As an internal expansion of the Language Proficiency Flagship Initiative at Michigan State University, 172 students of German took ACTFL proficiency tests in three modalities (speaking, listening, and reading) over the course of three years. The test scores and background survey data were analyzed to determine proficiency levels of students at the…

This study examined the preferred individualized classroom environment and language learning strategies of the college-level ESL learners who registered in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program in a public four-year university in the southeast of the United States. Based on Fraser (1985)'s Individualized Classroom Environment's theoretical…

This article briefly describes Fred P. Ellison's ground breaking contributions in Brazilian literary studies in North America. Further, his key role in the development of Brazilian Portuguese language instruction is highlighted, along with the numerous scholarly connections he made in the the field of Luso-Brazilian Studies.

We offer a more nuanced characterization of teachers' narrative inquiry as professional development (Johnson & Golombek, 2002) by grounding our definition of and empirical research on teachers' narrative inquiry from a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective. Our goal is to reaffirm our belief in the educational value of teachers'…

The number of Chinese engineering students has increased greatly since 1999. Rating the quality of these students' English essays has thus become time-consuming and challenging. This paper presents a novel automatic essay scoring algorithm called PSOSVR, based on a machine learning algorithm, Support Vector Machine for Regression (SVR), and a…

This article attempts to realize the dominant approach in developing the academic curriculum of language degree and French literature in Iran. It concentrates on analyzing the content of the curriculum approved by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Iran and the University of Tehran. It was concluded that the first curriculum opts…

Recent scholarship in professional development (PD) has advocated for solid conceptual frameworks and understanding of the complex process involved in how language educators may continue to develop and fulfil the current challenging teaching demands. However, specific relationships underlying departmental cultures and how language educators relate…

This article proposes a model for integrating text-to-speech software (TTS) in students' interpreting training and practice. It shows the aims of the model, the definition of TTS, the advantages of using TTS, how to search for TTS, instructional stages with TTS, and the interpreting instructor's role. The students can use TTS software online;…

Investigating the processes underlying test performance is a major source of data supporting the explanation inference in the validity argument (Chappelle, 2021). One way of modeling the cognitive processes underlying test performance is by constructing a Q-matrix, which is essentially about summarizing the attributes explaining test-takers'…

Self-assessment for accreditation purposes requires follow-up of graduates and feedback with academic programs. As part of the improvement actions, this study was done to characterize graduates' methodologies in English language teaching. The data, gathered through questionnaires, showed that graduates privilege the communicative and eclectic…

This case study will describe and analyse how the experiences of online language teaching at the University of Cambridge gained during the first UK lockdown helped to inform planning for the next academic year. Emergency measures implemented for the third term of the academic year 2019/2020 were evaluated. A curriculum of blended teaching…

The global pandemic and subsequent quarantine measures and restrictions have posed a challenge to the structure and procedure of university summative assessment process. Qualification assessment for Foreign Languages major programs in particular is a strict regimen process that involves different stages (oral and written exams, final project viva,…

The study aims to investigate washback of the English National Exam (ENE) on learning and how they impacted English language learning strategies of first-year English majors at University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Danang (UFLS, UD). Data was collected from a questionnaire administered to 120 first-year English majors and an…

Answering calls to map college-level proficiency development (Modern Language Association, 2007) and longitudinally chart language learning (Barkaoui, 2014; Ortega & Byrnes, 2008), we mapped the oral proficiency growth of 1,922 lower-division college students of Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish (in the second, third, or fourth semester of…

Today the Framework for 21st Century Learning developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) is widely recognized and has been used in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand. P21 defines and illustrates the skills and knowledge students need and states that critical thinking is fundamental for twenty-first century success and essential for…