Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-06-19DOI: 10.1017/s026144482500059x
Yuichi Suzuki, Ryo Maie, Bronson Hui
{"title":"Research timeline: Automatization in second language learning","authors":"Yuichi Suzuki, Ryo Maie, Bronson Hui","doi":"10.1017/s026144482500059x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s026144482500059x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Automatization is the learning process by which controlled, effortful second language (L2) processing becomes automatic, fast, and effortless through practice – a critical transition for L2 development. Achieving automaticity allows learners to progress from laborious language use to fluent, real-time communication by freeing limited cognitive resources. This research timeline synthesizes four decades of laboratory and classroom research on automatization, bridging cognitive learning theories with pedagogical practice. We trace five key research strands: (1) cognitive mechanisms, including the explicit-implicit knowledge interface; (2) skill development trajectories across phonological, lexical, morphosyntax, and pragmatics domains; (3) instructional approaches promoting automatization of knowledge and skills through deliberate and systematic practice; (4) methodological advances in measuring automaticity (e.g., reaction time, coefficient of variation, neural measures); and (5) individual differences in long-term memory systems (declarative and procedural memory). This timeline offers a comprehensive perspective on how automatization research has significantly advanced our understanding of L2 learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144319663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-06-11DOI: 10.1017/s0261444825000059
Thi Ngoc Yen Dang, Stuart Webb
{"title":"Applications of word lists in second language learning and teaching","authors":"Thi Ngoc Yen Dang, Stuart Webb","doi":"10.1017/s0261444825000059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444825000059","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although word lists have generated a great deal of attention from researchers, there has been no comprehensive review of the applications of word lists in second language learning and teaching. This article reviews the development, validation, and applications of 50 word list studies that were published and discussed in major international peer-reviewed Applied Linguistics and TESOL journals from 2013 to 2023. It shows that the methodology of word list development and validation has become more sophisticated and word list developers can see many potential applications of their lists in research and pedagogy. However, most applications of recently developed word lists have been restricted to the BNC/COCA lists developed by Paul Nation, and little is known about the degree to which most word lists have been used in pedagogical contexts. Our review indicates several directions for future research on word lists, including exploring the impact of published lists on pedagogy, replicating word list studies for learners in underrepresented contexts, and developing sustainable, low-cost methods of developing word lists to allow teachers and learners to create lists serving their own needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144260661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-05-23DOI: 10.1017/s026144482500014x
Chun Lai, Pia Sundqvist
{"title":"Research agenda: Synergizing in-class and out-of-class language learning with technology","authors":"Chun Lai, Pia Sundqvist","doi":"10.1017/s026144482500014x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s026144482500014x","url":null,"abstract":"The prevalence of digital technologies, augmented by the emergence of generative AI, expands opportunities for language learning and use, empowers new modes of learning, and blurs the boundaries of in-class and out-of-class language learning. The language education community is challenged to reconceptualize the paradigm of language learning and utilize the affordances of technologies to synergize in-class and out-of-class language learning. To achieve this, in-depth understanding of in-class learning and out-of-class digital experiences in relation to one another is needed to inform curriculum and pedagogy conceptualization and implementation. With this aim in mind, we put forth a research agenda around six research themes. We hope that this Thinking Allowed piece can stimulate and guide systematic research efforts towards unleashing the potential of technologies to synergize in-class and out-of-class language learning and create holistic and empowering learning experiences for language learners.","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144133711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1017/s0261444825000151
Mark Pegrum
