The importance of narrative inquiry as an alternative approach to research in the humanities and social sciences has grown considerably over the past 20 years or so. Over the past decade, it has also become an established approach to research on second and foreign language learning and teaching through the publication of numerous data-based studies and several texts on narrative inquiry for applied linguistics. Focusing on studies published since 2008, this article outlines the scope of narrative research on language learning and teaching at the present time. It discusses recent innovations in data collection (the use of mixed and longitudinal methods and the use of narrative frames and multimodal data) and data analysis (focus on the discourse of narrative and the use of narrative writing). It concludes that these innovations represent a welcome trend toward methodological diversity that is strengthening the contribution of narrative inquiry to our understanding of the experience of language teaching and learning.

This article provides an overview of theoretical and research issues in the study of writer identity in written discourse. First, a historical overview explores how identity has been conceived, studied, and taught, followed by a discussion of how writer identity has been conceptualized. Next, three major orientations toward writer identity show how the focus of analysis has shifted from the individual to the social conventions and how it has been moving toward an equilibrium, in which the negotiation of individual and social perspectives is recognized. The next two sections discuss two of the key developments—identity in academic writing and the assessment of writer identity. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the implications and future directions for teaching and researching identity in written discourse.

This chapter proposes two alternative models for assessing English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Tests based on the first model resemble existing approaches to assessing English as a foreign language offered by such tests as TOEFL, and IELTS. This model assumes that interlocutors use varieties of English based on Standard English. What distinguishes tests of this model from existing international tests of English is that it explicitly allows test accommodations. Such accommodations modify the test delivery system in order to make it accessible and fair for ELF users without changing the construct. Tests based on the second model assume that ELF may be regarded not as a use of Standard English but as a code in its own right. Similarities to varieties of World Englishes such as Singapore English, Indian English are noted. In tests based on the second model, strategic competence takes precedence over linguistic accuracy. Although both models are somewhat problematic in practice, neither, it is argued, entails any radical reconceptualization of language testing beyond what has already been envisaged and/or enacted in the field. Nevertheless, future tests of ELF may have both symbolic and practical importance, giving greater authority and legitimacy to expanding and outer circle English voices on the one hand and giving flesh to definitions of effective intercultural communication on the other. The chapter concludes by cautioning against moving too quickly to assess ELF before it has been properly described.

This article describes second language uses of Internet communication tools, Web environments, and online gaming, and critically reviews existing research and emerging technologies representing diverse pedagogical conditions in three distinct computer-mediated configurations: (1) instructed and institutional intraclass discussion and interclass partnerships, (2) transcultural partnerships and structured participation in “open” Internet environments, and (3) interaction in ongoing Internet-mediated environments that include popular culture blogs and Web sites, fanfiction communities, language and/or culture communities, and online games. We propose that a critical-and-constructive appraisal of existing and emerging digital media, communicative genres, literacy practices, and the communities made possible through them, can help to forge more responsive, and more ecologically responsible, language-learning opportunities for students who are expected to navigate increasingly mediated social and professional worlds.

Content-based instruction (CBI), distinguished by its dual commitment to languageand content-learning objectives, has been translated into practice in diverse ways to meet the needs of second and foreign language student populations. This article explores the general characteristics of and challenges associated with content-based curricula by reviewing (1) case studies that document outcomes of CBI programs at elementary, secondary, and higher education levels and (2) curricular models that have been implemented in first and second language contexts. Included in this review of curricular models, because of its implications for second and foreign language contexts, is a brief explanation of Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI), an approach to content learning and reading development that has been used and extensively researched in first language settings. Empirical studies focusing on CORI, immersion models, and other CBI-related issues (including teacher–student interactions; teachers' oral discourse; and teachers' attention to language, content, and task) are summarized to illustrate the complexities of content-based curricula. The article concludes with a call for further research that can inform the practices of teachers, curriculum and course designers, materials developers, and individuals involved with assessment in content-based settings.

