Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been exerting a revolutionary and profound impact on the teaching of English as Foreign Language (EFL) for decades. In spite of these acknowledged advances, teachers have numerous reservations and objections against the adoption of AI-based applications. In order to facilitate the proper use and produce an…

Linguistic meaning is generated by the mind and can be expressed in multiple languages. One may assume that equivalent texts/utterances in two languages by means of translation generate equivalent meanings in their readers/hearers. This follows if we assume that meaning calculated from the linguistic input is solely objective in nature. However,…

Exemplars are samples which illustrate dimensions of quality and enable students to understand assessment expectations. The theoretical basis for using exemplars lies principally in social constructivist approaches to assessment and the notion of tacit knowledge. Through a constructivist grounded theory methodology, this paper theorises how twelve…

The benefit of parental involvement (PI) cannot be underestimated, most specifically, the PI that operates on mutual trust and respect, and balancing of power between homes and schools. It is particularly beneficial to students who are learning English as a second language because their parents can partner with educators to close the achievement…

In recent decades, there has been an attempt to introduce the concept of "assessment for learning" into English language classrooms based on a belief that assessment can be utilized to assist learners in the learning process, not just for teachers to make judgments and decisions. In so doing, the learning-oriented assessment frameworks…

This Research Brief describes a model developed as an alternative method for making ESOL exit decisions in 2019-2020. Given the cancellation of the 2019-2020 Statewide student assessment, FSA ELA results which are used as one of the two major components for making ESOL exit decisions will not be available, and an alternative method is needed. This…

High stakes testing, such as IELTS, is designed to select individuals for decision-making purposes (Fulcher, 2013b). Hence, there is a slow-growing stream of research investigating the subskills of IELTS listening and, in feedback terms, its effects on individuals and educational programs. Here, cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) performs it…

Rating scales for writing assessment are critical in that they determine directly the quality and fairness of such performance tests. However, in many EFL contexts, rating scales are made, to certain extent, based on the intuition of teachers who strongly need a feasible and scientific route to guide their construction of rating scales. This study…

How strongly a verb is associated with a construction plays a crucial role in the learning of argument structure constructions. We examined the effect of verb-construction association strength on second language (L2) constructional generalization by analysing L2 learners' production and comprehension of two complex constructions (i.e. ditransitive…

In this paper we address the question, how do quantitative reasoning and covariational reasoning present as students build structural conceptions of real-world situations. We use data from an exploratory teaching experiment with an undergraduate STEM major to illustrate the explanatory roles quantitative reasoning and covariational reasoning play…

This paper investigates the effects of meaning dominance in the time-course of activation for ambiguous words out of context in a second language (L2) based on two models: the ordered access model, where the most frequent dominant meaning is always accessed first, and the multiple access model, where dominant and subordinate meanings are…

Language switch costs have been explored less in receptive tasks than in productive tasks, and previous studies have produced mixed findings with regard to switch cost symmetry and the relationship of switch costs to executive function. To address these unresolved gaps, one hundred Chinese-English bilingual adults completed a bilingual lexical…

In Assembly Bill (AB) 705, assessment and placement practices in California Community Colleges (CCC) should maximize the probability that students who enter credit-bearing English as a second language (ESL) course sequences complete degree and transfer requirements in English within three years. The three-year timeframe begins when a student…

As the number of language instructors seeking to implement digital technologies in their teaching continues to grow, so does the need for direction with regard to making pedagogically sound decisions concerning digital tool use. One popular and useful guide for considering the educational potential of digital technologies has been Puentedura's…

This study investigated the ability of the demographic and the affective variables to predict the adult learners' decision to continue ESOL courser. 278 adult learners, enrolled on ESOL course at FLS institution in Istanbul, Turkey, participated in the study. The result showed that the continued or dropped out groups, demonstrated statistical…