Professional fragmentation in world language (WL) teacher preparation makes advancing in language study prior to pre‐service teachers’ certification difficult. For Black world language teachers (BWLTs), this challenge increases as they face unique structural blockades, including the lack of access to early formal WL study or fiscal resources to enter US higher education. With 4.2% of WL teachers identifying as Black, the intricacies of their pathways and stubborn successes are underexplored, particularly as they apply to ethnic groups who become subsumed under the racial category of “black” upon entering the United States. Oral histories from 25 BWLTs analyzed through the frameworks of becoming Black and linguistic pushout offer exploratory data on “non‐traditional” pathways of WL study by learners racialized as Black. Their persistence toward language proficiency and professional success has implications for research, policy, and practice regarding how access, language, and success are conceptualized within and beyond formal schooling settings.
{"title":"“ They is me!”: Redefining “traditional” students through narratives of Black world language teachers","authors":"Tasha Austin, Aminah Raysor, Dawnavyn James","doi":"10.1111/modl.70028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70028","url":null,"abstract":"Professional fragmentation in world language (WL) teacher preparation makes advancing in language study prior to pre‐service teachers’ certification difficult. For Black world language teachers (BWLTs), this challenge increases as they face unique structural blockades, including the lack of access to early formal WL study or fiscal resources to enter US higher education. With 4.2% of WL teachers identifying as Black, the intricacies of their pathways and stubborn successes are underexplored, particularly as they apply to ethnic groups who become subsumed under the racial category of “black” upon entering the United States. Oral histories from 25 BWLTs analyzed through the frameworks of becoming Black and linguistic pushout offer exploratory data on “non‐traditional” pathways of WL study by learners racialized as Black. Their persistence toward language proficiency and professional success has implications for research, policy, and practice regarding how access, language, and success are conceptualized within and beyond formal schooling settings.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145954986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christian Fallas‐Escobar, Lucila D. Ek, Kathryn I. Henderson
This study draws from a critical ethnography with Latina/o bilingual teacher candidates (TCs) in Southwest Texas. Using raciolinguistic ideologies as our lens, we examined data coming from participant‐observation field notes, interviews, and artifacts. We found that these TCs have experienced raciolinguistic dystopian moments where their linguistic practices and identities are marginalized. We also found that, in the face of marginalizing ideologies of language and race, TCs enacted raciolinguistic utopian moments by validating their hybrid linguistic practices and identities, which enabled them to engage in linguistic freedom and momentarily escape from the marginalization of institutions. We include recommendations for bilingual teacher preparation and discuss how the raciolinguistic dystopias and utopias lens allowed for the analysis of structures of inequality while also highlighting racialized individuals’ capacity for taking control of their communicative repertoires and refashioning alternative understandings of language and linguistic identity.
{"title":"Latina/o bilingual teacher candidates' experiences with raciolinguistic dystopian and utopian moments and spaces: Bilingual teacher education as a site of possibilities","authors":"Christian Fallas‐Escobar, Lucila D. Ek, Kathryn I. Henderson","doi":"10.1111/modl.70022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70022","url":null,"abstract":"This study draws from a critical ethnography with Latina/o bilingual teacher candidates (TCs) in Southwest Texas. Using raciolinguistic ideologies as our lens, we examined data coming from participant‐observation field notes, interviews, and artifacts. We found that these TCs have experienced raciolinguistic dystopian moments where their linguistic practices and identities are marginalized. We also found that, in the face of marginalizing ideologies of language and race, TCs enacted raciolinguistic utopian moments by validating their hybrid linguistic practices and identities, which enabled them to engage in linguistic freedom and momentarily escape from the marginalization of institutions. We include recommendations for bilingual teacher preparation and discuss how the raciolinguistic dystopias and utopias lens allowed for the analysis of structures of inequality while also highlighting racialized individuals’ capacity for taking control of their communicative repertoires and refashioning alternative understandings of language and linguistic identity.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"718 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145954983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article adopts a translanguaging and flows perspective to explore how a graduate course instructor constructs a “quiet student” identity through a historical speech event to explain academic concepts in an English‐medium‐instruction (EMI) classroom in the United States. Recent studies on translanguaging pedagogies in EMI classrooms have highlighted how multilingual, multimodal, and multisemiotic resources are employed through translanguaging practices to facilitate understanding. The present study contributes to this growing body of research by focusing on how student identities, constructed through silence and humor in a speech event, are used to explain academic concepts through translanguaging in sequential speech events. Data are drawn from a larger research project examining EMI and multilingualism at a US university. Classroom interaction recordings are analyzed using multimodal conversation analysis, triangulated with video‐stimulated recall interviews and ethnographic field notes, revealing that EMI instructors play a pivotal role in constructing student identities through translanguaging in the classroom, which can subsequently be utilized to enhance the explanation of academic concepts.