There has emerged, over the last decade or so, a fairly cohesive body of work centered around a socio-cultural approach to literacy (e.g., Cazden 1988, Cook-Gumperz 1986, Gee 1990, Graff 1987, Heath 1983, Pattison 1982, Scollon and Scollon 1981, Street 1984). This work argues that the traditional view of literacy as a private mental possession which can be quantified and measured in terms of discrete decontextualized skills is deeply inadequate. To see why this is so, consider the following simple argument centered around the notion of ‘reading” (Gee 1989).

It has been observed that plagiarism is a problem across specialities and professions, and it is probably becoming more rampant than ever in this electronic age. Based on a body of literature primarily in applied linguistics, this review focuses on textual plagiarism and antiplagiarism in second language academic writing. Following a conceptualization of plagiarism and an examination of some terminology employed in the literature to address the complexity of the issue, a number of perspectives taken upon plagiarism in the literature are examined. These include a cultural interpretation, a developmental perspective, a disciplinary perspective, student beliefs and practices, faculty perceptions, and a focus upon antiplagiarism pedagogy. The challenge and opportunity involved in dealing with plagiarism is then highlighted by reviewing work that has analyzed the problem in connection with the Internet, by exemplifying some antiplagiarism detection devices, and by relating these to John Sinclair's “idiom principle” of linguistic structure. The article ends by suggesting a few lines of future research on plagiarism.

Research on instruction in academic language in second language (L2) secondary settings is currently emerging as a focus in applied linguistics. Academic language refers to the disciplinary registers that students encounter in the secondary years, and using academic language calls for advanced proficiency in complex language across subject areas, posing challenges for teacher preparation. In this article we summarize recommendations from syntheses of research on adolescent L2 learners and then present reports of recent studies that describe instructional approaches that illuminate the recommended practices in contexts where students who speak languages other than English are learning school subjects in English. Three key instructional dimensions are highlighted: that teachers need knowledge about how language works in their subject areas, that academic language development calls for careful planning across a unit of instruction, and that students need support for engagement in classroom activities that promote the simultaneous learning of language and content. To prepare teachers for this work, secondary teacher education needs to incorporate a focus on language–content relationships in each disciplinary area. More research is needed to better understand and support academic language development, and we call for collaboration and dialogue between educational researchers and applied linguists concerned with these issues.

As increasing numbers of research papers in applied linguistics, language learning, and assessment use discourse analysis techniques to assess accuracy in performance, it is timely to examine at a detailed level the wide variety of measures employed. Ideally, measures need to capture accuracy in as valid and reliable a way as possible, but this has proved elusive. In this article, we systematically review the variety of different measures in used in these fields, both global and local, before presenting a more finely tuned weighted clause ratio measure which classifies errors at different levels, that is, those that seriously impede communication, those that impair communication to some degree, and those that do not impair communication at all. The problem of reliably identifying these levels is discussed, followed by an analysis of samples from written and spoken second language performance data. This new measure, grounded in a comprehensive review of prior practice in the field, has the advantages of being relatively easy to use, measuring accuracy rather than error, and evaluating smaller increases in improved performance than have previously been possible.

This article reviews recent evidence for the relationship between extralinguistic cognitive and language abilities in dementia. A survey of data from investigations of three dementia syndromes (Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia and progressive nonfluent aphasia) reveals that, more often than not, deterioration of conceptual organization appears associated with lexical impairments, whereas impairments in executive function are associated with sentence- and discourse-level deficits. These connections between extralinguistic functions and language ability also emerge from the literature on cognitive reserve and bilingualism that investigates factors that delay the onset and possibly the progression of neuropsychological manifestation of dementia.

