Language mixing as a pedagogical tool for language learning: a methods development guide

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This article introduces the novel mixed language input paradigm (MiLIP), which utilizes language mixing as a pedagogical tool for language learning, and describes the methodology to conduct a longitudinal study using this paradigm. We illustrate the paradigm using the example of intrasententially mixed Greek (target language) with English (familiar language), combined with multimodal input (audio, images, videos, subtitles) over three learning phases. Participants are presented with increasingly complex Greek input as the phases progress: nouns in Phase 1, noun phrases (NPs) in Phase 2, and NPs + verbs in Phase 3. Learning in the proposed paradigm is evaluated through picture selection and grammaticality forced-choice tasks at different stages, and an expressive vocabulary task at the end point of learning. This allows for an assessment of whether learners can arrive at some knowledge of words and grammar in the target language through a scaffolding model of ordered input. Researchers and educators can apply this methodology to investigate language learning utilizing individuals’ existing language knowledge.