Placement tests are used to support a particular need in a local context--to determine the best starting place for a student entering a specific programme of language study. This brief report will focus on the development of an innovative placement test with self-directed elements for our local needs at a university in Canada for students studying…

This article details the challenges and best practices of evaluating second language learners for placement into postsecondary Spanish language courses. The literature on testing for placement purposes in second language acquisition and language testing provides a great deal of insight, but language programs must make many decisions as well that…

A research study on the L2 Motivational Self-systems (L2MSS) and technology acceptance of Foreign Language Learners (EFL) in relation to Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs) is warranted. In response, 336 Iranian EFL learners participated in three LMOOC platforms, learned language online in line with their language institutes, and…

As a social-interactional positive behavior, the flow of compassion (i.e., selfcompassion, compassion for others, and compassion from others), which refers to sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it, has yet to be investigated in a highly social-interactional context such as foreign language…

This study explores the impact of sociocultural theory-based instruction on enhancing L2 learners' writing skills including grammatical accuracy, coherence, cohesion, task response, and lexical resources for the IELTS. To this end, a cohort of 40 participants, spanning intermediate and advanced proficiency levels, was divided into experimental and…

During this COVID-19 pandemic, no one can deny the value of online communication. It has saved our lives by preventing us from going outdoors and becoming infected, while also facilitating achievement of various personal and professional goals. Online communication can also assist us with our academic goals, whether it is used to communicate with…

The increasing popularity of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) in non-native English-speaking countries has generated a demand for concrete examples in the creation of CEFR-based tests that assess the four main English skills. In response, this research endeavors to provide insight into the development and validation of a…

The current study investigates second language acquisition of Chinese object ellipsis to probe the development of features transferred from learners' native language without robust confirming or disconfirming evidence in the second language (L2) input. It is argued that Chinese allows object ellipsis licensed by a verb with a [VCase] feature but…

Despite being a popular topic in language testing, cognitive load has not received enough attention in vocabulary test items. The purpose of the current study was to scrutinize the cognitive load and vocabulary test items' differences, examinees' reaction times, and perceived difficulty. To this end, 150 students were selected using…

Playback controls or audio/video control (AVC) buttons are common in technology-enhanced listening materials but are often overlooked in CALL theorizing and research. It is unclear how language learners use AVC buttons when they independently access computer-based L2 listening materials. This qualitative case study aimed to understand how…

The documentation of test takers' achievements has been accomplished through large-scale assessments to find general information about students' language ability. To remove subjectivity, Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment (CDA) has recently played a crucial role in perceiving candidates' latent attribute patterns to find multi-diagnostic information…

Discourse markers (DMs) as linguistic devices have a significant role in the coherence of conversation--a speakers' fluency. With the growing use of English worldwide, it is of great importance to focus on DMs as an essential part of communication which provides discourse coherence. This study was conducted to develop a description of spoken…

Over the years, we have been witnessing the burgeoning of interdisciplinary interest in the use of ideological discourses and enactment of representations through linguistic and semiotic choices in positioning, (re)constructing and expressing identities. In this picture, there is an evident paucity of research investigating the kinds of…

This study examines the correlation between the theory of pragmatic discourse of givenness and CP adverbial clauses from the two datasets: Q1 SCOPUS applied linguistics research articles and Thai undergraduate students' writing. The first set was 24 applied linguistics research articles from journals of "English for Specific Purposes"…

Panahi and Mohebbi review James Dean Brown's 50-years of research in language testing, curriculum development and research statistics with reference to an impressionistic framework for analysis containing two components with their subcomponents: Annotations (i.e., briefing and implications) and main concepts and themes (i.e., testing and teaching…