Porta Linguarum. An International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Edited & Co-Financed

Editorial Team — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Committees & Journal/Issue Data

Editorial Team — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Data-driven Learning in and out of the Language Classroom. Pérez-Paredes, P., & Boulton, A. (2025). Cambridge University Press, 102 pages, ISBN: 978-1-009-51143-8

Jing Zhang — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Editorial Team — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Unpacking the relationship between L2 grit profiles and foreign language engagement among Chinese university students

Wei Sun, Yi Yan — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the relationship between L2 grit components, namely, perseverance of effort (PE) and consistency of interest (CI), and foreign language (FL) engagement components (i.e., emotional engagement, behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, and agentic engagement) using a person-centered approach with a sample of 400 Chinese university students. Results showed that female students reported higher behavioral and emotional engagement, while no gender differences were found in PE or CI. Moreover, PE was more strongly associated with FL engagement than CI. In addition, PE was more related to behavioral engagement than CI, while CI was more related to emotional engagement than PE. Latent profile analysis revealed four L2 grit profiles: high-all, average-all, low-all, and low PE and high CI. Learners in the high-all profile showed the highest FL engagement, while those with low PE and high CI had similar low FL engagement levels to the low-all group. These findings highlight the nonlinear nature of the grit-engagement relationship and emphasize the importance of PE in exam-driven contexts. Pedagogically, the study suggests that developing tailored interventions based on specific L2 grit profiles could improve learner engagement in FL classrooms.

Development and validation of a questionnaire to assess students’ perceptions of EMI degree programmes

Anna Szczesniak, Elvira Barrios — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Given the growing popularity of English-taught degree programs in higher education and the need to evaluate their effectiveness, this study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess students’ perceptions of such programmes. Specifically, four scales were constructed to measure perceptions of students’ language development, academic achievement, use of English in class, and teaching quality. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 256 students enrolled in different English-taught degree programmes at Spanish universities. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to assess the psychometric properties of the scales. After refinement, the four scales demonstrated strong fit indices and solid discriminant validity. Unlike previous studies that often lack explicit reporting of instrument validity, our research provides a reliable and valid tool for researchers to explore students' perceptions of EMI, for lecturers to improve their teaching practices, and for policymakers to inform and evaluate educational reforms

Second language pragmatic competence in digitally mediated communication: Exploring requests and refusals

Anastasia Kulyagina, Ariadna Sánchez-Hernández — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The present study investigates second language (L2) pragmatic strategies of requests and refusals used by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in digitally mediated communication (DMC). It is a cross-sectional study that employed a mixed-method approach. The participants were 93 first-year undergraduate students enrolled in the Translation and Interpretation degree at a public university in Spain. They completed an online questionnaire which included background questions and a discourse completion task (DCT) that featured request and refusal scenarios with varying degrees of imposition, power, and social distance in emails and WhatsApp messages in an academic context. Speech act production was evaluated based on appropriateness rate and types of speech act strategies employed. Aspects such as formality, politeness, directness, as well as structure and content used were considered. The statistical analysis was complemented with a qualitative analysis of the speech act strategies used by the participants. Findings revealed that sociopragmatic factors – namely, social distance, power and imposition – determined the students’ ability to craft appropriate emails and WhatsApp messages. Furthermore, significant differences were found in the production of requests, whereas refusals were more challenging for the participants. These results underscore the importance of acquiring EFL pragmatics withing the DMC context.

A corpus-based analysis of patterned structures and semantic types used by learners of English

Buse Uzuner, Ali Şükrü Özbay, Ceyhun Yükselir — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The use of patterned structures by language learners of different native language backgrounds needs to be investigated to better understand the degree of formulaicity. This mixed-method study investigates how EFL learners with Turkish, Japanese, and Norwegian L1s use verb-noun patterns in argumentation compared to native speakers of English. Data was obtained from the International Corpus of Learner English (version 3), which include essays written by university students with diverse L1 backgrounds and the LOCNESS, a native corpus. The research was conducted between Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 as part of a Master’s thesis. Using Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (CIA) and Corpus Pattern Analysis (CPA), the study reveals that accept and allow are statistically significant for further qualitative examination. The qualitative findings indicate inconsistent usage patterns for Turkish and Norwegian learners, while Turkish and Japanese learners showed more consistency. These results highlight the importance of raising learners’ awareness of verb-noun patterns. One pedagogical implication is that teaching materials could integrate verb-noun collocations to enhance formulaic competence in academic writing.

