WeiWei Yang, in her forum piece, raises two main criticisms of the authors' "TQ" article on grammatical complexity: "The study the authors conducted [1] is not capable of answering development-related questions and [2] is mathematically questionable" (Yang, 2013, p. 190). In addition, Yang's article has a third goal that is not explicitly…

The recent "TESOL Quarterly" article by Biber, Gray, and Poonpon (2011) raises important considerations with respect to the use of syntactic complexity (SC) measures in second language (L2) studies. The article draws the field's attention to one particular measure--complexity of noun phrases (NP) (i.e., noun phrases with modifiers, such as…

The purpose of the study reported in this article is to investigate the effect of two instructional approaches--focus on forms (FonFs) and focus on form (FonF)--on the acquisition of a set of nouns and adjectives by young Japanese children who were complete beginners. The article begins by defining FonFs and FonF and considering the theoretical…

This article presents an ethnographic study of how bilingual teachers and children use their home language, TexMex, to mediate academic content and standard languages. From the premise that TESOL educators can benefit from a fuller understanding of students' linguistic repertoires, the study describes language practices in a second-grade classroom…

Over the last two decades, a growing body of research has shown positive impacts for task planning in task-based instruction (e.g., Ellis, 2005; Foster & Skehan, 1996). However, what learners plan during pretask planning, and whether any specific planning strategies are more beneficial in encouraging learners to attend to linguistic forms and…

Although English language learners (ELLs) are currently the fastest-growing group among the school-age population in the United States, there is surprisingly little information on their participation in postsecondary education. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), a nationally representative sample of eighth graders…

This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the discursive positioning of native-speaking English teachers (NETs) in schools in Hong Kong. It draws on insights from discourse theory to examine NETs' self-positioning, and their positioning by other stakeholders, as part of a dynamic process of identity formation. The participants were…

With an increase in the number of learners and speakers of English as an additional language entering the English language teaching field, especially in Outer and Expanding Circle countries and some migrating into the Inner Circle countries (e.g., Jenkins, 2009), there is an urgent need to prepare, and understand the experiences of, English…

The study reported in this article aimed to investigate the way working memory capacity (WMC) interacts with careful online planning--a task-based implementation variable--to affect second language (L2) speech production. This issue is important to teachers, because it delves into one of the possible task-based implementation variables and thus…

Much has changed for today's language learners. The people, artifacts, and popular culture of a target language are often highly accessible to language learners and teachers, despite geographical barriers. This accessibility, of course, is possible through mass media and electronic forms of communication. This is phenomenal. But with this…

Most second language (L2) researchers and teachers would agree that input, often defined as the language a learner hears or reads, plays an important role in L2 learning. There is a great deal of research investigating which types of input are most beneficial for learning, how learners process and internalize input (e.g., Schmidt, 2001), and how…

Extensive reading (ER) has become a common feature of many English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) programs. There is evidence that reading large amounts of easy, interesting material may improve foreign language skills, most notably in vocabulary, reading rates, and overall proficiency. However, teacher evaluation of extensive reading…

This quasiexperimental study examined the effects of different focus-on-form techniques, and the durability of such effects, on adolescent beginners' acquisition of request supportive moves. Three treatments were implemented: (1) the incidental group was exposed to input and involved in meaningful output activities; (2) the implicit group was…

This article discusses the use of a reading curriculum designed to incorporate all of the proven practice components of reading as suggested in the United States National Reading Panel report (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). These practices are phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.…

Integrated writing tasks that involve different language modalities such as reading and listening have increasingly been used as means to assess academic writing. Thus, there is a need for understanding how test-takers coordinate different skills to complete these tasks. This study explored second language writers' strategy use and its…