L2 Journal

Applying the single case analysis methodology, this study investigates how a peer tutee demonstrated his understanding of his peer tutor’s advice by using a particular type of formulation, response formulations to advice, to negotiate the pair’s participation framework in second language (L2) online peer tutorials. Although the tutor initially held the floor more often during the verbal interaction in the online tutorial, the tutee was able to move from peripheral to fuller participation by offering response formulations to advice. Two types of response formulations to advice were identified: (1) expressing the gist of the tutor’s advice to indicate direct comprehension, and (2) constructing an upshot to add a new viewpoint to the previous utterance by conveying unstated information (e.g., offering an account of what was not discussed in previous discourse). The tutee’s response formulations to advice provided the tutor with an opportunity to access the tutee’s L2 knowledge and thereby offer more mediation to enhance the tutee’s metalinguistic knowledge of the target language. The tutee’s upshot formulation in particular also influenced the type of advice he received. Overall, this study highlights how peer tutees’ use of response formulations to advice, enhanced by the affordances of online mediation such as real-time audio interaction, facilitates greater conversational participation and deeper engagement, which leads to more meaningful, cooperative, and effective tutorials.

This study explores task comfort and anxiety levels among learners enrolled in two equivalent yet pedagogically distinct online introductory Spanish language courses. The first course adopts a Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach while the other aligns with a more traditional Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) orientation. Results indicate that both groups of learners experience mild levels of anxiety, but learners in the TBLT course developed a stronger sense of competence and felt more empowered overall to successfully negotiate communicative tasks. Therefore, this study promotes the adoption of TBLT at the beginner level as an approach to advance the development of oral competence and appeal to populations of learners with diverse interests and needs. 

This study explores language educators’ insights to identify the characteristics of effective professional development programs for K-12 teachers and university instructors seeking to integrate educational technologies into language teaching. In pursuit of this goal, a group of language educators participated in a professional development program designed to enhance their skills in experiential and technological material development in language teaching. After completing the program, educators were invited to evaluate it and provide insights on what characteristics define a successful language teacher professional development program focused on the integration of educational technologies in language teaching. Multiple data sources were analyzed to explore participants’ insights and experiences. Data collection involved written open-ended questions, a focus group conversation, and individual interviews. The findings suggest that participants in the language teacher professional development program emphasize promoting multimodality, preparing teachers for implementation, welcoming teachers’ language learning philosophies, addressing critical perspectives, and presenting examples and resources. The results point to implications for the refinement of language teacher professional development programs, highlighting effective practices that provide continuous and sustainable support post-training, involve teachers in setting the goals of teacher education programs, and take into account their needs and classroom settings.

Synthesis writing is a widely practiced form of academic writing in which students incorporate into their writing multiple perspectives from various sources. Although scholars have acknowledged that synthesis writing is particularly challenging for writers using a second language, few of them have systematically reviewed the relevant literature. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the discrepancy between extensive practice and the scarcity of reviews by assessing 92 empirical studies on synthesis writing produced during the last two decades (2004–2024). The aim of this review was a comprehensive examination of patterns in research contexts, theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and key research findings. The main findings suggest that most previous research was conducted in higher education settings, predominantly focusing on undergraduate students in North America (the US and Canada), followed by Asia (e.g., China, Japan, United Arab Emirates, and Iran). Regarding the theoretical orientations used in these studies, most researchers used cognitively oriented approaches, followed by social or sociocultural approaches. Methodologically, quantitative approaches were used slightly more than qualitative ones, followed by an approach emphasizing quantitative methods, or eclectic (QUAN + qual). The areas of synthesis writing receiving the most attention were source use, predictors of writing scores, task representation, and writing processes. Overall, many empirical studies highlighted students’ continuous struggles with source use, underscoring the need for systematic instruction to enhance their synthesis writing skills.

