Ali H. Al-Hoorie

• PhD
• Associate Professor at Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu

This article reports the first meta-analysis of the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009). A total of 32 research reports, involving 39 unique samples and 32,078 language learners, were meta-analyzed. The results showed that the three components of the L2 Motivational Self System (the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self, and the L2 lear...

This paper investigates the attitudinal/motivational predictors of second language (L2) academic achievement. Young adult learners of English as a foreign language (N = 311) completed several self-report measures and the Single-Target Implicit Association Test. Examination of the motivational profiles of high and low achievers revealed that attachm...

In this article, we introduce a template of methodological considerations, termed “the dynamic ensemble,” for scholars doing or evaluating empirical second language development (SLD) research within a complexity/dynamic systems theory (CDST) framework. Given that CDST principles have yielded significant insight into SLD and have become central to t...

Over the past decade, the open science movement has transformed the research landscape, though its impact has largely been confined to developed countries. Recently, researchers from developing countries have called for a redesign of open science to better align with their unique contexts. However, raising awareness alone is insufficient—practical...

Historically, applied linguistics and TESOL have evolved as distinct yet interrelated fields, each experiencing significant growth through a strong foundation of academic and pedagogical research. Today, however, both fields face complex challenges, including increasing job cuts, declining student enrolment, shifts in the political status of Englis...

The concluding chapter of this volume synthesizes the varied insights presented throughout the book and provides a forward-looking perspective on cultivating research culture in applied linguistics and TESOL. Building upon the discussions of challenges and opportunities faced by educators, researchers, and institutions, this chapter reflects on the...

In this study, we report a longitudinal study of the effects of procedural task repetition on learners' task performance (i.e., syntactic complexity in relation to lexical complexity). We investigated how task repetition results in differences at the group and individual level across each task interval (T = 7). Intermediate-level Saudi learners of...

At present, Applied Linguistics and TESOL face uncertain futures. Yet, despite their ‘at-risk’ status, the closure of their study programmes and their declining student numbers in ‘Western’ education systems, their scholars continue to conduct world-class, innovative, field-defining and challenging research. The studies in this edited volume act as...

This study examines metamotivation, which refers to beliefs about motivation and its regulation. It focuses specifically on Saudi language learners’ attitudes toward and perceptions of task rewards. Drawing on self-determination theory, which suggests that rewards like competition and performance-based incentives undermine intrinsic motivation whil...

Self-determination theory is one of the most established motivational theories both within second language learning and beyond. This theory has generated several mini-theories, namely: organismic integration theory, cognitive evaluation theory, basic psychological needs theory, goal contents theory, causality orientations theory, and relationships...

While teacher commitment has been a major focus of education research, there has been far less research in this area with language teachers, especially in EFL settings undergoing workplace reforms. Thus, the aim of the study is to examine factors impacting English language teachers' occupational and organizational commitment in Saudi Arabia, where...

Registered reports (RRs) are gaining traction in applied linguistics as a means to enhance research transparency and credibility by disincentivizing questionable research practices that are aimed at generating statistically significant findings, and by mitigating publication bias. While the benefits of RRs are well-theorized in the literature, less...

Metamotivation refers to beliefs about motivation and the processes needed to monitor, control, and regulate it. Research from self-determination theory has shown that certain rewards such as competition and performance contingencies undermine intrinsic motivation, while others like positive feedback enhance it. To shed light on learners’ metamotiv...

Metamotivation refers to beliefs about motivation and the processes needed to monitor, control, and regulate it. Research from self-determination theory has shown that certain rewards such as competition and performance contingencies undermine intrinsic motivation, while others like positive feedback enhance it. To shed light on learners’ metamotiv...

Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. Although previous studies provide insight into the cognitive underpinnings of semantic representations, they have suffered from small sample sizes and a lack of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this Registered Report, we...

Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. Although previous studies provide insight into the cognitive underpinnings of semantic representations, they have suffered from small sample sizes and a lack of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this Registered Report, we...

In this chapter, we examine the impact of ChatGPT on language learning and teaching. We explore how this AI tool can enhance student engagement, automate language assessment, and facilitate self-learning beyond the classroom. We discuss the affordances of ChatGPT in creating personalized learning experiences, generating diverse practice materials,...

Over the past decade, the open science movement has transformed the research landscape, though its impact has largely been confined to developed countries. Recently, researchers from developing countries have called for a redesign of open science to better align with their unique contexts. However, raising awareness alone is insufficient—practical...

