This is the first study to investigate the effects of test methods (while-listening performance and post-listening performance) and gender on measured listening ability and brain activation under test conditions. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to examine three brain regions associated with listening comprehension: the…

This article proposes the integration of mobile audiobooks (MABs) to develop EFL college students' listening comprehension skills. It aims to show the following: (i) The advantages of integrating MABs in listening instruction; (ii) sources of MABs; (iii) how to search for MABs; (iv) criteria for selecting MABs; (v) examples of MABs; (vi) listening…

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the susceptibility to energetic and informational masking in patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) with one normal-hearing (NH) ear and a cochlear implant (CI) in the contralateral ear, understand the effect on speech recognition when spatially separating noise and speech maskers, and investigate the…

The purpose of this study is to describe the perceptions and expectations of German language students, especially in terms of receptive skills. This study asks two main questions: (i) what are the expectations of students towards learning German and (ii) how are students' perceptions of German learning, especially reading and listening, the data…

Purpose: Adults with mild-to-moderate age-related hearing loss typically exhibit issues with speech understanding, but their processing of syntactically complex sentences is not well understood. We test the hypothesis that listeners with hearing loss' difficulties with comprehension and processing of syntactically complex sentences are due to the…

In this study I examined archival material relating to music lessons that aired on the "Indiana School of the Sky" during its inaugural season in the 1947-1948 school year. The "Indiana School of the Sky" was an educational radio program intended for use in the public schools and produced by Indiana University students and…

Purpose: Using naturalistic synthesized speech, we determined the relative importance of acoustic cues in voice gender and age perception in cochlear implant (CI) users. Method: We investigated 28 CI users' abilities to utilize fundamental frequency (F0) and timbre in perceiving voice gender (Experiment 1) and vocal age (Experiment 2).…

The purpose of this study was to investigate a broad range of choral conductors' views on competences needed in their own practice, and how education and experience have contributed to their current level of mastery. Choral conductors (N = 685) in Norway, Sweden, and Germany completed a survey covering 15 competence items that together constitute…

Throughout Europe, there is a growing trend for students to start learning foreign languages at elementary school. Although policymakers expect early-start programs to boost second language skills, empirical findings are mixed; recent studies have raised many questions. In this large-scale study, we aimed to close some of these gaps. We examined…

Shared-book reading is a well-established intervention to foster vocabulary development. Factors influencing its effectiveness are, however, less well studied, particularly with regard to story-delivery. We contrasted a read-aloud with a free storytelling approach and tested effects on vocabulary learning. In the first study, 83 preschoolers aged…

Listening is an integral part of communication, yet more research is conducted on the speaker as opposed to the listener. Previous research established a general schema of listening as a concept-driven behavior with four factors (Imhof & Janusik, 2006). Further testing by Bodie (2010) confirmed the factor structure and reduced the number of…

Despite its increasing popularity and adoption across Europe, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is not without its critics. It has been argued that CLIL programmes are highly selective, that is, the students possess more favourable learning prerequisites than their monolingually taught peers. The present study contributes to this…

Purpose: This study examines the contribution of number morphology to language comprehension abilities among children with specific language impairment (SLI) and age-matched controls. It addresses the question of whether number agreement facilitates the comprehension accuracy of object-initial declarative sentences. According to the predictions of…

Imparting 'literary competence' (understood here as a combination of skills involved in engaging with 'texts' of various kinds, among them film) has always been a core concern within German critical pedagogy. This article presents 11 aspects of literary learning, covering subjective involvement and the development of a text within the imagination;…

In 1993, the first study of outcomes of auditory-verbal graduates was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology (JAAA). The stated purpose of the research at that time "was to document the status of graduates of one aural habilitation option; auditory-verbal" (p. 190, Goldberg & Flexer). A follow-up study was…