The present study examined dual language (DL) teachers' beliefs and practices regarding effective second language instruction. DL teachers are expected to integrate language teaching and content instruction. However, balancing the two areas of instruction has been proved challenging. It has also been reported that bilingual educators lack pedagogical skills and hold incorrect beliefs about second language acquisition. Five DL educators participated in the study. Data about the teacher's beliefs were collected using semi-structured interviews, and data about their classroom practices were gathered from their teaching journals. Second semi-structured interviews were conducted to reveal the factors influencing the enactment of stated beliefs. The data were analyzed qualitatively using the template analysis with pre-determined themes. Findings showed that the participants' articulated beliefs about effective second language instruction were generally in alignment with current thinking in the field of second language pedagogy and suggested approaches to language instruction in the DL classrooms. The participants' reported practices were generally congruent with their beliefs, except for some specific strategies. School and classroom factors appeared to be the most significant supports and hindrances to the enactment of the teachers' beliefs. These results have the potential significance for teachers to encourage self-reflection. They also offer schools some insights into understanding the challenges DL teachers face and the types of supports they need for effective second language teaching. Based on the findings, teacher preparation programs could consider an approach to professional development that attends to the pedagogical beliefs of individual teachers.

With the importance of oral communication skills and digital literacy skills for 21st-century learners (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2006), there is an increasing tendency to incorporate technology in language learning and teaching. In this trend, PechaKucha Presentation (PKP), a unique, fast-paced format of giving presentations, has recently been advocated for its benefits in developing learners' oral communication skill in various contexts (Angelina, 2019; Coskun, 2017; Mabuan, 2017). This paper presented a study that explored seven international students' speaking and listening experiences with PKP activities while completing the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program prior to their undergraduate programs in a US university. The study adopted a phenomenological design with semi-structured interviews, artifacts, and observations. Colaizzi's (1978) data analysis framework was employed to provide a comprehensive description of the participants' speaking and listening experiences with PKP. Findings revealed that (1) participants experienced a connection between emotions regarding PK presentations and their English speaking skills; (2) participants described cognitive and metacognitive skill use and awareness due to PK presentations experiences; (3) participants perceived audience as an important factor in presentation decisions; (4) these EAP international students were aware of and critical of their English- speaking skills; (5) they preferred more time for pronunciation and to convey information; (6) EAP peers' pronunciation hindered meaning making; (7), PK meaning- making processes included listening, reading, viewing, and critiquing their peers' presentation performance. The study also offered several recommendations regarding the most practical teaching strategies that emerged from the findings of this research. Further implications that may inform EAP educators and EAP curriculum designers of oral communication skills for international students were also discussed.

When the Covid-19 pandemic first hit the world in March 2020, all aspects of life were drastically disrupted, and the education sector underwent radical changes. An almost overnight shift from traditional classrooms to delivering instruction online became an enforced necessity rather than an option to continue education during the pandemic, which required teachers around the world to adapt to the new reality on very short notice. Because little research has been undertaken to understand language teaching practices globally during the pandemic from the teachers' perspectives, shedding light on how English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers responded to the emergency remote teaching (ERT) is important. Examining those experiences showed what impact this mode of instruction had on English language teaching in general and what plans there are for more successful teaching practices of similar possible scenarios in the future. This case study approach examined five Palestinian EFL instructors' perceptions and practices shifting to ERT during the Covid-19 outbreak. Through Zoom semi-structured interviews, the respondents reported changes to their pedagogical practices to adjusting to ERT, including changes to their communication, pedagogical, and classroom management strategies. While participants faced pedagogical challenges, as well as issues related to technology, communication, assessment, classroom management, lesson planning, and course delivery, distinct benefits emerged as a result of the switch to online teaching. Furthermore, participants reported their beliefs that online teaching and learning will persist in the post-pandemic era.

