The present study aims at investigating the effect of noticing on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' speaking accuracy. For so doing, 32 Iranian EFL students were selected and randomly assigned to two conversation classes namely, control and experimental groups. Before the treatment both groups had a speaking pre-test. During 32…

This longitudinal randomized trial study investigated the effects of phonological specificity training on second language (L2) vocabulary learning. Eighty-six Dutch secondary-school students participated in one of two experimental conditions or in an animacy judgment (active control) condition. Participants in the phonological specificity training…

The authors report two studies that examined how native- and second-language skills were related to second-language reading difficulties for native Chinese-speaking fourth graders learning to read English. In study 1, 50 poor English readers with Chinese-reading difficulties (the PB group) and 34 poor English readers without Chinese-reading…

This paper intends to examine the efficacy of song education to develop English proficiency in China's EFL context. By conducting a comparative study between two parallel classes and analyzing the results of forty-eight questionnaires, the paper reveals the following: 1) song education can help improve pronunciation and intonation skills to a…

The proponents of frequent quizzes claim that they stimulate students and have a positive effect on their learning, while the opponents argue that too frequent quizzes might frustrate students and hinder their learning. This study examined the effect of frequent quizzes on Iranian undergraduate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners'…

Adult second/foreign language acquisition is extremely challenging for many learners, with pronunciation often the one aspect in which otherwise very proficient language users fall short. Although a great deal of research has found that formal instruction in phonetics/phonology may improve learner pronunciation, no study has yet addressed the…

Pronunciation features are not equal in how they affect listeners' ability to understand. Some are low value, while others are high value. This study explores whether contrastive stress is high value. Previous research has shown that identification of contrastive stress is learnable (Pennington & Ellis, 2000), and that explicit teaching about…

Teaching pitch patterns of English as part of one of the elements of intonation has considerably been undervalued in Turkish teacher education contexts despite its significance in communication (Roach, 2001; Scherer, 2003; Maastricht et al., 2016) hence less research was conducted on this subject (Wennerstrom, 2001; Pickering, 2002; Demirezen,…

The current study examined in depth the effects of suprasegmental-based instruction on the global (comprehensibility) and suprasegmental (word stress, rhythm, and intonation) development of Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Students in the experimental group (n = 10) received a total of three hours of instruction over six…

This study focused on an instructional component often neglected when teaching the pronunciation of English as either a second, foreign, or international language--namely, the suprasegmental feature of lexical stress. Extending previous research on collaborative priming tasks and task repetition, the study investigated the impact of task and…

Although previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of recasts on second language (L2) morphology and lexis (e.g., Li, 2010; Mackey & Goo, 2007), few studies have examined their effect on learners' phonological development (although see Saito, 2015; Saito & Lyster, 2012). The current study investigates the impact of recasts on the…

The paper explores how various teaching methods, namely Phonology-Based Instruction (PBI) and Translation-Based Instruction (TBI), have an effect on students' acquisition of formulaic sequences. 20 multiword expressions were taught to 48 Vietnamese EFL students from three intact classes as 2 treatment groups (PBI and TBI) and 1 control group.…

In this dissertation we examine the effects of pronunciation instruction on the perception of a novel L2 contrast. The novel contrast in this case is the glottal fricative which results in Spanish from the suppression buccal gestures of /s/ in the word-medial coda position. This process which occurs in Spanish, but not English is known as…

The purpose of the present study is twofold. The first goal is to examine the effects of phonological input on students' vocabulary learning. The second is to discuss how different pre­-listening activities affect students' second language listening comprehension. The participants were first-­year students at a Japanese university. There were two…

The present study investigated the effects of training on the perception of Spanish stress, an important feature in the Spanish verbal morphology system. Participants were two intact classes of native English speakers enrolled in a six-week session of second-semester Spanish, as well as native English and native Spanish control groups. During the…