{"title":"From revolution to evolution: What generative AI really means for language learning","authors":"Mark Pegrum","doi":"10.1017/s0261444825000151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444825000151","url":null,"abstract":"<p>History is littered with unfulfilled promises that emerging technologies – from radios to televisions, and from computers to mobile phones – would completely transform teaching and learning. Now the same promises are being made of generative artificial intelligence (AI). This presentation argues that we should not be focusing on educational revolution, but instead on educational evolution. Education is a complex social, cultural, and political endeavour, serving multiple purposes and multiple stakeholders, and technology is just one of many elements in this large ecosystem.</p><p>Focusing on the context of language teaching and learning, this presentation discusses what has changed technologically, and suggests what could and should change educationally. It shows that ChatGPT and a range of other generative AI tools can contribute to language and literacy development in a number of ways, but that we need to be wary of their pedagogical, social, and environmental risks. Educators must develop the AI literacy necessary to take a more nuanced view of generative AI, and we must help our students to do the same.</p><p>This paper is based on a keynote presentation delivered at the English Australia Conference in Perth, Australia, on 12 September 2024, with some elaborations for the written version alongside minor updates to reflect more recent developments and publications.</p>","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"122 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143946092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-05-08DOI: 10.1017/s0261444825000163
Mehmet Sak, Rui Yuan
{"title":"Language teacher educator psychology: A research agenda","authors":"Mehmet Sak, Rui Yuan","doi":"10.1017/s0261444825000163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444825000163","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the central role of language teacher educators (LTEs) in contributing to the development of language teachers in higher education and non-higher education contexts, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical work on their professional lives. One such area that remains largely unexplored concerns the psychology of LTEs. This paper argues for the need to embrace a research program that systematically investigates aspects of LTE psychology in the face of the unique demands, challenges, and pressures this professional group needs to navigate in their complex situated reality. We first position LTEs as key agents in the educational enterprise and go on to problematize the current state of scholarship on this under-researched population in universities, schools, and other practical settings. We then present an empirically grounded discussion to justify why a more explicit focus on LTE psychology is essential, followed by a brief review of what is already known in this respect. In what follows, we outline several key directions future empirical work might take to generate a more in-depth and holistic account of LTE psychology. Overall, this paper portrays LTE psychology as a promising but under-explored area which merits particular attention in its own right.","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"103 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143920157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-04-25DOI: 10.1017/s0261444825000114
Sally Ann Jones, Chin Ee Loh, Robbie Lee Sabnani
{"title":"Research in English language teaching and learning in Singapore: 2017–2023","authors":"Sally Ann Jones, Chin Ee Loh, Robbie Lee Sabnani","doi":"10.1017/s0261444825000114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444825000114","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This review on English language teaching (ELT) in Singapore examines 159 empirical research studies published between 2017 and 2023 in both internationally recognised peer-reviewed journals and less well-known regional journals. With this comprehensive review, we aim to raise awareness of ELT research in Singapore for international, regional, and local readership. This will also serve as a starting point for educators, scholars, and researchers to investigate ELT in Singapore. The review yielded five themes: teaching the language skills; multiliteracies and technology; bi/multilingualism/bidialectalism and English; English as an academic language; and teacher education for ELT. While there is continuity from the last two reviews of research from Singapore in 2009 and 2021, reflected in the single theme of teaching language skills, the other themes represent new directions.</p>","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143873103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-04-23DOI: 10.1017/s0261444825000060
Sarah Mercer, Carlos Murillo-Miranda
{"title":"Research agenda on well-being and language education","authors":"Sarah Mercer, Carlos Murillo-Miranda","doi":"10.1017/s0261444825000060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444825000060","url":null,"abstract":"This article advocates for the expansion of research into the topic of well-being in language education. It begins by outlining key definitional concerns and then moves to outline general issues and gaps in the current body of research such as a need for a diversification in research in social contexts, working conditions, languages, cultures, as well as a clarification of the domain specificity of the construct. In the main body of the paper, three core specific areas are outlined in detail with suggestions of not only what could be researched but how this could be done in concrete empirical terms. Task 1 concerns the dynamism of well-being across different timescales and how those interact. Task 2 focuses on the relationship between self-efficacy and well-being as an example of one core individual difference that could impact well-being development. Task 3 reflects on the possible interplay between learner and teacher well-being. The article ends by arguing for language teacher well-being to receive the urgent and critical attention that it deserves across the whole range of contexts and individuals who identify as language educators.","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143863075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-04-16DOI: 10.1017/s0261444825000072