This edited volume provides an examination of the evolving landscape of language learning and teaching in Saudi Arabia, with a focus on how technology, data-driven research, and contemporary pedagogical approaches are reshaping this crucial domain. As the largest market in the MENA region, Saudi Arabia’s education sector has undergone significant t...

Registered reports (RRs) are gaining traction as a means to enhance the transparency and credibility of applied linguistics research. RRs aim to disincentivize questionable research practices (QRPs) to generate significant findings and help mitigate publication bias. RRs also foster a more balanced representation of significant and null results, ar...

Metamotivation is concerned with individuals’ knowledge of their own motivational processes. Self-determination theory proposes that human motivation is driven by certain psychological needs, namely autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These fundamental psychological needs might be inadvertently undermined by certain practices such as the use of...

As China is building closer economic and geopolitical relations with oil-rich Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council countries, enthusiasm for learning and teaching Chinese is surging in the region. In Kuwait, whereas Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) education is emerging, research into this topical domain remains scarce, particularly on issues such a...

Video: https://youtu.be/UObbx6y5FuY - Language engagement is widely acknowledged as a critical component of language learning success, as it reflects the learner’s motivation in action. Metamotivation, by contrast, involves the learner’s understanding of their own motivational states and the processes they employ to monitor and regulate them. This...

Though people usually imagine the typical person as a man rather than a woman, the effect is mixed for racial groups and understudied among traditionally male social groups (e.g., police and criminals) and non-U.S. populations. Results from a survey (N > 5000) collected via a globally distributed laboratory network in over 40 regions demonstrated t...

From early on, infants show a preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS), and exposure to IDS has been correlated with language outcome measures such as vocabulary. The present multi-laboratory study explores this issue by investigating whether there is a link between early preference for IDS and later vocabulary s...

Cultural logic is a set of cultural scripts and patterns organized around a central theme. The cultural logics of dignity, honor, and face describe different ways of evaluating a person’s worth and maintaining cooperation. These cultural logics vary in prevalence across cultures. In this study, we collaboratively develop and validate a measure capt...

Cultural logic is a set of cultural scripts and patterns organized around a central theme. The cultural logics of dignity, honor, and face describe different ways of evaluating a person’s worth and maintaining cooperation. These cultural logics vary in prevalence across cultures. In this study, we collaboratively develop and validate a measure capt...

Task engagement is increasingly recognized as an important facilitator of instructed second/foreign language (L2) learning, and a growing amount of research has been focusing on the concept of L2 task engagement. At the same time, however, there are still some methodological issues that need to be addressed to fully uncover the nature of engagement...

The validity of the standard ideal L2 self scale has increasingly been called into question. This paper reports both quantitative and qualitative investigations into whether the ideal L2 self items tap into the intended construct of an actual–ideal discrepancy. Study 1 involved an experimental approach manipulating the items to explicitly refer to...

This chapter explores flipped learning in second/foreign language (L2) contexts, where students study new content before class independently, and engage in higher-order thinking activities referencing the content during class time. This chapter provides a definition for L2 flipped learning and discusses its implementation, emphasizing the role of t...

In psychological science, replicability—repeating a study with a new sample achieving consistent results (Parsons et al., 2022)—is critical for affirming the validity of scientific findings. Despite its importance, replication efforts are few and far between in psychological science with many attempts failing to corroborate past findings. This scar...

This chapter explores flipped learning in second/foreign language (L2) contexts, where students study new content before class independently, and engage in higher-order thinking activities referencing the content during class time. This chapter provides a definition for L2 flipped learning and discusses its implementation, emphasizing the role of t...

The validity of the standard ideal L2 self scale has increasingly been called into question. This paper reports both quantitative and qualitative investigations into whether the ideal L2 self items tap into the intended construct of an actual-ideal discrepancy. Study 1 involved an experimental approach manipulating the items to explicitly refer to...

In a rapidly evolving AI landscape, policymakers, publishers, and researchers have to continuously re-define responsible practices for research. Our consensus describes the fundamental principles required for responsible AI usage to guide everyday research and the development of future policies.

Video: https://youtu.be/Hst5ocs9Jis

Video: https://youtu.be/GkIsYgDIXZ0

In this chapter, we provide an overview of various topics related to open science, drawing often (and necessarily) on work outside of applied linguistics. Here, we define open science more broadly. Rather than limiting open science to the question of whether a study and its data are open access or behind a paywall, this chapter defines open science...

Language learner psychology investigates the mental experiences, processes, thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors of individuals involved in language learning. Over the past few decades, this field has evolved from focusing on stable learner traits to embracing more dynamic, situated, and complex understandings of learner psychology. This entr...

