, time constraints, casualisation conditions, managerial issues, academic to professional employment re-classification for LLAs and the ongoing marginalisation of LLAs have created unfavourable contexts for LLAs' professional development. The paper points out the critical need to create better work conditions for LLAs, to ensure more investment in creating targeted opportunities for LLAs' professional development and to provide more resources and attention to support their enactment of agency and development of professional capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Filmstrip (a roll of 35 mm positive film containing still images and text) was a medium widely used in educational settings between the 1940s and 1980s. Projected still images were accompanied either by recorded narration or a text read out aloud for the audience, which made filmstrip a unique multimodal medium before videotapes. Filmstrip can be given a special status in the media history of Eastern Europe, where, in addition to education, it was extensively used in home entertainment. This paper presents the technical and sociocultural aspects of this medium and addresses questions about the current trend of digitization, online publishing and translation of filmstrips by amateurs. The paper argues that working with filmstrips offers considerable pedagogical advantages in foreign language teaching and acquisition. It also discusses a survey conducted at Osaka University, where filmstrip translation was used as a preparatory activity of L1 subtitling. The findings show that besides improving learners' reading and translation skills, the translation of filmstrips might be an optimal didactic tool for sensitizing learners to questions of audiovisual translation, and preparing them for more complex audiovisual translation tasks such as subtitling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first provides a brief overview of the history and current usage of the concept of competence in academic research, and then undertakes a critical discussion of how the term is currently used in educational policy. The running example used throughout the paper is competence in foreign language learning. The PISA study is discussed to demonstrate how the concept of competence has come to prominence in the international discourse on education in recent years. Following this, particular attention is given to the situation in Germany where there has been a shift towards competence as an aim of teaching in recent years, coupled with an increased focus on standards and accountability. The relationship between competence and standards is examined critically, since some authors appear to use the two interchangeably whether or not this is justified. Finally, the Common European Framework for Languages (CEFR) and a German curriculum document are examined critically with regard to their use of the concept of competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English language teaching (ELT) research in Egypt is about four decades old now. The study reported in this paper attempted to identify the main trends in the ELT research in the Egyptian context though analysing the research areas, topics, contexts, and methods in 143 published studies and comparing the orientations noted in them to the ones revealed previously in the unpublished studies reported by graduate students in the country. Though some relative differences were found between the published and unpublished studies in the areas and contexts researched, both types of studies were similar in the research methods used and nature of the topics covered. Specifically, the experimentation, data quantification, and stereotyping aspects remarkably noted in these studies have caused some methodological, topical, and contextual research gaps in ELT research. The paper highlights the following four main causes of the dominant ELT research trends: the local educational research culture, the inappropriate interdisciplinarity approach, reading sources and institutional regulations, and researchers’ over-reliance on convenience sampling. In light of these results and interpretations, the author suggests some steps for reforming ELT research practices in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of assessment orientated policy in 2016 marks a significant change in Scottish education as it will establish standardised national testing. Teachers in Gaelic medium education are well placed to offer insights as they have had considerable autonomy regarding assessment and this paper is the first to consider the impact of this specific reform in Scotland. Three linked themes emerged from thematic analysis based on focus group data. Participants were keen to discuss the climate regarding Gaelic medium education linking concerns with the ongoing reform of assessment policy. Policy and practice implications are discussed as well as the anticipated impact the assessments may have on pupils and teaching staff. This paper contributes to the understanding regarding the role of standardised tests in education and feeds into an understanding of policy development through the lens of immersion education highlighting uncertainties held by teachers when reform is underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a group of secondary school students' feelings about Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) using a self-determination theory (SDT) lens. It adds to the limited, existing literature on TPRS and is the first to study it from a purely motivational perspective. The paper analyses the extent to which students perceived that TPRS satisfied SDT's three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. It employs a case study approach, using data from classroom observations, background group interviews and focus group interviews. The findings conclude that TPRS is a decidedly motivating and engaging method for foreign language (FL) learners. The three needs of SDT were found to be highly interrelated with satisfaction of one influencing positively on the others. The findings suggest that the autonomous nature of co-creating stories with the teacher, result in a heightened sense of personal ability and belongingness to the group. The results reinforce conclusions from other studies, suggesting that activities that are perceived as fun, interesting, novel and different are most likely to develop intrinsic motivation in FL learners. The findings have implications for increasing intrinsic motivation in FL classrooms around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data collected within the context of a teacher education course designed to raise student teachers' critical language awareness. Firstly, we describe the process of selecting, editing and constructing a bank of thematic extracts of filmed classroom interactions and interviews for use in teacher education. Secondly, we explore the impact of these materials on students' willingness and desire to reflect on issues concerning language and consider the ways in which these resources were most effective in fostering student teachers' empathy and knowledge about language. The data analysis reveals that the use of the filmed extracts, in combination with theoretical readings and discussion, was highly instrumental in helping student teachers to develop a deeper understanding of the issues and the theory behind linguistically inclusive pedagogical practices and in empowering them to act as agents of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]