This scoping review directs attention to artificial intelligence–mediated informal language learning (AI-ILL), defined as autonomous, self-directed, out-of-class second and foreign language (L2) learning practices involving AI tools. Through analysis of 65 empirical studies published up to mid-April 2025, it maps the landscape of this emerging field and identifies the key antecedents and outcomes. Findings revealed a nascent field characterized by exponential growth following ChatGPT’s release, geographical concentration in East Asia, methodological dominance of cross-sectional designs, and limited theoretical foundations. Analysis also demonstrated that learners’ AI-mediated informal learning practices are influenced by cognitive, affective, and sociocontextual factors, while producing significant benefits across linguistic, affective, and cognitive dimensions, particularly enhanced speaking proficiency and reduced communication anxiety. This review situates AI-ILL as an evolving subfield within intelligent CALL and suggests important directions for future research to understand the potential of constantly emerging AI technologies in supporting autonomous L2 development beyond the classroom.

In the early 2000s, mainstream US wellness culture started to develop something of an obsession with the distant past. These “paleofantasies” (Zuk 2013), such as barefoot running and the Paleo diet, are not based in scientific evidence about prehistoric human behavior or accurate understandings of evolutionary theory. Why, then, do so many people (especially men) find them compelling? In this paper, I argue that the “stone age” chronotope is implicitly masculine and in fact tends to exclude women altogether. Women are largely absent from imaginings of prehistory, whether those imaginings are car insurance commercials, diet and exercise programs, or even anthropological texts. Looking at various popular discourses about the stone age chronotope, I consider how women are effectively rendered invisible, leaving behind what is perceived as a distilled masculine essence. I suggest that the proliferation of paleofantasy in the past two decades has been part of a broader cultural backlash against feminist progress.

Zaiwa (ISO 639-3 code: atb; Glottocode: zaiw1241) belongs to the Burmese branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages, sharing many common features with the Burmese and Achang languages of the same branch. It is primarily spoken by a subgroup of Jingpo people, who identify as ‘Zaiwa’. Beyond Zaiwa, the Jingpo people encompass four distinct subgroups, each conversing in unique linguistic variations, namely Jingpo (景颇), Langsu (浪速), Leqi (勒期), and Bola (波拉). Jingpo is distinctively affiliated with the Jingpo branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages, whereas the other three languages, including Zaiwa, are categorized within the Burmese branch (He, 2016). The majority of Zaiwa speakers are found in Luxi (潞西), Yingjiang (盈江), Longchuan (陇川), Ruili (瑞丽), Lianghe (梁河), and Wanding (畹町) counties within the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture (德宏傣族景颇族自治州) of Yunnan province (云南省) as well as the Shan and Kachin states in Myanmar. Zaiwa is widely used in Zaiwa-dominant areas or communities with a significant Zaiwa presence. It is used not only in daily life contexts, such as among family members, villages, markets, and shops, but also in a range of social sectors, including in government and judicial offices, as well as on radio and broadcasting stations. Among the Jingpo languages, Zaiwa has the largest number of users. Individuals who speak Zaiwa often speak languages of other Jingpo subgroups in addition to Mandarin Chinese. Due to the extensive promotion and dissemination of Mandarin, particularly in educational and media contexts, Mandarin has emerged as the predominant second language for the youth within the community. Moreover, in neighboring regions or mixed communities where the Zaiwa subgroup is prominent, individuals from other ethnic groups such as the Achang, Han, Dai, and Lisu also frequently speak Zaiwa. According to the statistics from China’s Sixth National Population Census in 2010, the total population of the Jingpo ethnic group is approximately 140,000. There were over 80,000 Zaiwa speakers within China, constituting more than 60% of the total Jingpo ethnic population in the country (He, 2016). Scholars such as Xu and Xu (1984), Dai (1989), Kong (2001), Pan (2014), He (2016), Lu and Kong (2019), and Lu et al. (2025) have conducted studies on the phonetics of Zaiwa.

This study examines the underlying mechanisms driving the bilingual advantage in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) among kindergarten-aged children. Participants included 85 Dutch-speaking monolinguals and 34 bilingual children. We assessed children’s English vocabulary and grammar as the outcome variables. Furthermore, phonological awareness, executive functions and motivation to learn English were measured as potential mediators of the bilingualism–EFL relationship. We also controlled for child age, non-verbal IQ, Dutch (majority language) proficiency, intensity of school English instruction, parental education and exposure to English activities. Results showed that bilingual children outperformed monolinguals in English receptive vocabulary, but only for noncognate words; no differences emerged for cognate words or English grammar. However, none of the proposed mediators explained this advantage. Findings are discussed in terms of why the effect was limited to vocabulary and potential alternative mechanisms not explored in the present study.

The study investigated the strength of L2 form-meaning connections among advanced L2 speakers. Two unmasked intralingual L2 semantic priming experiments were conducted, with lexical decision and semantic categorization tasks. Thirty-eight native English speakers and 40 advanced Chinese learners of English were tested in each task. The stimuli involved L2 word targets that were preceded by either a related L2 prime or an unrelated one. Previous research has used the lexical decision task in this investigation, and the semantic task was also used in the present study to boost the involvement of conceptual connections in L2 processing. Consistent with previous findings, native English speakers showed a reliable priming effect in both tasks, but English L2 speakers showed no priming effect in either task. No task effect was found in either group. The findings provided further evidence for a weaker L2 form-meaning connection among advanced L2 speakers.

This retrospective study investigates two questions: (a) whether speech sound difficulties, reported by parents looking back on their children’s early speech sound skills and concurrently at ages 7–8, can predict language comprehension and early reading challenges in children identified as poor readers and (b) whether there is a relationship between the type of speech errors and language comprehension and early reading skills in these children. Two hundred twenty-eight children identified as poor readers were assessed on reading and language comprehension. The findings revealed that children whose parents reported early speech sound difficulties, and those with speech sound difficulties at ages 7–8, had significantly poorer language comprehension compared to children without a history of speech sound difficulties. This difference in language comprehension skills persisted after controlling for phoneme awareness. Additionally, both delayed and disordered speech errors significantly predicted difficulties in language comprehension compared to children without speech sound difficulties.

Services related to paid domestic work in private households are an important global labor market for migrant women. The Philippines is one of the largest exporters of work-force for the international domestic work sector. In this context, the linguistic legacy of American colonization becomes a key factor: English is an official language of the Philippines alongside Filipino. In addition, several varieties of Philippine English are widespread. Against this backdrop, Filipino and Filipina workers are positioned as competent, Anglophone workers in low-wage sectors such as the global domestic work market. Based on these attributions, they are also commodified as workers who can easily learn other languages and who are versatile and compatible with all linguistic and cultural spaces – worldwide. This paper sheds light on the multilingual repertoires of Filipina domestic workers in the Spanish capital, Madrid. The study is grounded in the paradigms of critical ethnographic sociolinguistics, migration linguistics and multilingualism research. The underlying data are based on narratives of Filipinas who migrated to Spain between 1971 and 2017. The findings reveal complex tensions around English. On the one hand, English is often perceived as prestigious and therefore valuable linguistic capital that can lead to social mobility. On the other hand, English is not seen as a panacea for securing employment beyond domestic work. Extrapolating from these findings, the overall picture that emerges is that English is deeply embedded in structurally determined social inequalities, which can be observed both in the country of origin and in the destination society.