Focusing on the teaching of listening strategies to second language (L2) learners, this study sought to revisit Renandya and Farrell's (2011) claims that explicit listening strategy instruction for lower-proficiency learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) is a fruitless endeavor. As such, we implemented a quasi-experimental study to…

A robust finding in psycholinguistics is that prior language experience influences subsequent language processing. This phenomenon is known as syntactic priming. Most of the empirical support for L2 syntactic priming comes from lab-based experiments. However, this evidence might not reflect how priming occurs in typical language activities in the…

Recent research shows that musical training improves children's development of oral and aural skills. This study focuses on developing and testing a methodological framework (Music as a Medium of instruction, MMI) in English language teaching (ELT) by contrasting MMI and gamification methodologies with the participation of 22 Spanish children all…

EFL teacher-educators and teachers are seen as ignorant of teaching aural skills for referring to resource shortages is a common mechanism for their scapegoating. It hinders students' opportunity to boost oral proficiency in the abundance of their smartphones in the classrooms to learn aural and oral skills. Hence, Moodle 3.0, a learning…

This paper reports a study comparing the effects of vocabulary instruction on recognition and recall through provision of either an L1 equivalent or an L2 (French) definition. Instruction was in the context of a focus-on-meaning listening activity. The study employed a quasi-experimental design, involving 262 Year 9 learners of French in seven…

While the use of intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) has exploded in recent years, little is known about their use to promote English as a foreign language (EFL) development. Thus, this study addresses this gap in the literature by examining the in-class use of the IPA, Alexa, among second language (L2) English students to support improvements…

Foreign language education has now been implemented at the elementary school level across Europe, and early foreign language education has gained traction following language policies set by the European Commission. The long-term effects of an early start, however, have not received ample scientific scrutiny. The present study assessed early…

In this paper, we present an intelligent architecture, called intelligent virtual environment for language learning, with embedded pedagogical agents for improving listening and speaking skills of non-native English language learners. The proposed architecture integrates virtual environments into the Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language…

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effect of Story Telling and retelling and higher order thinking for "E"nglish "L"anguage and "L"iteracy "A"cquisition (STELLA) on the English oral proficiency of elementary students in Mainland China and Taiwan, where English is taught as a foreign…

Game-based learning activities that facilitate students' listening and speaking skills were designed in this study. To participate in learning activities, students in the control group used traditional methods, while students in the experimental group used a mobile system. In our study, we looked into the feasibility of mobile game-based learning…

This paper addresses a niche in studies on immersion programmes for English as second language learners. While studies on the impact of the experience of studying abroad are replete with reports about the enhancement of participants' language proficiency or intercultural skills, the present study investigates the types of language and culture…

Three components have been introduced for foreign language learning anxiety in the literature: Test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and communication apprehension. This study teases out the first of the three components with special focus on listening comprehension test to investigate the correlation between listening test results and foreign…

In the past quarter century, the nation's K-12 public schools have experienced a large influx of students who speak languages other than English. Research has shown that many factors affect how English learner (EL) students acquire English language skills, including their preparation before entering U.S. schools, their out-of-school environments,…

Introduction: This study explores the relationship among three variables--cognitive load, foreign language anxiety, and task performance. Cognitive load refers to the load imposed on working memory while performing a particular task. The authors hypothesized that anxiety consumes the resources of working memory, leaving less capacity for cognitive…

This study investigates the impact of a five-week intermediate Spanish course on the listening comprehension ability of 48 participants in short-term study abroad programs, and compares these groups with 92 peers enrolled in a similar course on the home campus. While both on-campus and study abroad groups experienced similar gains in listening…