Stance and engagement are important rhetorical resources for writers to construct interaction with readers and ideas by marking epistemic evaluation and bringing readers into the texts. Building on previous research that suggests notable differences in the use of stance and engagement in academic discourse, this comparative study investigates the use of stance and engagement in scientific research articles. By comparing two corpora that contain 144 research articles in total across 16 scientific disciplines, this study examines if the numbers of stance and engagement differ between manuscripts (unpublished research papers) that are produced by nonnative writers and those that are published in leading scholarly journals. Further analyses are also conducted to examine four types of stance (hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentioning) and five types of engagement (reader pronouns, questions, directives, appeals to shared knowledge, and personal asides) between two corpora. Quantitative analyses indicated that manuscripts written by nonnative writers featured markedly more hedges and attitude markers than those published in leading journals; published research articles used self-mentioning and directives significantly more frequently than those unpublished manuscripts. Moreover, results revealed that unpublished and published research articles shared similar patterns with regard to the numbers of using hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and directives. In this study, research articles published in leading journals are treated as the "norm" in terms of using stance and engagement. Results are discussed by comparing patterning of using stance and engagement and presenting examples extracted from published research articles. Study limitations, pedagogical implication, and future research directions are suggested.

Writing instruction and assessment in foreign language courses have traditionally relied on independent writing tasks, which require learners to compose essays in response to short prompts. Concerns with the limitations of independent writing tasks (e.g., inauthenticity) have resulted in increased interest in integrated/source-based writing tasks. Integrated writing tasks require learners to use sources in their writing and thus resemble academic writing more closely than do independent writing tasks. A review of the research literature has revealed a significant lack of studies investigating both composing processes and written products in response to integrated writing tasks, French as a second language writing, source-based writing on a computer, and the use of modalities other than print sources (e.g., visual and audio sources). This study addresses the identified research gaps by investigating French learners’ composing processes, written products, and perceptions in response to an integrated writing task in which the participants read a passage, visually examine a graph, listen to an audio recording, and then write a persuasive essay based on the three sources. Participants were 38 university students enrolled in third-year French language courses. Data included think-aloud protocols, screen recordings, notes, essays, questionnaire responses, and interviews. Data analysis focused on (a) composing processes and time allocated to them; (b) total amount, location, attribution, and degree of transformation of language integrated from the sources into the essays; and (c) perceptions of the integrated writing task and source use. Results indicate that the French learners actively interacted with the sources and integrated them into their writing in a variety of ways. Despite a relatively high percentage of the total amount of textual borrowing in the essays, the participants’ tendency to acknowledge and transform language from the sources pointed to their developing abilities and skills in appropriate source use. Most students liked writing an essay in response to the integrated writing task and viewed the three sources as valuable resources for language, content, and organization. Finally, pedagogical implications for student writing in upper-level foreign language courses are discussed. By incorporating integrated writing tasks along with traditional independent writing tasks, instructors can diversify their practices in writing instruction and assessment, increase the authenticity of writing tasks, and prepare students for their future foreign language courses, academic studies, and professional pursuits.

Using interpretive qualitative research methods, this dissertation study examines how a telecollaboration in a social networking site affects learners’ intercultural competence development. In particular, it explores the changes in learners’ understanding of the concept of culture, as well as their understanding of their own and target cultures. Additionally, this study investigates what role the medium of the exchange plays in the project. Finally, it analyzes three individual learners’ experiences in an online intercultural exchange. Two intact classes of college-level language learners—U.S. students learning Spanish and Colombian students learning English—participated in an eight-week telecollaboration using Facebook. Each week students shared information about their own culture and reacted to the posts about the target culture made by the students in the partner class. This study analyzed 14 U.S. students’ experiences and learning, based on their pre- and post-telecollaboration questionnaires, reflexive portfolios, and pre- and post-telecollaboration one-on-one interviews. Data analysis demonstrated that the participants experienced a notable development in their intercultural competence. In particular, participants showed a more detailed understanding of the concept of culture, as well as the reasons for cultural learning and awareness. The activity of explaining their own culture to foreigners led the participants to an ongoing analysis of their own culture and, therefore, facilitated development in their understanding of the home culture. Specifically, participants were able to take a critical stance in their analysis and evaluate their own culture from the position of an outsider. Finally, participants gained knowledge about Colombian culture and developed an ability to analyze cultural products and practices, as well as infer information about cultural perspectives from that analysis. In general, the telecollaboration enabled participants to develop critical cultural awareness and change their worldviews from more ethnocentric to more ethnorelative. In regard to the use of Facebook, this popular social networking site proved to be uniquely suitable for a telecollaboration. It gave the participants an opportunity to create a personal learning environment that was accessible whenever and wherever they needed it. It also facilitated a bridging between participants’ learning and leisure online activities. The three case studies demonstrated that while any type of learner can benefit from telecollaboration, their experiences and the degree of intercultural competence development are individual. In addition, the development of intercultural competence appeared to be non-linear, which demonstrates the difficulty of its assessment. Based on the findings, the researcher concludes that telecollaboration facilitates the development of intercultural competence and, thus, is an effective way of addressing the challenge of culture instruction in foreign language courses. Additionally, the unique properties of social networking sites make them an easily accessible platform for telecollaboration projects.