Terasawa Takunori, Segawa Hazuki
{"title":"A critical review of L2 teaching and learning research in Japan (2019–2023)","authors":"Terasawa Takunori, Segawa Hazuki","doi":"10.1017/s0261444825000072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444825000072","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In our critical review, we explore the progress of second language (L2) teaching research in Japan from 2019 to 2023, focusing particularly on English Language Teaching (ELT) and Japanese Language Teaching (JLT). After scrutinising numerous publications from over 50 academic journals, as well as academic books and chapters, we selected around 40 studies for analysis. These studies met our screening criteria of articles published in Japan, which were written in English or Japanese, peer-reviewed, presented original findings or insights, and focused on the Japanese context. We highlighted six key areas: grammar, language testing, teachers’ professional development, the realities and influences of foreign residents and immigration, the identity of language learners/users and language education policy. Through our review, we provide notable characteristics, developments, and challenges in L2 teaching research in Japan for a global readership. This contribution furthers the ongoing conversation and sets directions for future research in this field.</p>","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"114 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143836984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-04-10DOI: 10.1017/s0261444825000011
Elena García-Guerrero, Cristóbal Lozano
{"title":"Is planning time beneficial for anaphora resolution? A corpus-based study of L1 Spanish–L2 English learners","authors":"Elena García-Guerrero, Cristóbal Lozano","doi":"10.1017/s0261444825000011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444825000011","url":null,"abstract":"<span></span><p>Previous research has investigated the effect of planning time (PT) on L2 learners’ production regarding fluency, complexity, and accuracy, but its influence at the discourse level has been overlooked. Thus, this study explores the influence of PT on learners’ written performance regarding anaphora resolution (AR) and their pragmatically (in)felicitous choices of referring expressions (REs) in discourse since PT may reduce learners’ cognitive load and facilitate the production of pragmatically felicitous REs.</p><span></span><p>Two film-retelling tasks were completed by intermediate L1 Spanish–L2 English learners and English natives, further divided into a planning and a non-planning subgroup. Their compositions were analysed focusing on the REs produced, taking into consideration the pragmatic context. Results showed a PT effect on learners’ RE choices, although not all pragmatic contexts were equally affected. Planning time exerted a positive influence on topic continuity contexts, where learners produced more economical forms, but no effect was observed in topic shift scenarios.</p>","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"30 4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143813985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Language TeachingPub Date : 2025-04-02DOI: 10.1017/s0261444824000508
Ramiro Durán-Martínez, Alberto Fernández-Costales
{"title":"Bilingual education in Spain: A critical review of stakeholders' perceptions","authors":"Ramiro Durán-Martínez, Alberto Fernández-Costales","doi":"10.1017/s0261444824000508","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444824000508","url":null,"abstract":"During the past 20 years, the expansion of bilingual education programmes in Spain has generated a situation where the voices of stakeholders frequently go unheard. Accordingly, this paper is a critical review of bilingual programmes within the Spanish context. An analysis has been carried out on stakeholder perceptions, that is, of teachers, students, management teams, and families, as reflected in the literature published between 2014 and 2023. The corpus reviewed consists of 34 papers, ranging from pre-primary to higher education, with a particular focus on stakeholders' perceptions of the implementation of bilingual education in a foreign language (English). In terms of the characteristics of the studies analysed, the predominance of teachers' perceptions over other stakeholders and the scarcity of longitudinal studies and research based on national samples should be noted. The adoption of a more robust methodological design could provide a fuller assessment of the implementation of bilingual education in Spain. Nonetheless, this review highlights the need for specific improvements at each level of education if a more learner-centred approach to teaching is to be achieved. Such improvements could include additional training opportunities, collaboration among teachers, and measures to alleviate the additional workload associated with bilingual education.","PeriodicalId":47770,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143757971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}