In this article, we present an analytical approach that focuses on how transnational and translingual learners mobilize their multilingual, multimodal, and multisemiotic repertoires, as well as their learning and work experiences, as resources in language learning. The approach is that of translanguaging, which seeks to push the boundaries not only between different named languages but also between different modalities and across language scripts and writing systems. We base our arguments on a study of self-directed learning of Chinese via online platforms in the context of mobility and aim to demonstrate the transformative capacity of translanguaging. In doing so, we highlight the need for a transdisciplinary approach to language learning that transcends the boundaries between linguistics, psychology, and education, and in particular, the need to go beyond the artificial divides of the different modalities of language learning to strengthen the connections between research on bilingualism and multilingualism and research on language teaching and learning.

What has happened with the construct of foreign language aptitude since 1990, at which time symposium participants from around the world agreed that the "Time has come to rethink the notion of what constitutes aptitude to learn foreign languages?" To answer this question, we begin with a review of studies on foreign language aptitude and its measurement prior to 1990. We then describe research and thinking in the 1990s in several areas, including affective variables; language learning strategies; learning styles as contributors to aptitude; and aptitude as a cognitive construct affected by language variables. Next, we review research on individual differences in language learners and the importance of phonological/orthographic processing for foreign language learning. Finally, we suggest new directions for research in foreign language aptitude.

This chapter surveys recent work on language transfer and focuses on the intersection of second language acquisition (SLA) and linguistic relativity in what is often termed conceptual transfer. The two most famous exponents of relativity, Wilhelm von Humboldt and Benjamin Lee Whorf, developed their ideas largely from their study of Kawi and Hopi respectively, and both scholars viewed crosslinguistic influence as a manifestation of the “binding power” (to use Whorf's characterization) of language on thought. The views of von Humboldt and Whorf diverge in some ways, and the difference is relevant not only to issues in SLA such as ultimate attainment but also to theories of linguistic relativity. Indeed, some recent work on conceptual transfer indicates that even highly proficient learners may never free themselves entirely of the “binding power” of L1. The research reviewed also includes work with native speakers of different languages, suggesting real cognitive differences related to language in, for example, spatial concepts. The importance of distinguishing concepts from meanings is emphasized, as is the difference between meaning transfer and conceptual transfer. The chapter discusses in detail research on transfer involving spatial, temporal, and affective meanings, with some of the studies being interpreted as evidence of conceptual transfer.

In this chapter, we address, selectively, how applied linguists and those concerned with discourse analysis in particular, have recently approached the study of health care communication, especially in intercultural contexts, and relate these approaches to studies undertaken by researchers in other academic disciplines such as the sociology of medicine and by health care practitioners in the course of their own work. At issue will be questions concerning selected sites and themes, the degree of distinctiveness of research methodologies and different understandings of what counts as data, and questions concerning reflexivity and practical relevance in terms of the use to which findings can be put. Appreciating areas of difference and similarity is a necessary basis for establishing the desirable, but potentially problematic, partnerships among academic disciplines and between such disciplines and the work of professional practitioners, both in research and in professional development. As a sample site in the delivery of health care in the framework of cultural and linguistic diversity, we identify nursing, and use this site and its practices to advocate the collaboration of applied linguists, professional practitioners, and researchers from other areas of social science in the exploration of health care communication in multilingual/multicultural contexts and elsewhere.

When hearing or reading words and sentences in a second language (L2), we face many uncertainties about how the people and objects referred to are connected to one another. So what do we do under these conditions of uncertainty? Because relatively proficient L2 speakers have access to the grammar and lexicon of each language when comprehending words and sentences or when planning spoken utterances, and because the recent research suggests that these linguistic systems are not entirely independent, there is a critical question about how the knowledge of two languages affects basic aspects of language processing. In this article, I review how eye-tracking methodology has been used as a tool to address this question. I begin by discussing why eye movements are a useful methodology in language processing research, and I provide a description of one experimental paradigm developed to explore eye movements during reading. Second, I present recent developments in the use of eye tracking to study L2 spoken-language comprehension. I also highlight the importance of using multiple measures of online sentence processing by discussing results obtained using a moving window task and eye-tracking records while L2 speakers read syntactically ambiguous relative clauses. Next, I discuss research investigating syntactic processing when L2 speakers process mixed language. I end with suggestions for future research directions.

