Human raters and machine scoring systems potentially have complementary strengths in evaluating language ability; specifically, it has been suggested that automated systems might be used to make consistent measurements of specific linguistic phenomena, whilst humans evaluate more global aspects of performance. We report on an empirical study that…

This study aims to discover whether the oral placement tests in English language institutes in Iran conform to interview principles. To achieve this goal, thirty four placement interviews from different English language institutes in Iran are investigated and compared with the interviews principles in different point of views. Patton 2002 believes…

Suprasegmental features have received growing attention in the field of oral assessment. In this article we describe a set of computer algorithms that automatically scores the oral proficiency of non-native speakers using unconstrained English speech. The algorithms employ machine learning and 11 suprasegmental measures divided into four groups…

This report is the fifth in a series concerning English language proficiency (ELP) assessments for English learners (ELs) in kindergarten through 12th grade in the United States. The series, produced by Educational Testing Service (ETS), is intended to provide theory and evidence-based principles and recommendations for improving next-generation…

College graduates are falling short in oral communication skills, yet these skills are important for employment and for effective civic engagement. Catholic colleges and universities are well suited to revive sustained attention to the development and assessment of oral communication skills in today's higher education context. We can do this by…

This quasi-experimental study examined expressive vocabulary outcomes for Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) toddlers, after one year of home-visiting services. First, this study applied Rasch modelling to establish the construct validity and reliability of a widely used expressive vocabulary measure, as modified for a sample of ethnic and…

This study was conducted to see the effectiveness of using Facebook for expressing opinions on given topics to improve students' oral proficiency and critical thinking skills in an English class at a private university. The participants were 80 students enrolled in a course which emphasized the use of English for expressing ideas. Three research…

Based on the description of implementation of College English oral test from the points of the necessity, feasibility, and implementation process, this study analyzed the current situation of university students' oral English, oral English ability, the college entrance examination results, and a band-4 written test and established their…

This study examines the effect of communication strategy instruction on EFL students' oral communicative ability and their strategic competence. In a 14-week English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course (English Use II) based on Communicative Language Teaching approach, 80 learners were divided into two groups. The strategy training group (n = 44)…

Delta's Key to the TOEFL iBT: Advanced Skill Practice is a revised and updated edition of Delta's Key to the Next Generation TOEFL Test. Since the introduction of the TOEFL iBT in 2005, there have been significant changes to some of the test questions, particularly the integrated writing and integrated speaking tasks. The new 2011 edition of…

Six Practice Tests for the iBT gives students plenty of practice as they prepare for the Internet-based TOEFL (iBT) or the new form of the institutional TOEFL (ITP). This new book/audio set contains a concise description of the TOEFL and the types of questions in each section, as well as six full-length tests that have not been published before.…

This paper focuses on designing a comprehensibility test and a questionnaire for spoken world Englishes in Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, and utilizing the test to investigate the comprehension of Burmese, Cambodians, Indonesians, Laotians, Thais and Vietnamese. We reviewed the demarcation of users of English based on Kachru's…

This paper traces 9 non-English major EFL students and collects their oral productions in 4 successive oral exams in 2 years. The canonical correlation analysis approach of SPSS is adopted to study the disfluencies developmental traits under the influence of language acquisition development. We find that as language acquisition develops, the total…

Mobile (m)-learning is motivating to learners to improve foreign language skills, as it offers them a rich, informal, contextual, and ubiquitous learning environment. In this paper I report on the results of two empirical studies that focused on two projects, both of which incorporated e-learning and m-learning, to determine if a blended-learning…

This paper reports the findings of an empirical study on ESL/EFL teachers' evaluation and interpretation of oral English proficiency as elicited by the national College English Test-Spoken English Test (CET-SET) of China. Informed by debates on the issue of native speaker (NS) norms which have become the focus of attention in recent years, this…