This study is a systematic examination of the open access status of research in two flagship language testing and assessment journals: Language Testing and Language Assessment Quarterly. Coding and analysing 898 articles, we investigated (a) the prevalence of open access in four aspects-open manuscripts, open materials, open data, and open code, an...

Purpose This study aims to promote transdisciplinary integration in applied linguistics research by exploring the potential contribution of electrophysiology to enhancing listening comprehension skills. Specifically, it examines the effectiveness of dynamic auto-adjustment of speech rate based on heart rate in mitigating listening stress. The study...

Metamotivation refers to the individual's awareness of their own motivational processes and their beliefs about how best to manage and regulate their motivation. One area of investigation in metamotivational research is the discrepancy between these beliefs and evidence-based findings. The present study examined beliefs about the role of extrinsic...

In this contribution, Ali Al-Hoorie considers open science from a global South perspective and proposes a three-stage roadmap towards scholarship that is truly equitable.

In this study, we report a longitudinal study of the effects of procedural task repetition on learners' task performance (i.e., syntactic complexity in relation to lexical complexity). We investigated how task repetition results in differences at the group and individual level across each task interval (T = 7). Intermediate-level Saudi learners of...

Metamotivation refers to the individual’s awareness of their own motivational processes and their beliefs about how best to manage and regulate their motivation. One area of investigation in metamotivational research is the discrepancy between these beliefs and evidence-based findings. The present study examined beliefs about the role of extrinsic...

Biases in favor of culturally prevalent social ingroups are ubiquitous, but random assignment to arbitrary experimentally created social groups is also sufficient to create ingroup biases (i.e., the minimal group effect; MGE). The extent to which ingroup bias arises from specific social contexts versus more general psychological tendencies remains...

Biases in favor of culturally prevalent social ingroups are ubiquitous, but random assignment to arbitrary experimentally created social groups is also sufficient to create ingroup biases (i.e., the minimal group effect; MGE). The extent to which ingroup bias arises from specific social contexts versus more general psychological tendencies remains...

Video: https://youtu.be/GkIsYgDIXZ0

Contract cheating, the act of students enlisting others to complete academic assignments on their behalf, poses a significant challenge in academic settings, undermining the integrity of education and assessment. It involves submitting work that is falsely represented as the student’s own, thus violating academic standards and ethics. The advent of...

This study is a systematic examination of the open access status of research in two flagship language testing and assessment journals: Language Testing and Language Assessment Quarterly. Coding and analysing 898 articles, we investigated a) the prevalence of open access in four aspects – open manuscripts, open materials, open data, and open code, a...

Metamotivation refers to “the processes by which individuals monitor and control their motivational states in order to achieve their goals” (Scholer et al., 2018, pp. 437–438). Successful regulation of one’s motivation contributes to well-being and success across various domains, including language learning. This regulation may be directed toward t...

In psychological science, replicability—repeating a study with a new sampleachieving consistent results (Parsons et al., 2022)—is critical for affirming the validity of scientific findings. Despite its importance, replication efforts are few and far between in psychological science with many attempts failing to corroborate past findings. This scarc...

In psychological science, replicability—repeating a study with a new sampleachieving consistent results (Parsons et al., 2022)—is critical for affirming the validity of scientific findings. Despite its importance, replication efforts are few and far between in psychological science with many attempts failing to corroborate past findings. This scarc...

Self-determination theory (SDT) is recognized as one of the most influential motivational theories within second language learning and beyond. Its explanatory power for language education stems from the rigorous approach taken by researchers to verify and validate instruments with appropriate triangulation and effective statistical approaches. SDT...

When second language (L2) researchers statistically model a variable, they typically model the location parameter of the variable. Doing so reveals how the mean of an outcome variable changes across predictor values. Another useful statistic is scale (i.e., the dispersion of a distribution). Modeling this parameter can show how the variability of t...

The past decade has witnessed a rapid growth of English-medium Instruction (EMI) programs in many higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia (Alnasser, 2022; Al-Hoorie et al., 2021; Allmnakrah & Evers, 2020; Almoaily & Alnasser, 2019; Elyas, 2008, 2011; Elyas & Picard, 2010, 2013, 2018; Elyas & Badawood, 2016; Elyas & Al-Ghamdi, 2018; Phan & Bar...

As language learning is a long-term process, it is important to find ways of sustaining learning motivation over time. One approach for addressing this problem is gamifying learning tasks. Gamification refers to the incorporation of gaming elements, such as uncertainty, in the learning process so that motivation can be sustained. The present study...

