The advent of generative AI (GenAI) technology has impacted second language (L2) learning and assessment, offering new opportunities for learners to practice and improve their skills. One approach gaining interest is employing GenAI tools as writing or speaking partners to provide personalized, real-time feedback and assistance to learners. These interactions allow learners to practice the...
6 days ago
The recent advancement in technology has attracted learners’ attention worldwide to Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) for educational purposes. While GenAI has shown promising results for general language purposes (Godwin-Jones, 2023; Xiao & Zhi, 2023), the potential of GenAI for language learning has not been fully explored. This paper, therefore, endeavors to decipher the pot...
6 days ago
In the realm of language acquisition, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a promising frontier. However, gaps exist in understanding the practical application of AI-driven tools, particularly in second language learning contexts. This study delves into the usability of ChatGPT, an advanced AI language model, within the domain of second language acquisition. This paper ...
6 days ago
The field of applied linguistics is becoming increasingly transdisciplinary as recognition for the need to approach empirical questions from a variety of epistemological and theoretical perspectives grows (Douglas Fir Group, 2016). One methodological approach that holds promise for advancing sophisticated inquiry into complex issues of applied linguistics is mixed methods research (MMR); h...
6 days ago
Task-Based Language Teaching by Daniel O. Jackson is part of the Cambridge Elements series published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. This book adopts a cognitive-interactionist stance on language learning, and serves as a guide to task-based language teaching (TBLT) for language instructors, teacher educators, and other interested parties. In response to a lack of practical guidance...
6 days ago
Erickson, a New York City high school student, and I were working on his algebra homework over Zoom, specifically parabolas. We broke down the motion of a basketball and compared it to a parabola. He happened to have a small hoop on the back of his door and when he tried the motion himself, it was clear something clicked. You see, Erickson is a kinesthetic learner. During the pandemic, it...
1 week ago
The way in which validity has been conceptualized has changed throughout the years. The focus in validation studies shifted from evaluating distinct components of validity to developing a comprehensive argument for the use and interpretations of test scores. The argument-based approach to validity incorporates the distinct types of the componential approach, underscores Messick’s attenti...
1 week ago
This paper reports on preliminary steps to create an external plagiarism detection tool. I used the PAN-PC-11 data sets and extracted tf-idf scores of text documents and cosine similarity measures between source and suspicious documents to find text overlap. The model was able to successfully create vectors and measure the similarity metrics. However, the algorithm was not extended further...
1 week ago
Identifying changing patterns of stability and variability is crucial when examining second language development (SLD) from a complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) perspective (Larsen-Freeman, 2020). By studying attractor states, or recurrent patterns of stability, light can be shed on the underlying dynamics of a complex dynamic system (van Geert & Verspoor, 2015). In the context of SLD, ...
1 week ago
The multilingual turn in second language acquisition (SLA) research signals an epistemic reorientation of the field (Ortega, 2014). It manifests the move away from the monolingual bias that measures learner language with the idealized competence of native speakers as the yardstick. In so doing, the focus has shifted to disentangling the cognitive, linguistic, and psycholinguistic mechanism...
1 week ago