The differential impacts of domain-specific anxiety on L2 writing performance across different levels of topic familiarity

Ning Fan, Xuan Yu — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Learner individual differences can influence performance across various task types and complexity levels. This study explores how domain-specific anxiety affects second language (L2) learners' performance on familiar and less familiar writing tasks. A total of 106 lower-intermediate L2 learners in China completed either a more familiar writing task or a less familiar writing task. The study assessed L2 writing anxiety using the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI), which measures somatic anxiety (adverse feelings such as tension), cognitive anxiety (negative anticipations and fixation on performance), and avoidance behavior (reluctance to engage in writing activities). Writing performance was evaluated through complexity (mean length of T-units, dependent clauses per T-unit, coordinate phrases per clause, complex nominals per clause), accuracy (error-free clause ratios), and fluency (total number of words). For the more familiar task, avoidance behavior negatively correlated with accuracy measures. In contrast, for the less familiar task, somatic anxiety negatively correlated with one measure of complexity and cognitive anxiety negatively correlated with two measures of complexity. The study’s findings and implications are discussed.

How linguistic repertoires contribute to the formation of linguistic competence of Primary School preservice teachers in Asturias and Catalonia

Ana Fernández-Viciana, Nuria Sánchez-Quintana — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study presents the results of a training experience, whose aim is to increase plurilingual awareness in undergraduate students of education faculties of two universities: the Faculty Padre Ossó (University of Oviedo) and the Faculty of Education (University of Barcelona). The specific objectives are to a) explore the representations of the self-portraits that undergraduate students made about their linguistic identity; b) compare the beliefs of undergraduate students and primary school pupils according to data obtained in previous research; c) determine the effects of the training experience. A total of 32 undergraduate students participated in this study. The results, presented in three blocks according to the three instruments used –linguistic self-portrait, explanatory texts, or final reflective texts–, show the symbolic value participants give to languages of their repertoires, and the relations they establish: affective with languages of their own territories and instrumental with languages such as Spanish or English. The training experience is considered of great interest for undergraduate students since it encourages awareness regarding linguistic identities, which will be crucial in the development of their future didactic proposals.

Teacher training in CLIL: Teachers’ perceptions in a public school in Bogotá. A case study

Patricia Bermúdez Baracaldo — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach, known in Spanish as AICLE, promotes the teaching of disciplinary content through a foreign language. While its benefits have been widely recognised, various studies have highlighted significant challenges in its implementation, with teacher training emerging as one of the most critical. This article, based on a qualitative methodology and a case study design, analyses the perceptions of non-linguistic subject teachers, teachers of English and bilingual programme leaders at a public school in Bogotá. The findings reveal a shared understanding of teacher training as a cornerstone of the CLIL approach, as well as substantial gaps between the language proficiency and methodological preparation of content teachers and teachers of English. This study also underscores the role of leadership in supporting teacher development and reinforces the importance of continuous, relevant, sustained, and context-sensitive training processes. It aims to contribute to the strengthening of bilingual education in public contexts by making visible teachers’ perceptions regarding the implementation of the bilingual programme. It also seeks to provide valuable insights for public educational institutions interested in advancing toward a bilingual model. Furthermore, it enriches the literature about CLIL approach in Colombia by offering qualitative empirical evidence grounded in under documented school realities.

Motivation, trait anxiety and hope, and their relationship to academic achievement of Spanish foreign language learners: A case study in Secondary Education

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the current levels, relationship, and predictive value of motivation, trait anxiety, and hope on the English performance of secondary school students. We employed a quantitative methodology and an ex post-facto design. The sample consisted of 85 adolescent students (54.1% female, 45.9% male), enrolled in a public high school in Granada, Spain, who were assessed in motivation, trait anxiety, hope, and academic performance. The results show average values in all the evaluated variables; significant gender differences, favouring females, in competence and control goals, worthy future, and trait anxiety; significant relationships between academic performance in English and the variables hope, competence and control goals, worthy future, punishment avoidance, and interest in the subject; and the predictive nature of punishment avoidance and worthy future on academic performance in English as an L2. The data are discussed and evaluated for their implications for future research and improvements in educational practice.

Examining English pronunciation instruction in Galician secondary education textbooks

Celia Veiga-Pérez — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The importance given to instruction in English pronunciation has fluctuated with each new teaching methodology. Currently, it is receiving increasing attention in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Nevertheless, there is a lack of regulation regarding the teaching of this skill, and teachers may resort to the textbooks employed in class as their sole guidance. The question would thus be whether textbooks of EFL provide the necessary materials to teach English pronunciation. Nowadays, this is especially relevant in the region of Galicia (Spain), where notions of English phonetics are tested in the university entrance exam. The present research aims to discover whether coursebooks utilized in secondary high schools in Galicia offer an adequate source of pronunciation instruction. For this reason, 24 textbooks from obligatory and post-obligatory education are analysed in terms of the presence of pronunciation activities, their integration with the rest of contents, the elements covered and the type of exercises featured. The findings suggest that there is still a lack of consistency among books, a prevalence of segmental instruction over suprasegmental, and a preference for the listen-and-repeat type of activities over other types of tasks.

