The "ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines" serve as a roadmap for foreign/second language (L2) instruction, assessment, curriculum development, and textbook writing. However, very little research has investigated the validity claims of the "ACTFL Guidelines." This study empirically verifies the difficulty hierarchy suggested by…

The present study investigated the second language processing of grammatical mood in Spanish. Eye-movement data from a group of advanced proficiency second language users revealed nativelike processing with irregular verb stimuli but not with regular verb stimuli. A comparison group of native speakers showed the expected effect with both types of…

This study examined the effects of watching gestures and lip movement on second language (English) listening comprehension. The participants were 30 high and 22 low proficient learners of English. There were six listening tasks combining two variables: modality and difficulty. The modality consisted of three types of assessments: Body (the upper…

Language proficiency policies act as critical gatekeepers for multilingual international students (MIS) who intend to pursue an education at English-medium universities. The current study revisits the question of the predictive validity of a standardized English proficiency exam--International English Language Testing System (IELTS)--in comparison…

Form-Focused Instruction (FFI) has been extensively studied, yet past experimental results are often inconsistent or even contradictory. Overly simplistic examinations of grammatical complexity and learner characteristics (e.g., L2 English proficiency) may have fueled the confusion, limiting understanding of how different FFI techniques can be…

Text classification and text gradation are important for language teachers. Profiling and readability studies examine textual and linguistic features that determine text difficulty. Arabic, as an under-resourced language, suffers from a lack of such studies which results in material developers and textbook writers relying on their intuitions and…

The Imperfect/Preterite aspectual contrast is one of the most studied topics in Spanish as a second language research. However, there are few works focused on describing the acquisition of modal uses of the Imperfect by L2 speakers. This paper investigates the L1 Russian L2 Spanish speakers' mastery of politeness, evidential and nonfactual modal…

The aim of this experiment was to investigate how glossing influences second language (L2) reading comprehension in relation to text difficulty and the two local and global meaning representations. Fifty-eight undergraduate students were asked to read three easy, moderate, and difficult texts and, following each passage, answer twenty…

This paper aims to assess the knowledge of metaphor-based teaching among teachers by investigate the obstacles that hinder them from incorporating metaphor-based teaching into their instructional strategies. This study makes use of a questionnaire to collect data from EFL teachers worldwide. The results show that the difficulties most faced by…

In contexts of first language (L1) acquisition, prediction and adaptation are often viewed as fundamental to the learning process (Rabagliati et al., 2016). One mechanism that has been proposed to specifically account for such adaptive behavior is error-based implicit learning (e.g., Chang et al., 2006). According to this account, speakers…

The present study investigated how Cantonese speakers learning English as a second language (L2) would comprehend English irony and whether their L2 proficiency and use would moderate their irony processing. Thirty Cantonese speakers with differing English proficiency (intermediate vs advanced) were asked to complete an irony comprehension task in…

Approaches to learning a second/foreign language can be affected by such individual differences as personality traits, motivational variables, and task difficulty. Personality traits have been proven to influence academic achievement, but their effects on motivation and language learning approaches remain unanswered. The first purpose of the study…

The problem addressed in this study was that second language learners have difficulties pronouncing some English consonants that are not part of their language. Such errors occur because of first-language interference. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceived effectiveness of using minimal pair training to…

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…

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…