Previous research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has shown that some of the systematic errors of second language (L2) learners can be attributed to the influence of the native language (L1). In fact, many hypotheses in generative SLA have focused on the role of L1 transfer ranging the spectrum from No Transfer to Full Transfer. The goal of this dissertation was to investigate L1 transfer by focusing on L1-L2 differences in terms of linguistic features; specifically, how differences in the featural and morpholexical organization of L1 and L2 pronominal paradigms affect SLA. In this work I operationalize L1 transfer in terms of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (FRH; Lardiere, 2009). The hypothesis pioneers conceptualization of L1 transfer as an initial attempt by L2 learners to establish a direct mapping between L1 and L2 forms. The FRH is particularly suitable to the study of L2 development because it predicts that when a one-to-one initial mapping is unsuccessful, L2 learners will gradually reorganize the L1 grammatical system until they attain (possibly complete) convergence. Empirical testing of the hypothesis is critical since determining when and why transfer occurs opens numerous possibilities to predict transfer errors and to develop pedagogical approaches to tackle negative transfer. In the current study I focus on the L2 acquisition of four 3rd person singular French object pronouns in the interlanguage of native speakers of English. Difficulties in the acquisition of Romance object pronouns have been amply documented in L2 research. However, most of the previous studies of the topic have focused on L2 acquisition of clitic pronouns and their syntactic properties. The present study takes a novel approach investigating the acquisition of strong as well as clitic pronouns. In my dissertation I test different kinds of knowledge including learners' comprehension of different kinds of pronouns. Going beyond production data, my experimental tasks include a grammaticality judgment task with correction, a picture selection task, and a self-paced reading task. The experimental tasks were administered to a group of native speakers (n=43) and L2 learners of French (n=87). The overall picture that emerges from the current study allows unveiling the initial mapping and subsequent reassembly of the semantic and morphosyntactic features implicated in the acquisition process of the four forms under investigation.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate similarities and differences in the listening behaviors of native speakers and learners of Japanese, focusing on the production of aizuchi and head nods. The term aizuchi is often interchangeably used with the word backchannel, and these are characterized as the listener's use of short utterances such as oh or uh huh in English or hai, un, or aa in Japanese. In this study, aizuchi is defined as a short verbal utterance that is produced in response to the primary speaker's speech in Japanese. A total of 14 NS--NS or 14 NS--NNS dyads were formed to elicit native speakers' and learners' aizuchi and head nods. With the exception of a few participants in their late twenties, most of the participants were female native speakers and learners of Japanese who were of college age. The learners of Japanese were native speakers of American English who had been labeled as intermediate/high-intermediate level learners of Japanese. Each interaction included a semi-free conversation and a narrative story-telling task, both of which were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The findings indicate that the differences in the use of aizuchi and head nods produced by native speakers and learners lie not mainly in their frequency, but in the types and functions. The results show that when the frequency of aizuchi and head nods was measured with a time-based scale, which was the frequency per 60 seconds, differences were found in the frequency of head nods and total frequency of aizuchi and head nods. However, no significant difference was found in the frequency of aizuchi and head nods based on the amount of speech the speakers produced. Aizuchi were categorized into 16 groups to investigate differences in their types. The results show that the learners were using less aa-group, hee-group, iya-group aizuchi but more soo-group aizuchi compared to the native speakers. The number of different aizuchi each participant used was also measured to examine the variety of aizuchi, and it was found that both the native speakers and the learners were producing a similar number of different aizuchi. Head nods were analyzed based on nodding count, and it was revealed that more multiple head nods were observed in the learner's behaviors. The functions of aizuchi and head nods were categorized into seven groups, and the distribution of the functions was analyzed. The results indicate that learners tend to use more aizuchi to express their understanding and reaction to their interlocutors' response solicitation, while the use of aizuchi that do not show their attitude was more frequent with native speakers. The distribution of the functions of head nods was similar between the two groups. By further examining the types and the function of aizuchi and head nods, the study sheds light on which types of aizuchi learners may be lacking or overusing. Pedagogical implications are drawn from the results.