Found in translation: English as a decoder for financial education

Sarah Hansen, José Luis Ortega-Martín, Francisco Rodríguez Fernández — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Financial literacy is a vital life skill, yet its cultivation is often siloed from other educational disciplines. This study repositions the English language classroom as a transformative space where linguistic and mathematical competencies converge to enhance financial understanding. Employing survey data analysis and machine learning techniques, we reveal a robust positive correlation: students who excel in both English and quantitative reasoning demonstrate markedly higher financial literacy. Crucially, the study uncovers a metacognitive disconnect learners’ self-assessed financial confidence often misaligns with their actual performance, a phenomenon exacerbated by linguistic barriers. Students with advanced English skills demonstrate sharper critical awareness when navigating financial decisions, underscoring language’s role in fostering reflective economic agency. These insights advocate for a curricular redesign that integrates financial education within foreign language teaching. By embedding analytical and financial problem-solving activities into English language instruction, educators can equip students with the skills necessary to interpret complex financial texts and navigate real-world economic challenges. This interdisciplinary approach not only enriches language learning but also prepares students for the multifaceted demands of a globalized economy, offering valuable strategies for curriculum designers, educators, and policymakers alike.

Longitudinal effect of learning environment, learner motivation, and self-regulation strategies on EFL students’ L2 achievement

Youngmi Kim, Shinyu Oh, Tae-Young Kim — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates the structural relationships among learning environment, English learning motivation, self-regulation strategies, and English achievement among elementary, junior high, and high school students in South Korea using structural equation modeling. We analyzed data from the Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2013, including the second year (sixth grade in elementary school), fifth year (third year in junior high school), and seventh year (second year in high school). The results reveal that as students progressed through different school levels, the factors influencing their English achievement varied. Specifically, self-regulation strategies, particularly behavioral regulation, consistently influenced English achievement regardless of school level. However, the direct impact of intrinsic motivation on learning English was observed only among high school students. This finding shows that factors directly affecting English achievement varied with changes in school level, which underscores the importance of educators and educational institutions recognizing the unique characteristics of students at different school levels. Moreover, it highlights the essential need to develop instructional strategies that enhance students’ motivation levels according to the school level.

Inclusion in bilingual education: Assessment of the SPI-BE scale for measuring student perceptions of inclusive practices

José Buz, Ramiro Durán-Martínez, Eva González Ortega, Elena Martín-Pastor — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Attention to diversity in the bilingual classroom has become a major challenge that is exacerbated by the lack of tools to measure its implementation in primary education. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the Student Perception of Inclusion in Bilingual Education (SPI-BE) scale to measure the frequency of different inclusive teaching practices as perceived by students. The sample included 2,626 primary students attending 27 bilingual schools in Spain. A modern IRT-related factorial analysis was used to assess the validity and reliability of the SPI-BE scale by focusing on the quality of the scores resulting from different factor solutions rather than on their goodness of fit. Analyses revealed two well-defined and replicable factor structures that justify the use of two partial scores and one total score. Female students, students in the lower grades, students participating in a British Council programme, and students without special educational needs had greater awareness of the use of inclusive teaching practices than other groups of students. It can be stated that the SPI-BE scale has excellent psychometric properties and can be used by researchers and practitioners as an instrument to measure inclusion in bilingual primary schools.

Assessing academic language proficiency in meaning construction in Physics-Chemistry: a bilingual educational case study

Cristina Morilla Garcia — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Research on bilingual education has gained increasing relevance in recent years, highlighting the need to investigate the linguistic processes involved in bilingual educational contexts. Academic language plays a pivotal role in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). This study aims to evaluate students' academic language proficiency in the cognitive-discourse elements and functions of the descriptive text genre within a content subject, specifically Physics-Chemistry, through the development of digital assessment tools. This empirical study was conducted at a bilingual secondary education center in Porto, Portugal, with a sample of 50 students. The results indicate that students' academic language competence in meaning construction within this content subject was optimal in listening comprehension skills and moderate in written expression. However, their academic language proficiency in vocabulary and grammar was comparatively lower. This discrepancy underscores the need for further development of the descriptive aspects of language, particularly vocabulary and grammar, to enhance students' ability to construct meaning in this disciplinary subject.

