L2: Volume 04 Issue 2

The “Gift”: Synesthesia in Translingual Texts

This interdisciplinary article explores the relationship between multilingualism and synesthesia (neuro-psychological blend of senses). In the absence of research in any of the related fields, the author (a multilingual, a L2 scholar, a writer, and a synesthete all at once) views synesthesia through the lens of “translingual texts” …

Online Arabic Language Learning: What Happens After?

Learning Arabic, a category IV less commonly taught language, can be a daunting task even with the luxury of a five-day per week schedule, good teachers, office hours, and solid learning materials. This study reports on the successes and challenges of teaching Arabic within a distance-learning environment. …

Integrating Portfolios into the L2 Arabic Classroom

This is an action research study that reports on using student portfolios in a second language (L2) Arabic class. The goal of this study was to examine the validity of using portfolios as an L2 assessment procedure and to ascertain the effectiveness of portfolios as an L2 learning tool. In this class, portfolios …

Learners’ perceptions of culture in a first-semester foreign language course

Researchers have voiced concerns about current teaching practices regarding the effective integration of culture within the foreign language curriculum as more than an add-on (Durocher, 2007; Knutson, 2006; Kramsch, 1993; Magnan, 2008; Omaggio Hadley, 2001; Perraudin, & Porfilio, 2011; Schulz, 2007; Wilbur, 2007). This study takes an emic perpective to explore …