In language programs, it is crucial to place incoming students into appropriate levels to ensure that course curriculum and materials are well targeted to their learning needs. Deciding how and where to set cutscores on placement tests is thus of central importance to programs, but previous studies in educational measurement disagree as to which…

This study first briefly describes an instructional approach to teaching grammar known as X-Word Grammar and then compares its effectiveness in assisting students in achieving grammatical accuracy with traditionally taught grammar. Two groups of L2 pre-college students were taught using curricula and practice procedures in two different grammar…

This study is an attempt to clarify the incremental and multidimensional nature of foreign language vocabulary development and its relation to the participants' reading and writing performances and general language ability of English as a foreign language (EFL). With this principle aim, the current study investigated the relationship between…

With respect to cooperative learning, one aspect of particular interest to educators is its inclusive nature in terms of ensuring that all team members in group work are more or less equally involved in the task. Despite the inherent relevance for second language teaching, however, research is scant. To contribute to this area, the present study…

Fluency is an essential part of a language learner's skills. Despite various studies on fluency, little is known about the effects of different pedagogical methods on the development of written fluency. In this paper, we examine how different pedagogical methods affect the development of second language learners' written fluency. Participants in…

This article presents a generative analysis of the acquisition of formulaic language as an alternative to current usage-based proposals. One influential view of the role of formulaic expressions in second language (L2) development is that they are a bootstrapping mechanism into the L2 grammar; an initial repertoire of constructions allows for…

There are many factors that contribute to one's ability to read effectively. Vocabulary size is one important factor that enhances reading comprehension. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between students' reading comprehension skills and their vocabulary size. A total of 129 pre-university students undergoing an intensive…

Developing the ability to speak English is a daunting task that has long been omitted in a test-driven pedagogy context (Chang, 2011; Li, 2012a, 2012b; Chen & Tsai, 2012; Katchen, 1989, 1995). Since speaking is not tested for school admissions, most students are not motivated to learn it (Chang, 2011; Chen & Tsai, 2012). Now, globalization…

This study took place at a medical college with 57 Arabic first-year students taking an intensive English course. The aim was to address the problems that learners experience when using the English tenses properly. The didactic model was developed and implemented in the study group only (27 students). Pre-, mid-, and post-tests were administered…

Formulaic sequences (FS) are frequently used by native speakers and have been found to help non-native speakers sound more fluent as well. We hypothesized that explicitly teaching FS to classroom ESL learners would increase the use of such language, which could further result in increased second language (L2) fluency. We report on a 5-week study…

Since the 1980s, task-based language teaching (TBLT) has enjoyed considerable interest from researchers of second language acquisition (SLA), resulting in a growing body of empirical evidence to support how and to what extent this approach can promote language learning. Although transferability and generalizability are critical assumptions for…