Influence of the sociolinguistic and educational context of Gibraltar on the development of orthographic competence

Alicia Mariscal Ríos — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In Gibraltar, English is the official language, used for instruction at schools, so the bilingual part of its population acquires Spanish orally in the family context. It is not after several years of compulsory schooling that this language is learned as a subject of foreign language. In this study, we intend to verify if this sociolinguistic, educational context has an impact on the development of written Spanish, and if this is reflected in the orthographic competence developed by bilingual speakers in the area, whose results will be compared with those found in a monolingual group from the province of Cádiz. Our hypothesis is that more spelling difficulties will be observed in Gibraltar than in the monolingual group, as a consequence of less exposure to written input in Spanish at school, which will be manifested as errors of both interlingual and intralingual nature. To do this, we will analyse the errors present in both groups, previously collected by means of lexical availability questionnaires. The results show a higher percentage of errors in Gibraltar, with interferences associated to the context of language contact, but also other intralingual errors possibly due to lower exposure to written Spanish during the first years of schooling.

Textbook analysis for literacy development in CLIL

Cynthia Pimentel-Velázquez, Maria Ellison — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The flourishing of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL/bilingual) programs in Spain has led national and international textbook publishers to see a market niche and to launch into publishing textbooks for CLIL contexts (López-Medina, 2016). The general objective of this study is to analyze the contents of 24 CLIL textbooks used for the teaching and learning of the subject of biology and geology as an academic discipline in the region of Andalusia (Spain) in order to identify their internal coherence with respect to the methodological principles related to the cognitive discourse functions (CDFs) and the textual genres that predominate in the work plans (tasks, activities and academic questions) present in these textbooks that characterize the subject of biology and geology.

Overall, in relation to the text genres present, in most work plans (tasks, activities and questions) no text genre was specified; moreover, results also reveal a preponderance of the CDF "describe". The implications of the results are that sole reliance on textbooks could be detrimental to the development of academic literacy if CDFs and genres to which students should be exposed are limited.

Teaching research methods in foreign language teacher training: Results from expert interviews

Nurcihan Sönmez Genç — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The university training departments for foreign language teachers are faced with the central task of training teachers who not only effectively use modern methods of foreign language teaching but are also able to empirically research problems that arise in their lessons and develop evidence-based solutions. In this context, the training of "research teachers" has established itself as an international educational goal. Against this background, a case study on teaching research methods in the context of foreign language didactics was carried out at the University of Vienna, which is considered one of the pioneers in the training of research teachers. The aim was to gain insights for the data-based development of effective teaching environments for teaching research methods in the context of postgraduate German as a foreign language teaching programs in Turkey. As part of the study, expert interviews were conducted with eight academics from foreign language didactics. The data collected were subjected to a content analysis evaluation using the MAXQDA software. The analysis results provide valuable impulses and practice-oriented suggestions that can be used as a reference source, especially for the effective teaching of research methods in foreign language teacher training.

Analysis of cultural content in Spanish as a foreign language textbooks for Chinese-speaking university students

Zhongyi Zhao, Dimitrinka Níkleva — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bearing in mind that the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language plays an increasingly important role in China, it would be interesting to know how Hispanic culture, a culture so different from the one of origin, is presented in the manuals used in this country. The present work addresses a bibliographic review, including definitions of culture and intercultural competence, classifications of cultural content in Spanish as a foreign language and previous studies. It also contextualizes the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language in China. It analyses the presence and treatment of cultural content in five textbooks of Spanish as a foreign language for Chinese-speaking university students from level A1 to B1, following a quantitative and qualitative method. Finally, this paper proposes integrating structuralist and communicative approaches in future textbooks of Spanish as a foreign language for Chinese speakers and incorporating more cultural content that fosters intercultural competence and prepares students for effective and appropriate communication and interaction in Spanish-speaking contexts.

Re-evaluating the SILL in the post pandemic times

Zrinka Fiser, Luka Pongračić — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Theoretical frameworks categorize language learning strategies into direct (memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies) and indirect (metacognitive, affective, and social) strategies used during English as a foreign or as a second language acquisition. With the shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigates if and how digital environments affected the use of such strategies. 279 non-English major students in Croatia participated in the research with the aim to re-evaluate the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) version 7.0. The exploratory analysis resulted in significant reduction to four new scales: cognitive, metacognitive, social, and a scale of proactive, communication-oriented particles. The new scales bear much resemblance to several other attempts of re-evaluating the SILL in different language contexts. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was applied to test the correlation with the effect of the online learning setting during the pandemic times, and the findings implied that students who were exposed to online learning during the COVID-19 breakout reported significantly less usage of all but the social language learning strategies. Such findings demonstrate the need to further investigate how to address critiques regarding the adaptability and validity of LLS frameworks in the post-pandemic times.