According to cognitive-dissonance theory, performing counterattitudinal behavior produces a state of dissonance that people are motivated to resolve, usually by changing their attitude to be in line with their behavior. One of the most popular experimental paradigms used to produce such attitude change is the induced-compliance paradigm. Despite it...

Video: https://youtu.be/PWNHVwdkjlk

Do people in different societies experience morality differently in everyday life? Using experience sampling methods, we investigate everyday moral experiences in a sample from 20 countries across 6 continents, thereby replicating and extending a large-scale study originally conducted in the United States and Canada. We aim to replicate key finding...

Do people in different societies experience morality differently in everyday life? Using experience sampling methods, we investigate everyday moral experiences in a sample from 20 countries across 6 continents, thereby replicating and extending a large-scale study originally conducted in the United States and Canada. We aim to replicate key finding...

Regulating one’s motivation contributes to well-being and success across various domains, including language learning. For example, activating a promotion versus prevention regulatory focus orientation is generally more compatible with tasks requiring creativity and innovation (e.g., brainstorming) versus tasks requiring vigilance (e.g., proofreadi...

The Open Scholarship (OS) movement embodies major shifts in research culture, infrastructures, and practices, from initial design, through peer review, to dissemination of findings. The ultimate aim of the movement is to improve transparency of research by making the entire research process freely accessible to and findable by all. It is driven by...

Open science (OS; also known as “open research” and “open scholarship”) refers to various practices to make scientific knowledge openly available, accessible, and reusable. The core purpose of such practices is to open the process of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation, and communication to societal actors within and beyond the traditional sc...

At the turn of the new millennium, in an article published in Language Teaching Research in 2000, Dörnyei and Kormos proposed that ‘active learner engagement is a key concern’ for all instructed language learning. Since then, language engagement research has increased exponentially. In this article, we present a systematic review of 20 years of lan...

Language learner psychology investigates the mental experiences, processes, thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors of individuals involved in language learning. Over the past few decades, this field has evolved from focusing on stable learner traits to embracing more dynamic, situated, and complex understandings of learner psychology. This entr...

Many foreign language learners suffer from stress. This stress negatively affects the learner's concentration and uptake of the educational material, and thus the extent of success in learning the target language. One of the most prominent physiological symptoms of stress is a high heart rate. This invention is a tablet device through which the lea...

Video: https://youtu.be/WcvgK6kwLvc

Video: https://youtu.be/gYFkvLgZCRY

Concerns have recently been raised about the validity of scales used in the L2 motivational self system tradition, particularly in relation to sufficient discriminant validity among some of its scales. These concerns highlight the need to systematically examine the validity of scales used in this tradition. In this study, we therefore compiled a li...

Video: https://youtu.be/9lLCv23dJLY

The past decade has witnessed a rapid growth of English-medium Instruction (EMI) programs in many higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia (Alnasser, 2022; Al-Hoorie et al., 2021; Allmnakrah & Evers, 2020; Almoaily & Alnasser, 2019; Elyas, 2008, 2011; Elyas & Picard, 2010, 2013, 2018; Elyas & Badawood, 2016; Elyas & Al-Ghamdi, 2018; Phan & Bar...

Flipped learning has become a popular approach in various educational fields, including second language teaching. In this approach, the conventional educational process is reversed so that learners do their homework and prepare the material before going to class. Class time is then devoted to practice, discussion, and higher-order thinking tasks in...

هل اللغة العربية الفصحى هي لغتنا الأم الآن أم لا؟ كان هذا السؤال منطلق الندوة الحوارية التي نظمها منتدى الخط الحضاري بمحافظة القطيف، تحت عنوان "اللغة العربية كائن حي"، وهو عنوان مستوحى من كتاب لجورجي زيدان المتوفي سنة 1914 م، وتحدث خلالها الدكتور علي الحوري، وأدارها الدكتور عبد العزيز الحميدي، وذلك تحت رعاية الإعلامي فؤاد بن عبد الواحد نصر الله أث...

Recent empirical studies have highlighted the large degree of analytic flexibility in data analysis that can lead to substantially different conclusions based on the same data set. Thus, researchers have expressed their concerns that these researcher degrees of freedom might facilitate bias and can lead to claims that do not stand the test of time....

This invited colloquium, organized by Shaofeng Li (Florida State University, USA) and Matthew T. Prior (Arizona State University, USA), took place on 20 March 2023, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) in Portland, Oregon, USA. The colloquium consisted of an introduction to the session, four paper presenta...

