There has been much debate in assessment research about the inclusion of Global English accents in high-stakes listening tests. This study explored test-takers' attitudes toward the inclusion of different English accents in the Duolingo English Test (DET) 2021 test version and their associations with listening test scores. One hundred sixty…

This article investigates the effect of different accents on high- and low-proficiency second language (L2) learners. It begins with testing the English listening proficiency of Chinese students and then compares the influence of three accented English (a British accent, an Australian accent and an Indian accent) on their listening scores.…

To examine the effects of listening test preparation, we had three groups, two experimental and one control (63 learners total), partake in three types of instruction sandwiched between two equally difficult listening tests (pretests and posttests). The first experimental group took four practice tests and received "explicit"…

Currently, the most acknowledged test to qualify for overseas universities is the IELTS test which is referred to as the International English Language Testing System. It is implemented as an accreditation tool and is believed to be a reputable and trustworthy tool of language competence by tertiary institutions which employ its use. Regardless of…

A considerable amount of studies has been done on the relationship of L2 vocabulary and reading/listening, strategy use and reading/listening, and vocabulary and strategy use in different contexts among different levels of learners; however, little has been known about the relationships among all these variables with the same cohort of learners…

The challenge for many teachers teaching in academic English programs is, on the one hand, to actualize the objectives of their course and on the other hand, prepare their students for the important international tests such as IELTS and TOEFL. The current study seeks to reconcile this challenge by drawing on the relationship between the IELTS…

This study investigated the relationships between the social anxiety, social class and listening-test anxiety of students learning English as a foreign language. The aims of the study were to examine the relationship between listening-test anxiety and listening-test performance. The data were collected using an adapted Foreign Language Listening…

A much under-researched issue in higher education is the extent to which English-medium university courses help students improve their English proficiency in an ESL context. Adopting a longitudinal, mixed methods design in which quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed, the current study tracked English language improvement,…