Assessment has shifted from assessment of learning to assessment for learning. Self-assessment and peer assessment therefore appear to play more important roles as they encourage students to critically reflect on their own and their peers' learning progress and performance. Although self-assessment and peer assessment of written language…

The teaching of soft skills in EFL postgraduate courses is increasingly part of the Italian university curricula, albeit with some delay compared to foreign universities. Postgraduate English language courses need to focus on the use of language in foreseeable situations by creating opportunities to use the language in public contexts. Meetings,…

The current research is mainly conducted to explore the pragmatic functions of English rhetoric in public speech. To do this, methods of close reading and case studies are adopted. The research first reveals that the boom of public speech programs helps reexamine the art of utterance, during the delivery of which English rhetoric plays an…

Despite a growing body of research on instructor techniques and treatments to mitigate public speaking anxiety, this issue remains prominent, especially among university students. An alternative to mitigating such anxiety is to identify authentic coping strategies that university students could practice in actual situations. Numerous studies have…

Metaphor is an important figure of speech copiously deployed in political discourse. In this study, we adopted the framework of Charteris-Black's (2004) Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) which derives from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).This framework is interested in exploring the implicit intentions of language users, the ideological…

This study investigated the influence of communication apprehension and anxiety in second-language (L2) learning on oral performance of Japanese university students in terms of F0 (fundamental frequency) analysis. The participants were English-major students (3 males and 6 females) who presented at an oral communication festival for university…

This paper reports on a blended learning approach for public speaking in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The researcher implemented the course design through reduced weekly face-to-face class sessions and online student interaction using a speech video-based blog. Using a survey conducted at the end of the semester, multiple…

Research proved that anxiety plays an essential role in foreign language speaking, especially when it comes to speaking in front of others. Learners in the department of English always show a negative attitude in speaking presentations and tasks in full view of people. The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors that contribute to…

Despite the long-term and intensive English learning educations they received, Chinese college students still have to struggle to make an even 2 minutes professional English presentation. Through more than 10 years English study, their vocabulary and language knowledge are enough for delivering an intermediate level English presentation. By…

Research on impact of sustained impromptu speaking on public speaking competency development is scarce and lacking. The researcher investigated Moroccan college students' public speaking competency development through extemporaneous (i.e. carefully prepared and rehearsed) speech performance, after implementation of a teaching strategy involving…

This study investigated the production of discourse markers by non-native speakers of English and their occurrences in their spoken English by comparing them with those used in native speakers' spoken discourse. Because discourse markers (DMs) are significant items in spoken discourse of native speakers, a study about the use of DMs by nonnative…

The main purpose of learning a foreign language is to use it for meaningful and effective communication both inside and outside the classroom. This paper is devoted to identifying the main communication difficulties faced by EFL students at King Khalid University (KKU) and exploring the reasons that lie behind these difficulties. The paper…

This paper aims to explore student engagement in peer evaluation activities related to giving scientific presentations in English (L2) and to investigate student attitudes towards this form of evaluation in the course Communication skills in Croatian (L1). The participants in this study were first-year students of engineering in Split, Croatia.…

The present study contributes to developing a Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS) to measure anxiety in the EFL public speaking class in the Thai context. Items were adopted from previous scales: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz et al. (1986); Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) and Personal…

In the present context of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) or English as International Language (EIL), it has become extremely relevant to maximize speaking opportunities in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom which aim at developing fluency and real-life communication skills. University students in Portugal need to practice…