The term bilinguals' creativity is used here to refer to those creative linguistic processes which are the result of competence in two or more languages. The term is not interpreted in the sense of acquisitional inadequacies of the bilinguals in a particular language, as has generally been done in describing the linguistic behavior of the bilinguals' use of “non-native” languages. The concept creativity applies both to an individual bilingual and to a bilingual speech community (or a speech fellowship). The bilinguals' creativity entails two things: first, the designing of a text which uses linguistic resources from two or more—related or unrelated—languages; second, the use of verbal strategies in which subtle linguistic adjustments are made for psychological, sociological, and attitudinal reasons. Examples of such creativity may be drawn from non-native literatures written in English or French, or the code-mixed varieties of languages (see section 2 below).

Recognition of incipient change in the status of English as an international language has yielded a small but growing area of research addressing nonnative speaker to nonnative speaker (NNS-NNS) interaction. Issues concerning intelligibility are a key focus of this investigation, particularly as native speaker models have limited relevance to these new contexts of use. This review highlights current research from diverse areas of applied linguistics that have addressed aspects of intelligibility in both experimental and real-world settings. Current findings suggest that the processes by which understanding is achieved in English as a lingua franca (ELF) interaction are qualitatively different from those observed in native speaker (NS)–based interaction, and that this has implications for a number of research and practice areas. Following a definition of terms, the chapter surveys current research and considers its influence on current trends in English language teaching. Possible directions for further research are also considered.

With the rise of communicative methodology in the late 1970s, the role of grammar instruction in second language learning was downplayed, and it was even suggested that teaching grammar was not only unhelpful but might actually be detrimental. However, recent research has demonstrated the need for formal instruction for learners to attain high levels of accuracy. This has led to a resurgence of grammar teaching, and its role in second language acquisition has become the focus of much current investigation. In this chapter we briefly review the major developments in the research on the teaching of grammar over the past few decades. This review addresses two main issues: (1) whether grammar teaching makes any difference to language learning; and (2) what kinds of grammar teaching have been suggested to facilitate second language learning. To this end, the chapter examines research on the different ways in which formal instruction can be integrated with communicative activities.

This article reviews the concrete effects that the theoretical findings on the formulaic nature of language have had in instructed second language acquisition (SLA). The introductory section includes some terminological comments and a general discussion on the validity of adopting a formulaic approach in second or foreign language teaching. The second section discusses various points in time when instructional intervention is possible and presents the rationale adopted in the article to trace elements of formulaicity in instructed SLA. The next three sections each center on one aspect of foreign language teaching, namely, input, classroom activities, and feedback. The discussion broaches pedagogical choices, teaching materials, types of activities, and tools currently available to teachers and learners. The results show that the increasingly refined understanding of the formulaic nature of language has clearly impacted second language teaching but that a number of questions still remain unanswered. These questions pertain to the types of formulas that deserve teaching time and to the assessment of the actual learning outcomes of using a formulaic approach.

Constructivism has emerged in recent years as a dominant paradigm in education and has had a major intellectual impact on the development of pedagogy, especially in mathematics and science. Rooted in the cognitive developmental theory of Piaget and in the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky, constructivist notions have had an impact on the development and application of technologically enhanced microworlds and on linguistic investigation into literacy and narrative development. To date, constructivism has had little impact on language pedagogy; however, the advent of content-based pedagogical paradigms as an anchor of language education has opened new opportunities for integration of interdisciplinary collaborative approaches for language teaching and learning. Furthermore, the current emphasis on standardsbased accreditation and reconceptualization of teacher education programs will likely expand the horizons of language pedagogy, bringing constructivist approaches to the foreground in language teacher education and opening new avenues for linguistic and interdisciplinary classroom-based research.