{"title":"Translanguaging silence and humor: Registering, resisting, and reconstructing identities in an English‐medium classroom in the United States","authors":"Gengqi Xiao","doi":"10.1111/modl.70024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70024","url":null,"abstract":"This article adopts a <jats:italic>translanguaging and flows</jats:italic> perspective to explore how a graduate course instructor constructs a “quiet student” identity through a historical speech event to explain academic concepts in an English‐medium‐instruction (EMI) classroom in the United States. Recent studies on translanguaging pedagogies in EMI classrooms have highlighted how multilingual, multimodal, and multisemiotic resources are employed through translanguaging practices to facilitate understanding. The present study contributes to this growing body of research by focusing on how student identities, constructed through silence and humor in a speech event, are used to explain academic concepts through translanguaging in sequential speech events. Data are drawn from a larger research project examining EMI and multilingualism at a US university. Classroom interaction recordings are analyzed using multimodal conversation analysis, triangulated with video‐stimulated recall interviews and ethnographic field notes, revealing that EMI instructors play a pivotal role in constructing student identities through translanguaging in the classroom, which can subsequently be utilized to enhance the explanation of academic concepts.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"300 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145938016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EDITORS’ NOTE","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/modl.70036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70036","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145937971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A comprehensive evaluation framework should combine static analysis with dynamic usage evaluation to reduce subjectivity in language learning and teaching (LLT) material appraisal and to trace how content representation leads to value realization. This study integrates static and dynamic evaluation via ecological affordance theory, using multimodal critical discourse analysis, Q methodology, and retrospective interviews to examine ideological and political element representation in LLT materials, learners’ affordance actualization, and influencing factors. Findings indicate that (a) multimodal frequency of ideological and political elements declines in the order: cultural literacy, moral cultivation, political identity, patriotic feelings, with minimal legal‐awareness content; verbal realizations used implicit integration strategies, whereas visual realizations emphasized behavioral processes with human participants, (b) three learner profiles underlie affordance actualization: “complete agreement and passive acceptance,” “relative agreement (anxiety) and active acceptance,” and “relative disagreement and passive acceptance,” and (c) perceptual, interpretative, and behavioral factors of materials, among others, shaped actualization, evidencing individual–environment interaction. Three distinct pathways from affordance potential to realization are identified, with implications for LLT material evaluation.
{"title":"Static and dynamic evaluation of ideological and political affordances in and beyond language learning and teaching materials: An ecological affordance theory perspective","authors":"Lili Qin, Wei Jiang, Ali Derakhshan","doi":"10.1111/modl.70027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70027","url":null,"abstract":"A comprehensive evaluation framework should combine static analysis with dynamic usage evaluation to reduce subjectivity in language learning and teaching (LLT) material appraisal and to trace how content representation leads to value realization. This study integrates static and dynamic evaluation via ecological affordance theory, using multimodal critical discourse analysis, Q methodology, and retrospective interviews to examine ideological and political element representation in LLT materials, learners’ affordance actualization, and influencing factors. Findings indicate that (a) multimodal frequency of ideological and political elements declines in the order: cultural literacy, moral cultivation, political identity, patriotic feelings, with minimal legal‐awareness content; verbal realizations used implicit integration strategies, whereas visual realizations emphasized behavioral processes with human participants, (b) three learner profiles underlie affordance actualization: “complete agreement and passive acceptance,” “relative agreement (anxiety) and active acceptance,” and “relative disagreement and passive acceptance,” and (c) perceptual, interpretative, and behavioral factors of materials, among others, shaped actualization, evidencing individual–environment interaction. Three distinct pathways from affordance potential to realization are identified, with implications for LLT material evaluation.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"252 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145938047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mahnaz Aliyar, Anna Siyanova‐Chanturia, Stephen Skalicky
The article examines incidental vocabulary acquisition, focusing on the differential impacts of input modalities—reading versus listening—on learning of single words and multi‐word expressions. Eighty‐eight university students of L2 Italian were assigned to one of the three groups: (a) reading half of an authentic Italian novel, (b) listening to an audiobook of the same segment of the novel and (c) control group. Participants were assessed on three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge—form recognition, meaning recall and meaning recognition—before the exposure to the input and then immediately and 3 weeks after exposure. The results showed that incidental vocabulary learning occurred through both reading and listening, with gains retained 3 weeks after engagement with the content. Notably, listening to the audiobook led to significantly higher vocabulary gains than reading the novel. Highlighting the potential benefits of authentic audiobooks to foster incidental L2 vocabulary learning and retention, the study advocates for including authentic listening contents in L2 teaching and learning materials and calls for more studies on vocabulary acquisition in languages other than English.
