Abstracts archive

This paper explores space as a factor in the complexity of language learner agency and identity. Where language learning happens influences how it happens. Language learning can also open up new spaces for the learner, so that where it happens becomes contingent on the learner’s agency and evolvin...

This paper reports a qualitative study of language identity among mobile European students in varied higher education contexts. Participants’ language learning history, current language practices and language identifications were investigated. Findings indicate the prevalence of a relatively fluid...

As a learner-centred and experiential pedagogy, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) stands in contrast to more established teacher-led and grammar-focused approaches. This presents challenges for implementation. This presentation draws on key findings from a longitudinal study to consider the role o...

This presentation reappraises the localist dynamics in the Applied Linguistics research and publishing ethos in Brazil as suggested by a survey presented at AILA 2017, and discusses the extent to which Brazilian Applied Linguistics remains a self-sufficient realm with an insular dynamic driven by re...

We present the findings of a novel parent-focused language intervention aimed at increasing parents’ language supporting strategies in their speech to children. Parents in the intervention group received a programme through a shared wordless picture book activity. Comparisons between pre and post-...

This study explores the impact of multimodal high variability phonetic training on five L2 Dutch vowel and consonant contrasts for L1 French learners of Dutch in Belgium. Training effects are calculated by comparing pre-, post- and delayed post-test scores on lexical decision tasks for an experiment...

Drawing on usage-based understandings of language, and specifically on research from conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, I will present data from an ongoing research project that examines the sequential and linguistic connections between two types of information-seeking questions - ...

This symposium explores the practices & effects of in-service tertiary foreign language(FL) Teacher professional development(PD) programmes. It invites qualitative / quantitative studies that analyze and evaluate either off-line or on-line tertiary FL teacher PD programmes aiming to enhance the teac...

The purpose of the research informing this paper was to examine the impact of workload creep on academic identities. Engaging in critical discourse analysis of interview data, emergent linguistic 'clusters' will be contrasted with clusters extant on university websites, suggesting that academic dign...

This featured presentation will discuss how various functions of working memory impact on input processing, noticing and L2 development of young L2 learners. The presentation will also consider how the characteristics of language learning and assessment tasks interact with individual variation in wo...

This paper retraces the changes in biographical research on young minority immigrants once the internet and social media became available in the 90's. It explores notions such as voice, identity, community and belonging that are conceived differently online, and the challenges the internet poses fo...

We argue for the importance of sustainability in practitioner research, with reference to our experiences of facilitating and researching English language teacher action research in Australia. We draw on a sociocultural ecological theoretical framework to propose ways in which sustainability can be ...

The current paper has two prime aims: a) to introduce and discuss the theoretical principles informing research investigating task modality effects, and b) to examine the extent to which task modality research findings can be implemented in L2 teaching and assessment practices.

This longitudinal intervention study analyzes (1) when and why L2 English and L2 Spanish development in the third age is statistically significantly increasing (or decreasing), and (2) whether our set of predictors (age, cognitive fitness, bilingualism, socio-affect, EEG) has a significant effect on...

This paper explores how a university student of Japanese in Australia structures her L2 experiences in her social networks and how these experiences are related to her L2 motivation. It particularly focuses on the changes in her social networks, as well as those in her L2 identities over 3.5 years.

Research into online learning from informal sources suggests a good deal of variability in learning outcomes. In a complex systems perspective, this paper proposes to explore the significant interactions between individual differences such as learning style and learners’ experience of the outcomes...

The paper investigates the interplay between academic language proficiency, remedial programs and academic achievement in higher education, focusing on (i) academic language proficiency as a construct; (ii) the relationship between academic language proficiency, individual learner variables and acad...

To expand discussions of teaching and learning beyond classroom spaces, this talk describes instances of embodied and situated action in language learning interventions using mobile Augmented Reality (AR), the primary objective of which is to embed languaging events and resources in phenomenological...

The production-oriented approach (POA) has been developed for over 10 years through several rounds of experimental teaching to optimize the implementation of the POA and improve its theoretical system.  It aims at overcoming the weaknesses (e.g. separation of input from output) in current Engli...

The paper provides an overview of studies of self-regulation in SLA, with special emphasis on those investigating the role of self-regulatory capacity in study abroad contexts. The overview serves as a basis for considering future research directions and suggesting how empirical evidence can enhance...

Our memory for linguistic input is fleeting. New material rapidly obliterates previous material. To overcome this “Now-or-Never bottleneck,” language users must chunk the input as rapidly as possible. To illustrate this chunk-based perspective on language learning and processing, results are pre...

This meta-analysis of genre differences in writing compares the findings to studies conducted within a task complexity framework. One of the goals is to determine whether or not theoretical frameworks for oral tasks can apply to written tasks or if written tasks are best explained in terms of commun...

This featured talk will examine challenges associated with teacher training for content-based instruction. I will discuss three studies across contexts: Canadian French immersion, subject teacher training in France, and bilingual education in China. I will also highlight the central importance of co...

Throughout their careers teachers individually develop their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). This PCK often remains unconscious or ‘tacit’. The lesson study professionalization approach provides a framework for becoming aware of it, discussing it in a team context, and in this way jointly c...

The introduction of Positive Psychology in applied linguistics in 2012 started a first wave of studies on positive and negative emotions of foreign language learners in relatively peripheral journals. Since 2016, we witness an exponential increase in empirical research in more mainstream journals, f...

The paper analyzes how food items are evaluated through both verbal and nonverbal means in an interactive meal setting. Multimodal resources are employed alongside verbal descriptions, including gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and gustatory noises. Evaluations take place both multimoda...

Referring to increasing interests in the linguistics of food and the study of sensoriality, the paper proposes an interactional embodied approach of sensory practices. Based on multimodal conversation analysis, it focuses on practices of tasting and expressing taste within activities dealing with fo...

The focus of this talk is on two case studies with relatively novice teachers, who participated in a multiliteracies-oriented OER project. Based on their experiences, it is argued that OER can serve a valuable role in the conceptual development of language educators by facilitating reflexivity.

I report on how the latest app technology (Video Enhanced Observation) can be used to research which features of a speaker’s talk listeners notice at which exact time during a video. The same video can be played to any number of users anywhere in the world, who each record what they notice when, a...

This presentation reports studies of infants at risk of language delay due to low socio-economic status or deafness, and provides evidence regarding 1) the mechanisms of early language development 2) the feasibility and acceptability of caregiver interventions and 3) the efficacy of such interventio...