This state-of-the art paper focuses on the issue of linguistic giftedness, somewhat neglected in the second language acquisition (SLA) literature, attempting to reconceptualize, expand and update this concept in response to latest developments in the fields of psychology, linguistics and neurology. It first discusses contemporary perspectives on foreign language aptitude, concentrating in particular on the models proposed by Skehan (1998), Robinson (2002) and Sternberg (2002). This is followed by a discussion of the definitions of talented individuals and the criteria for their selection, as well as an overview of empirical research on gifted language learners, divided into early studies with those focusing on the ultimate attainment of post-pubescent learners, and those dealing with super-learners of foreign languages. The subsequent sections touch upon such issues as the relationship between first language (L1) ability and second language (L2) aptitude, and linguistic giftedness and intelligence, memory, personality factors and language learning strategies, as well as neurolinguistic research on brain functioning in gifted learners. The paper closes with the discussion of the limitations of current research, its future directions and methodological considerations.

This statement opens the first collection of papers that specifically consider the deterioration of linguistic knowledge among bilinguals (Lambert & Freed 1982: see timeline), a field which in one of the papers in the volume is referred to as being in an ‘antenatal’ state (Berko-Gleason 1982: 22). Thirty years down the line it is still a fact that far less is known about the loss or attrition of language skills than about their acquisition.

This paper reviews a purposive sample of 23 doctoral dissertations in second language (L2) education, completed between 2009 and 2013 and published in Germany. From amongst all (approx. 70) relevant dissertations from this period, the following three broad thematic strands can be identified, for which a selection of exemplary dissertations was chosen to review: (1) Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL); (2) learning and teaching about culture in the language classroom; and (3) language teacher education. Categorization of themes was guided by a bottom-up approach, clustering thematically (rather than methodologically) similar works. We identify relevant topics and link these with trends in research methodology (qualitative/quantitative/mixed-methods). We also discuss the depth and breadth of these dissertations and situate their scholarly contributions within German and international research on language education.

Ever since Karen Price's ground-breaking work in 1983, we have known that same-language subtitles (captions) primarily intended for the deaf and hearing-impaired can provide access to foreign language films and TV programmes which would otherwise be virtually incomprehensible to non-native-speaker viewers. Since then, researchers have steadily built up our knowledge of how learners may make use of these when watching.

The question remains, however, whether, and to what extent, watching subtitled programmes over time helps develop learners’ language skills in various ways. Perhaps surprisingly, this question of long-term language development has still not been fully addressed in the research literature and we appear to be in a largely ‘confirmatory’ cycle. At an informal level, on the other hand, there are countless stories of learners who have been assisted in learning a foreign language by watching subtitled or captioned films and television.

I shall review the contributions of key research studies to build up a picture of the current state of our knowledge and go on to outline, first, the current gaps in research and, second, some encouraging new approaches to learning by autonomous ‘users’ of foreign-language Internet media and same-language subtitles across languages, now more widely available.

In order to better understand the role of working memory in second language (L2) written production, this study contributes to recent research attempting to apply Kellogg's model of working memory in first language (L1) writing to L2 writing research (Ellis & Yuan 2004; Ong & Zhang 2010; Johnson, Mercado & Acevedo 2012). This paper describes an approximate replication of a study presented by Johnson et al. (2012) in order to determine whether the effects of pre-task planning sub-processes (idea generation, organization, and goal setting) are mediated by a hypothesized threshold of proficiency in the target language. To do this, the current study replicated a quasi-experimental research design to test the effect of specific pre-task planning sub-processes on the written language production of a group of L1 speakers of English. Using measures identical to those in Johnson et al. (2012), the study found no significant, multivariate effect of pre-task planning on the fluency and complexity of the participants' written language production, suggesting no support for the hypothesized threshold of general proficiency in the target language. The implications of the study's results are discussed in terms of Kellogg's model (1996) of working memory in L1 writing and its ability to describe L2 composing processes.

International teaching assistants (ITAs) are Indian, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, etc. international students who have been admitted to graduate study at universities in the U.S.A. and Canada, and are being supported as instructors of undergraduate-level classes and labs in biology, chemistry, physics, and math. For the past 30 years, the number of ITAs has been increasing, and many departments at universities have come to rely largely on ITAs to cover their undergraduate teaching needs. As high-intermediate and low-advanced second language learners who must use their second language for professional purposes, ITAs face linguistic, social, professional, and cultural challenges. This is a learner population that deserves more attention, as I hope to establish here with this presentation of six research tasks. I have organized proposed research projects in such a way as to increase readers’ familiarity with this little publicized field, and also to relate the projects to different contexts of inquiry. By ‘contexts’ I mean ‘who is asking what and for what reasons.’ The two contexts of inquiry are: (1) Established areas of ITA program concern, including acquisition of fluency, prosody, and vocabulary; and (2) Working with ‘outside’ theories, such as the Output Hypothesis, and deliberate practice theory.

The Department of Lexicography and Lexicology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań has done extensive research on dictionary use in the context of language teaching and learning. The department forms part of the Faculty of English, which is the largest institution in continental Europe educating teachers of English at the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. levels. Therefore, it is only natural that the language-teaching potential of dictionaries is the main focus of the studies undertaken in the Department.

The Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics (CLAL) at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies is recognized as a ‘National Key Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. It is the only center recognized by the Chinese Ministry of Education to have a national key research institute devoted to linguistics and applied linguistics. CLAL has cultivated a core team of scholars whose work in linguistics and applied linguistics is both prolific and broad in scope, spanning three fields of research: second language (L2) learning, societal and public discourse analysis, and theoretical linguistics.