{"title":"Reading versus listening: Which one is more effective for incidental vocabulary learning?","authors":"Mahnaz Aliyar, Anna Siyanova‐Chanturia, Stephen Skalicky","doi":"10.1111/modl.70029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70029","url":null,"abstract":"The article examines incidental vocabulary acquisition, focusing on the differential impacts of input modalities—reading versus listening—on learning of single words and multi‐word expressions. Eighty‐eight university students of L2 Italian were assigned to one of the three groups: (a) reading half of an authentic Italian novel, (b) listening to an audiobook of the same segment of the novel and (c) control group. Participants were assessed on three dimensions of vocabulary knowledge—form recognition, meaning recall and meaning recognition—before the exposure to the input and then immediately and 3 weeks after exposure. The results showed that incidental vocabulary learning occurred through both reading and listening, with gains retained 3 weeks after engagement with the content. Notably, listening to the audiobook led to significantly higher vocabulary gains than reading the novel. Highlighting the potential benefits of authentic audiobooks to foster incidental L2 vocabulary learning and retention, the study advocates for including authentic listening contents in L2 teaching and learning materials and calls for more studies on vocabulary acquisition in languages other than English.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145907997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Our research investigated how L2 and L1 reading, L1 low‐level skills and working memory are related to ratings and the linguistic characteristics (productivity, cohesion, lexical sophistication and diversity, syntactic complexity, and accuracy) of argumentative and narrative texts. The research was conducted in Hungary with 95 secondary school students whose proficiency ranged from pre‐intermediate to high upper intermediate. Participants’ L1 reading and L1 low‐level skills were assessed with validated instruments in Hungarian and working memory with the backward digit span test. We administered three L2 reading comprehension tasks from the Cambridge English First for Schools test. Participants wrote a narrative and an argumentative essay. L2 reading scores were significantly associated with raters’ perceptions of writing quality and measures of linguistic performance. The relationship between L1 reading on L2 writing was mediated by L2 reading. L2 reading scores were significantly related to productivity, grammatical accuracy, lexical diversity and sophistication and the organization of the written texts highlighting the substantial role of shared L2 grammatical and lexical resources and importance of reading skills for monitoring and revising L2 written output. Participants with higher L1 reading ability and L1 low‐level skills scored higher on spelling and mechanics and organization in the narrative text and used fewer connectives in the argumentative text. The narrative texts of students with lower L1 low‐level skills contained more spelling errors. Working memory played a limited role in L2 writing. Implications of findings for researching and teaching L2 reading and writing are discussed.
{"title":"The role of first and second language reading, first language low‐level skills, and working memory in second language writing","authors":"Judit Kormos, Csilla Bartha","doi":"10.1111/modl.70030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70030","url":null,"abstract":"Our research investigated how L2 and L1 reading, L1 low‐level skills and working memory are related to ratings and the linguistic characteristics (productivity, cohesion, lexical sophistication and diversity, syntactic complexity, and accuracy) of argumentative and narrative texts. The research was conducted in Hungary with 95 secondary school students whose proficiency ranged from pre‐intermediate to high upper intermediate. Participants’ L1 reading and L1 low‐level skills were assessed with validated instruments in Hungarian and working memory with the backward digit span test. We administered three L2 reading comprehension tasks from the Cambridge English First for Schools test. Participants wrote a narrative and an argumentative essay. L2 reading scores were significantly associated with raters’ perceptions of writing quality and measures of linguistic performance. The relationship between L1 reading on L2 writing was mediated by L2 reading. L2 reading scores were significantly related to productivity, grammatical accuracy, lexical diversity and sophistication and the organization of the written texts highlighting the substantial role of shared L2 grammatical and lexical resources and importance of reading skills for monitoring and revising L2 written output. Participants with higher L1 reading ability and L1 low‐level skills scored higher on spelling and mechanics and organization in the narrative text and used fewer connectives in the argumentative text. The narrative texts of students with lower L1 low‐level skills contained more spelling errors. Working memory played a limited role in L2 writing. Implications of findings for researching and teaching L2 reading and writing are discussed.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145907998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correction to “L2 Spanish Listening Comprehension: The Role of Speech Rate, Utterance Length, and L2 Oral Proficiency”","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/modl.70026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70026","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145765091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Index to Volume 109, 2025","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/modl.70017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70017","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"20 1","pages":"1013-1016"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145732688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EDITORS’ NOTE","authors":"Marta Antón","doi":"10.1111/modl.70020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145575618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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