According to cognitive psychologists, consistent practice (i.e., tasks with a high degree of similarity) of a skill leads to the development of automaticity, with the degree of automatization being increased if the practice also involves exact repetition. Practice is skill specific, meaning that practicing one skill does not automatize related…

This study examines the role of explicit instruction in article semantics to L2 learners of English. Two types of generic sentences, expressed by different articles, were tested over time. An instruction group (n = 21), a control group (n = 16) and a native English speaker control group (n = 9) participated in the study. The instruction group…

The present study investigates whether textual enhancement had any effects on grammar learning (tag questions) and reading comprehension, and whether the types of tag question contributed to the benefits of textual enhancement. The study employed a pretest--posttest design with three treatment sessions. The target forms were English tag questions,…

The progression of silent reading rates and reading comprehension were examined among Japanese university students (N = 55) over one academic semester. Participants were divided into three quasi-experimental groups. The first group practiced a combination of timed reading and repeated oral reading with attention paid to chunking and prosody. The…

Second language writers need to develop the ability to revise their writing independently of third party advice; thus, it is important that teachers devise methods by which to promote habits of self-directed revision. This quasi-experimental study investigates three classroom activities designed to encourage students to independently revise essays…

Previous research has shown a link between speaking fluently and using multiword expressions. However, evidence on how to effectively teach multiword expressions is limited. This study investigates the effect of fluency-oriented classroom teaching on speaking fluency, with special attention to multiword expressions. In this quasi-experimental…

The purpose of the present study is twofold. The first goal is to examine the effects of phonological input on students' vocabulary learning. The second is to discuss how different pre­-listening activities affect students' second language listening comprehension. The participants were first-­year students at a Japanese university. There were two…

This paper reports on a research project in a university English as Foreign Language (EFL) program in Japan which explored ways to sustain active participation in e-learning tasks. The tasks were intended to improve students' scores on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), a test used by businesses to make hiring decisions.…

The purpose of this study is to find the effects of using Videoconferencing (VC) as a tool for foreign language instructions in a semester long research study. The research questions focus on the effects of VC (1) on speaking skills, and (2) on general proficiency scores. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in a university in Japan were…

The aim of this study is to examine the advantages of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL), especially vocabulary learning of English as a foreign or second language (L2) in terms of the two strands: automatization and learner autonomy. Previous studies articulate that technology-enhanced L2 learning could bring about some positive effects.…

The present study examined the effects of two types of input-based approaches--combination of pragmalinguistics- and sociopragmatics-focused instruction (CI) and sociopragmatics-focused instruction (SI) on learners' recognizing and producing English request hedges. 45 Japanese learners of English participated in the study. Treatment group…

Simultaneous with a call for standardized assessments to assess developing rather than preexisting or surface knowledge (Sawyer, 2006) has been a growth in awareness of the unavoidable interactive nature of any form of assessment and this awareness has created a social turn towards approaches to language assessment (McNamara & Roever, 2006).…

This study explores the effectiveness of guided reflective journals to improve intelligibility in a Japanese higher educational context. Based on qualitative and quantitative methods, the paper evaluates changes in speech over the duration of one semester. In particular, this study focuses on changes in prosodic features such as stress, intonation…

Separating text into meaningful language chunks, as with visual-syntactic text formatting, helps readers to process text more easily and language learners to recognize grammar and syntax patterns more quickly. Evidence of this exists in studies on native and non-native English speakers. However, recent studies question the roll of VSTF in certain…

This study examines the efficacy of a multimodal online bilingual dictionary based on cognitive linguistics in order to explore the advantages and limitations of explicit multimodal L2 vocabulary learning. Previous studies have examined the efficacy of the verbal and visual representation of words while reading L2 texts, concluding that it…