Every year, many first-language (L1) English speakers move abroad to teach in international contexts. However, studies have not focused on these teachers as language learners themselves or considered how the ecology of L1 English Speaking Teachers (ESTs) workplaces may afford or constrain their access to speaking opportunities within the various communities of practice they participate in. This study attempts to fill that gap by examining the experiences of L1 ESTs in Japan and Korea to determine the roles that the workplace and co-workers play in the development of these teachers’ competence in Korean and Japanese. Quantitative survey data were collected from 40 L1 ESTs based in Korea and Japan, and qualitative interviews were conducted with a subset of 15 volunteers from the larger data set. Results show that various stakeholders such as co-workers and students as well as the physical environment serve as gatekeepers to the L1 ESTs’ legitimate peripheral participation as Japanese and Korean speakers in their workplaces. Affordances for language learning in the workplace included speaking the target language (TL) with coworkers, in the classroom, with students, in social activities with TL speakers, and situational factors like the location of their desks within their workplaces. Constraints, on the other hand, included speaking English with coworkers, social activities with other English speakers, the location of their desks, and TL speakers speaking English to them. 

This study explored the application of Critical Pedagogy (CP) frameworks at a Chinese university, focusing on a persuasive speech task in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speaking class. Situated within the theoretical foundations of Critical Language Pedagogy (CLP), the study investigated how first-year EFL students in China engaged with CLP-inspired materials and curriculum. The analysis of student-generated presentation slides revealed that the students adeptly undertook the CLP-inspired task, identifying issues, formulating solutions, and enacting local changes, albeit within the constraints of their challenging environment. The students’ strategic utilization of multimodal resources, such as personal anecdotes, metaphoric expressions, and visual aids, played a significant role in enhancing the persuasiveness and criticality of their arguments. The findings underscore the importance of considering contextual and situational factors when implementing CLP principles, as the efficacy of this approach cannot be assumed to be universally applicable, especially across diverse groups of Chinese students. Factors like the students’ educational background, institutional dynamics, and socio-political climate shape their willingness and capacity to engage in transformative praxis. Future research should explore the impact of teacher-student dialogue on the production of CLP-inspired tasks within relatively oppressive and hierarchical structures.

In line with the perspective of Álvarez Valencia and Michelson (2022) and Liddicoat and Scarino (2013), who see interpretation and meaning-making as core features of teaching for interculturality, this article delves into the potential of advertisements to foster the development of learners’ interculturality. Focused on a curricular sequence designed for an advanced French course, it offers an example of a classroom learning experience intended to create an increasingly dissonant context to decenter learners’ frames of reference surrounding symbolic representations of Frenchness. Advertisements are particularly effective in eliciting decentering because they are filled with culturally situated references. Whether explicit or implicit, these references can create both consonance and dissonance, thus exposing the subjective nature of interpretation and meaning-making. The article begins by outlining the approach and frameworks used to structure the sequence. It then details the methodology employed to search for, select, and sequence advertisements. Additionally, the article explains the choices of cultural references related to Frenchness and their potential to create consonance and dissonance. The description of the sequence highlights the questions guiding classroom interactions, illustrating how the selected advertisements successfully cultivate learners’ dispositions to move beyond the constraints of their frames of reference and interpret meaning from a different perspective. The article concludes with pedagogical interpretations and strategies for implementing a decentering-focused pedagogy using advertisements.

This reflective report aims to reimagine the role of the first language (L1) in the second language (L2) classroom by challenging the prevalent monolingual approach in second language pedagogy. Drawing from personal teaching experiences and recent developments in applied linguistics, I argue for a more nuanced understanding of the L1's potential in the L2 classroom. Following a brief description of the historical context in which the monolingual approach gained prominence, I juxtapose the concepts of Common Underlying Proficiency and translanguaging with the artificial limitations imposed by adhering to a strict monolingual approach. By exploring how strategic L1 use can bridge cognitive-linguistic gaps and empower learners, I propose practical strategies for incorporating L1 into the L2 classroom. This report contributes to the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and advocates for a more inclusive approach that values learners' full linguistic repertoires.

In this article, we discuss how learner corpus data can be used to promote asset-oriented approaches to language learning. We discuss how four tenets of asset-oriented approaches—challenges to the native speaker norm, accessibility/authenticity, advocacy, and agency—can be encouraged through using learner tasks. We introduce specific activities for Portuguese and Russian classrooms to promote this approach, which are freely available through our blog, and provide preliminary results from our teacher and student feedback on these activities.

The editors of L2 Journal are grateful to the following individuals who reviewed manuscripts in 2024. Peer review is a cornerstone of scholarship and relies on the contributions of reviewers who are willing to give of their time to support other scholars in the shaping of their work.