Video: https://youtu.be/EgW5fhea3iI - Part of a panel discussion on "The Future of Education: ChatGPT and the Changing Landscape of Teaching" organized by SPELT.

In the field of second and foreign language education, conscious cognitive models of motivation dominate, while the role of unconscious motivation has not been studied systematically. Expanding the language motivation research to include implicit processes is likely to enrich the field of language learning and open up new contributions to current k...

It has been twenty-five years since second language acquisition/development researchers and practitioners were introduced to chaos/complexity theory and its systems (variously referred to in our field as “complex systems,” complex adaptive systems,” and “complex dynamic systems”) (Larsen-Freeman, 1997). Unsurprisingly, the uptake of the new ideas w...

Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects mentioned in sentences. Mental representation is often measured with the sentence-picture verification task, wherein participants first read a sentence that implies the object property (i.e., shape and orientation). Partic...

This large, international dataset contains survey responses from N = 12,570 students from 100 universities in 35 countries, collected in 21 languages. We measured anxieties (statistics, mathematics, test, trait, social interaction, performance, creativity, intolerance of uncertainty, and fear of negative evaluation), self-efficacy, persistence, and...

In recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness and reproducibility of research, characterized by increased interest and promotion of open and transparent research practices. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approach can be embedded into undergradu...

Marsden and Morgan-short provide an insightful, comprehensive, and up-to-date treatment of open research in applied linguistics as well as the challenges involved in advancing the uptake of these practices. We join our voices to theirs in support of open research as the future of language learning research. Building on their analysis, we focus on o...

WATCH THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/f6YG1kNuDbA?si=51cMZqNq0aGgcOom - In contemporary methodological thinking, replication holds a central place. However, relatively little attention has been paid to replication in the context of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST), perhaps due to uncertainty regarding the epistemology-methodology match between the...

Complexity theory/dynamic systems theory (CDST) has captured the imagination of many in the field of applied linguistics (Larsen-Freeman and Cameron 2008; Ortega and Han 2017). As recent syntheses of the growing number of CDST-informed strands of applied linguistics research illustrates, it has emerged as an important influence on applied linguists...

In this study, we investigated two core understandings related to the nature of second language (L2) student engagement from a self-determination theory framework: (1) that there is a dual process of development that follows from the initial conditions of the L2 classroom environment (specifically teacher motivational practice: autonomy-supportive...

If English is the lingua franca for business, science, and technology, Arabic is the undisputed lingua franca for Muslims. For Muslims, it is the language of the Quran, Prophet Muhammad, prayer, and paradise. Non-Arabic speaking Muslims must use Arabic to perform daily rituals, even if they do not fully understand the literal meaning of most of the...

In this chapter, we provide an overview of various topics related to open science, drawing often (and necessarily) on work outside of applied linguistics. Here, we define open science more broadly. Rather than limiting open science to the question of whether a study and its data are open access or behind a paywall, this chapter defines open science...

In contemporary methodological thinking, replication holds a central place. However, relatively little attention has been paid to replication in the context of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST), perhaps due to uncertainty regarding the epistemology–methodology match between these domains. In this paper, we explore the place of replication in re...

At the turn of the new millennium, in an article published in Language Teaching Research in 2000, Dörnyei and Kormos proposed that ‘active learner engagement is a key concern’ for all instructed language learning. Since then, language engagement research has increased exponentially. In this article, we present a systematic review of 20 years of lan...

Complexity theory/Complex dynamic systems theory has challenged conventional approaches to applied linguistics research by encouraging researchers to adopt a pragmatic transdisciplinary approach that is less paradigmatic and more problem-oriented in nature. Its proponents have argued that the starting point in research design should not be the quan...

A quarter of a century ago, scholars first proposed that applied linguistics issues could benefit by being viewed explicitly from the lens of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST). Since then, CDST has gained considerable currency in the field, and it has yielded significant insights in domains as diverse as educational linguistics, second language...

Open Science has received a lot of attention in various disciplines, and recently within applied linguistics. Open science aims to make the different stages of research transparent and accessible. This includes open, verifiable methodology that allows replicability and increases trust in research findings. It also includes open access so that disad...

Accessibility of research output is becoming an increasing challenge for scholars from the Global South. Many universities in developing countries cannot afford the high subscription fees that journal publishers charge annually, leaving their faculty with limited access to keep up to date with the latest developments and consequently making it hard...