Since its modern inception in the late nineteenth century, research on word associations has developed into a large and diverse area of study, including work with both applied linguistic and psycholinguistic orientations. However, despite significant recent interest in the use of word association to investigate second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge and testing, there has until now been no systematic attempt to review the wider word association research tradition for the benefit of L2-oriented researchers and practitioners. This paper seeks to address this, drawing together linguistic research from the past 150 years, with a focus on research published since 2000. We evaluate the current state of L2 word association research, before identifying methodological and theoretical themes from a broader range of disciplinary approaches. Emerging from this, new paradigms are identified which have potential to catalyse a new phase of work for second language word association scholars, and which indicate priority foci for future work.

Since Brumfit's landmark definition of applied linguistics as the theoretical and empirical study of real world problems in which language plays a central role (Brumfit, 2000), there have been periodic calls for applied linguistics to engage with problems experienced by people in real world contexts (such as teaching, health, business, law, social services, business or family), rather than problems of research methodology originating in the research community, and to work to address them, both in policy and practice (Bygate, 2004; Tarone, 2013, 2015; Shuy, 2015; Widdowson, 2017). This principle may well apply to all areas of applied linguistics, but in this piece I would like to explore it in relation to task-based language teaching (TBLT). This is because while TBLT is characteristically defined in terms of the needs and interests of language teachers and learners, it is also informed by research, which is heavily shaped by the priorities of the academy, an influence which can lead it away from some of its real world objectives. Yet if proponents fail to adequately address the priorities and needs of classroom stakeholders, proposals will be doomed to failure, a point acknowledged by many (see inter alia Gatbonton and Segalowitz (1988, 2005), Edwards and Willis (2005), Thornbury and Slade (2006), van den Branden (2006), Eckerth (2008), Andon and Eckerth (2009), Ellis (2009), Gatbonton (2015), Long (2015) and Samuda, Bygate, and van den Branden (2018)). That is, research needs to engage not just with models of second language acquisition (SLA), but with the practices, demands, pressures, and perspectives of stakeholders in real world language classrooms.

With much empirical evidence of a beneficial role of interaction in second language (L2) development, researchers have become interested in investigating specific aspects of interaction (e.g., negotiation for meaning, corrective feedback (CF), modified output, noticing, etc.) that likely influence the extent to which interaction benefits L2 learning (Mackey, 2012; Mackey, Abbuhl, & Gass, 2012; Mackey & Goo, 2013; Gass & Mackey, 2015; Loewen & Sato, 2018). Among varied features of interaction, CF has been found to be quite effective at drawing learners' attention to L2 linguistic features during interaction, and has engendered much scholarly discussion of pivotal importance and numerous empirical studies on its potential for L2 development (see Russell & Spada, 2006; Mackey & Goo, 2007; S. Li, 2010*; Lyster & Saito, 2010*; Lyster, Saito, & Sato, 2013*; Brown, 2016*; Nassaji, 2016* for reviews and meta-analyses). Recasts, inter alia, have been at the center of most CF research and greatly explored with a view to understanding the nature of recasts, their characteristics (in various L2 learning contexts), their relative efficacy over other CF moves, and moderator variables that may mediate the effectiveness of recasts.

This article reviews a selected sample of 70 empirical studies in journal articles and doctoral dissertations on language assessment in China between 2011 and 2018. Following a brief introduction to the history and current state of language assessment in China, the article presents a critical review of language assessment research on six themes that have aroused the greatest interest from researchers in the country, including (1) test reliability and validity; (2) factors affecting test performance; (3) rating and rating scales; (4) technology and language testing; (5) test washback; and (6) classroom-based assessment. In addition to situating the commentary on the studies within the social, cultural and historical contexts of China, this article outlines the scholarly contributions of these studies to the wider international field of language learning, teaching and assessment. It concludes with recommendations on areas in need of further development over the coming decades.

This article reviews a purposive sample of 16 doctoral dissertations in second language (L2) education, completed between 2014 and 2018 and published in German, in Germany. Among the 103 relevant dissertations found from this period, a total of 12 thematic strands were identified, of which five were chosen as being particularly common and thus warranting a more in-depth review: (1) learning and teaching about culture in the language classroom, (2) literary texts in L2 education, (3) bilingual models of learning and teaching, (4) plurilingual teaching and learning, and (5) language teacher education and teacher training. We identify relevant topics and relate these to 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.

Although major advances have been made in research on language learning strategies (LLS), there are some areas that have been somewhat surprisingly neglected by specialists. This applies without doubt to the strategies that learners draw on to better understand and learn grammar rules but also to employ grammar structures in real-time processing, as required in spontaneous communication. In this paper, I outline a research agenda for grammar learning strategies (GLS), identifying three distinct lines of inquiry: (1) identification and measurement of GLS, (2) examination of factors moderating GLS use, and (3) strategies-based instruction as applied to GLS. Although these three areas are to some extent reflective of the main foci of empirical investigations in research on LLS, in each case, I try to demonstrate how cutting-edge theoretical and empirical developments can be applied to the study of GLS. For each of the three areas, I propose research tasks the execution of which has the potential of moving research on GLS forward.

In her 2017 article ‘Research into practice: Listening strategies in an instructed classroom setting,’ Suzanne Graham outlines ways that research-derived principles of listening instruction have (not) been adopted in second language (L2) classrooms. She organizes her argument into three categories, discussing research findings that have not been well applied, those that have been over-applied, and areas she views as holding good potential for application. In this short response, I compare Graham's conclusions about the extent of research adoption to my own experiences as a language teacher and make additional comments about the application of those research findings in the context of post-secondary L2 English instruction.

With a certain tone of concern, Suzanne Graham's article presents readers with a series of perceived problems related to current methods of teaching listening skills in the second language classroom. The general explanation behind these observations is the author's perception that language teachers’ practices do not ‘reflect current thinking from the research strategy literature’ (p. 108). Graham argues that research findings on the benefits of explicit strategy instruction are not being utilized in the classroom and that the research-based pedagogical approaches that are being used are often over-applied.