Teacher agency is a pivotal element of professionalism and second/foreign language (L2) education. However, its role in L2 assessment has remained under-researched. Part of this negligence is due to the absence of a validated questionnaire to measure the construct and its underlying components. To address this gap, drawing on the ecological…

Studies have shown that raising L2 learners' metaphor awareness contributes to the acquisition of figurative language, which fosters students' development of language skills. However, the instruments measuring metaphor awareness, in the majority of relevant research, did not seem to have undergone proper methodological procedures for checking…

Despite their experience, teachers continuously need to develop themselves professionally as the recency of the knowledge they acquire in teacher education programmes wears off in time -- which means they need to be autonomous enough take responsibility for their own professional learning. This study, therefore, defines 'teachers' professional…

Existing methods used to validate self-report questionnaires in foreign language teaching effectiveness have relied on Classical Test Theory (CTT). However, the use of CTT approaches limits the reliability and validity of self-report instruments. The Rasch Model, which is based on the principles of objective measurement, addresses some of the…

This article aims at proposing a new measurement to assess the effects of language learners' goal-setting behavior, as an alternative to the traditional open-ended questionnaire. This goal-setting instrument was carefully developed through three phases. In the first phase, an item pool was generated. In the second phase, a pilot study was carried…

Background: This study focuses on achievement emotions in a context of foreign language acquisition in a French-speaking population. Aims: Firstly, the reliability and construct validity of the Achievement Emotion Questionnaire were examined; the second aim was to compare the effectiveness of two teaching approaches, classical and task-based…

The aim of this study was to validate a 24-item TEPID (Teachers of EFL Preparedness to Include Dyslexics) scale measuring the beliefs of 546 pre-service and in-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) across three countries (Cyprus, Greece, and Poland) on their preparedness to include learners with dyslexia in mainstream foreign…

This study revisited Reid's (1987) perceptual learning style preference questionnaire (PLSPQ) in an attempt to answer whether the PLSPQ fits in the Chinese-as-a-second-language (CSL) context. If not, what are CSL learners' learning styles drawing on the PLSPQ? The PLSPQ was first re-examined through reliability analysis and confirmatory factor…

An increased enthusiasm on teacher accountability, in recent times, has led policy makers and teachers to a significant care over evaluating teachers' success. To this aim, a 40-item Teacher Success questionnaire was developed and validated by the application of the Rasch model. The Rasch model is used to decide whether the scores of an instrument…

In the body of literature on listening strategies to EFL learners, what seems to be lacking is that the focus is on teaching listening strategies to learners with little attention to their listening comprehension problems. No local research has been conducted on the nature of the Iranian tertiary level students' EFL listening comprehension…

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has been mainly associated with adult language learners. Although FLA forms a serious problem in the foreign language learning process for all learners, the effects of FLA on children have been mainly overlooked. The underlying reason is that there is a lack of an appropriate measurement tool for FLA among children.…

Test is procedures for measuring ability, knowledge or performance. Testing can be defined as a method of assessment and improvement of the students. Language testing in any point is an extremely multifarious task that ought to be based on method as well as exercise. The results of assessments are used for one or more purposes. So they have an…

Speech acts are the major concern of interlanguage pragmatists. The present study aimed to 1) examine the reliability and validity of an interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) competence test on speech acts in a Chinese EFL context, and 2) investigate EFL learners' variations of ILP competence by language proficiency. Altogether 390 students participated…

Demographic trends in Korea indicate that the student population is becoming more diverse with regards to culture, ethnicity and language. These changes have implications for science classrooms where inquiry-based, student-centered activities require culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students to connect with their peers and successfully…

The washback effect of high-stakes tests has been explored in different countries and various educational contexts. Washback generally refers to the influence of testing on teaching and learning (Alderson & Wall, 1993). This paper which is a part of a larger study seeks to report the perceptions and attitudes of Iranian pre-university English…