ABSTRACT Embracing “the political economy turn,” applied linguistics has increasingly examined socioeconomic class as a central construct in language learning. Prior research highlights links between socioeconomic status (SES) and learning outcomes, often contributing to divides such as the English Divide in South Korea. Yet few studies have systematically incorporated perceived SES as a predictor of learners’ language learning choices. Two additional constructs—international posture and initial proficiency—also remain underexplored despite their potential to shape learners’ selection of learning contexts. To address these gaps, this study examines three groups in Korea ( n = 207)—study abroad sojourners, working holidaymakers, and at‐home students—with respect to their perceived SES, initial proficiency, and international posture, using the Douglas Fir Group's three‐level framework. Mixed‐methods data were collected through surveys, elicited imitation tasks, and interviews, and analyzed through a multinomial logistic regression and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that perceived SES, initial proficiency, and posture collectively predicted learners’ choices across micro‐, meso‐, and macro‐levels. This study demonstrates how individual difference variables interact with meso‐level structures and broader macro‐level sociocultural ideologies, ultimately shaping learners’ decision‐making processes and language learning trajectories.
ABSTRACT Pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning (PTDL) focuses on the development of learners’ disciplinary literacies in additional languages. This study investigates teacher‐made materials through PTDL within a government‐supported initiative in the Basque Country (2022–2026). Drawing on a continuing professional development (CPD) programme with 69 primary and secondary teachers, we examine (1) how teachers constructed professional knowledge to design PTDL‐oriented materials, and (2) what characteristics these materials displayed. Situated in a pragmatist paradigm, the study uses qualitative data generated ecologically across the CPD: group discussions, 143 written reflections, 69 action‐research plans, 138 lesson plans, 301 teaching artefacts and 162 mentoring sessions. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate an iterative, practice‐driven sequence—considering context, languaging, analysing examples, revisiting policy and enacting/reflecting (CLARE)—through which teachers developed PTDL understandings and teacher language awareness. The resulting materials were typically multilingual, multimodal and oriented to cognitive discourse functions. We propose four interconnected principles for teacher‐made PTDL materials: contextual relevance, cognitive‐linguistic integrative development, inclusiveness and engagement. The study advances materials development scholarship by evidencing how PTDL can be operationalised through teacher agency in CPD and by offering transferable heuristics for designing pluriliteracies‐focused classroom resources.
ABSTRACT A large and emerging body of evidence has challenged the classic view that L2 anxiety is a causal factor in L2 learning achievement and that when anxiety is mitigated, L2 proficiency improves. This classic “anxiety → achievement” view has three major problems. First, studies frequently draw causal conclusions from cross‐sectional associations, even though such designs cannot establish temporal precedence and are highly vulnerable to reverse causality and confounding. Second, common L2 anxiety self‐report instruments embed language skills and self‐perceived competence within item content, inflating anxiety–achievement correlations. Third, the classic view on anxiety has developed an “anxiety monoculture”: a persistent tendency to favor the affective interpretation “anxiety → achievement” while neglecting rival explanations, language‐related confounds, and falsification‐oriented designs. In this paper, we synthesize evidence from longitudinal and experimental work indicating that language achievement more plausibly precedes anxiety than the reverse, and provide pedagogical implications that highlight emotional support as an important resource in the process rather than a key causal factor. We then propose an alternative research agenda for the new view on L2 anxiety comprising four components: (a) stronger causal‐inference designs, including longitudinal and experimental approaches; (b) improved measurement standards that decouple anxiety from language ability; (c) explicit accounting for language achievement and L2 aptitude measures when modeling the anxiety–achievement relationship; and (d) reconceptualizing anxiety as a reflection of the learner's concurrent level of language proficiency, which can decrease as language competence and language achievement grow. We argue that progress in conceptualizing L2 anxiety depends crucially on moving beyond past designs and interpretations by adopting these recommendations.
As the open science movement has gained momentum and the emphasis on study quality has increased in applied linguistics, transparency has become both a methodological necessity and an ethical imperative across the field. However, systematic evaluations of transparency in applied linguistics remain limited. Drawing on previous synthetic work, this systematic review examined the transparency practices in quantitative second language (L2) (quasi-)experimental research being carried out in China. We coded 393 studies drawn from 330 peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2024 in 19 major applied linguistics journals for 108 indicators of transparency. These features spanned the entire research cycle, from the formulation of research questions to the documentation of participants, experimental manipulations, measurement procedures, data collection and analysis, and results reporting. The findings revealed both strengths and persistent limitations across these domains. We conclude by discussing the implications for enhancing transparency within the context of Chinese L2 research and in the broader discipline of applied linguistics, and by providing recommendations for multiple groups of stakeholders.
ABSTRACT This commentary proposes AI for Applied Linguistics, hereafter AI4AL, as a framework for studying how artificial intelligence is changing language use, language learning and applied linguistic inquiry. Rather than treating AI primarily as a tool for automation, we argue that applied linguistics should examine AI through four connected lines of work. These are AI as a research instrument, AI as an object of applied linguistic inquiry, AI as a site of conceptual renewal and AI as a problem of pedagogy, policy and social justice. We ground this framework in applied linguistics’ long‐standing concern with language as situated social practice, while recognising that contemporary AI systems now participate in writing, translation, feedback, assessment, interaction and knowledge production. The commentary clarifies the scope of AI by distinguishing between predictive, classificatory, assistive and generative systems, with particular attention to the conceptual significance of generative AI. It then develops four domains of inquiry in writing and literacy, genre and discourse, pragmatics and interaction and multilingualism and inequality. AI4AL is presented as a disciplinary agenda through which applied linguistics can study, evaluate and shape AI‐mediated communication.