This project deals with the sociocultural and pragmatic aspects of second language acquisition. Most current research in this field examines the ability of second language learners to produce socioculturally appropriate utterances in simulated speech settings. Researchers are interested in whether students can interact adequately within the confines of both their linguistic competence and the foreign culture's interactional norms. Analyses of learners' speech routines are quite valuable to our understanding of their ability to enact conversational routines. However, they do not indicate to use what the learners understand; that is, they do not tease apart what learners understand to be true about the language from what they can do under the pressure of performance. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine whether learners of Russian perceive the sociocultural weight of the two personal pronouns for 'you,' ty (informal/intimate) and Vy (formal/polite). In this project, the term understand is used in two ways, each of which is tested empirically. First, understanding implies knowledge about the pragmatic impact of the pronouns. Do learners correctly indicate which pronoun is appropriate in context? Second, understanding is listening ability. Do learners utilize their pragmatic knowledge when they listen to native speech? Or do proficiency factors, individual learner characteristics, syntactic saliency (overt pronoun vs. pro-drop), and overall attentional limitations affect their listening ability? Students at Middlebury College and at the University of Iowa participated in two experimental tasks evaluating their pragmatic knowledge and listening ability with the ty / Vy feature: (a) a metapragmatic judgment task and (b) a listening task using video clips from famous Russian films. Results indicate that pragmatic knowledge is not significantly different across proficiency levels, nor is perception of the pronouns in a listening task; that is, beginning learners and advanced learners demonstrate similar ability with the understanding of the feature. Furthermore, female learners outperformed male learners on the listening task, although performance on the pragmatic knowledge task did not vary by gender. These results add to the body of knowledge in second language acquisition and, more specifically, to our knowledge of how pragmatic features of a language are acquired.

Grounded in both interactionist and collaborative learning theories, this study empirically investigates the effects of interactive second language (L2) practice on subsequent individual L2 Chinese composition writing. In L2 classrooms, the learning of writing is often treated as an individual act. However, researchers (Hamdaoui, 2006; Susser, 1994; Weissberg, 2006) have argued that writing should be socially situated, and collaborative learning of L2 writing may generate the cognitive skills needed for the development of L2 writing ability. Two forms of interactive discussion were investigated: online text chat communication and face-to-face (FTF) oral discussion. Six third-year Chinese L2 learners participated in this study. The participants conducted five online-chat and five FTF pair discussion tasks. Upon completing each interactive task, students immediately wrote a 350-character composition independently on the topic that was addressed in the interactive session. Interviews were also conducted individually with the participants to elicit learner perception data. The primary results indicated that both mediums had benefits for the development of L2 Chinese writing in both cognitive and social dimensions, including improving L2 composition writing fluency and heightened motivation for learning Chinese writing. The collaborative pattern and the transfer process, however, differed between the two mediums. The collaborative pattern in the online chats was relatively equal, whereas the collaborative pattern in the FTF conversations was relatively unequal. The transfer process from the online chats to post-chat composition writing was more of a parallel process, whereas a more selective transfer pattern was seen from the FTF sessions to the post-FTF composition writing. The FTF conversations also stimulated a deeper thinking process and activated higher-level cognitive skills. In summary, the findings in this study support the integration of interactive practice in the learning of L2 Chinese writing.