Listening comprehension results are affected by various individual difference factors. This study aimed to examine the relationship between metacognitive awareness, listening anxiety, and EFL listening comprehension. To this end, data from the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ), Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS),…

Listening is a major challenge for many English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) learners. Decoding training, which helps learners develop the ability to recognize words from speech, is frequently used to assist EFL learners. Although recent empirical studies on decoding training have provided positive evidence on its effectiveness in improving EFL…

Listening comprehension plays a pivotal role in second language (L2) acquisition, but the process of listening is complex. L2 learners' listening ability is influenced by both cognitive and affective factors. Among the latter, anxiety is one of the most commonly studied variables in the field of education (Horwitz, 2001); however, its impact on…

Switching between languages requires the participation of executive functions (EFs) which comprise both the 'hot' affective aspects (hot EFs) and the 'cool' cognitive aspects (cool EFs). However, the role of these EFs in language switching is not clear. This study employed a word valence categorization task to explore the effects of hot (i.e.…

Based on 312 samples, this study investigated the relationship between two dimensions of L2 vocabulary knowledge (VK) and listening comprehension (LC) by comparing written and oral vocabulary measurements and further examined the mediating effect of L2 vocabulary fluency (VF) by using Bootstrapping and Monte Carlo Method. Results show that: (1)…

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effects of sentence context, accent strength, and second language (L2) listening proficiency on word recognition accuracy and transcription time among Chinese learners of English for Pakistani-accented English. Method: Speech stimuli included 48 isolated words and 48 highly constraining sentences, each…

A growing number of studies have focused on uncovering linguistic and cognitive skills predictive of reading comprehension. Vocabulary knowledge (VK) and morphological awareness (MA) are two important linguistic variables for reading comprehension. In contrast, working memory (WM) is an essential cognitive variable for reading comprehension. The…

Grammatical and vocabulary knowledge (i.e., breadth and depth) are widely acknowledged as key predictors of reading comprehension in a second language (L2). However, it remains unclear how different aspects of vocabulary depth may independently contribute to L2 reading comprehension and how learners' proficiency may moderate the relative…

Background: Second language (L2) reading is a complex process in which two languages constantly interact. L1 reading and L2 proficiency are two well-acknowledged factors contributing to L2 reading comprehension. Other factors, such as strategy use and anxiety, might also predict L2 reading comprehension, but their roles have not been examined in…

Listening is an essential and challenging language skill to acquire when we learn a new language, but L2 listening has received much less attention than reading, writing, and speaking in L2 teaching. This study investigated the direct effect of listening self-efficacy and metacognition on L2 listening comprehension and tested the mediating effect…

The present study examined the relative effectiveness of bilingual subtitles for L2 viewing comprehension, compared to other subtitling types. Learners' allocation of attention to the image and subtitles/captions in different viewing conditions, as well as the relationship between attention and comprehension, were also investigated. A total of 112…

This study investigated the effects of four subtitle modes on the listening comprehension of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks and academic vocabulary learning of intermediate (non-English major) and advanced (English major) English as foreign language (EFL) learners. A total of 272 Chinese college sophomore students were randomly…

While the effect of reading strategies on L2 test performance has been extensively researched, the effect of test-taking strategies remains underexplored, with mixed results due to varying contextual factors. This study, therefore, investigated the latent structure of test-taking strategies and the relationships among test-taking strategies,…

This extension study investigates the relationship between self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies and first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English reading test performance among 190 primary six students in mainland China, building upon the findings by Tse et al. (2022). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the acceptable…

This study quantifies second language (L2) knowledge of aural single words and aural phrasal verbs (PVs) and investigates their relationship with L2 listening comprehension. An aural first language (L1) meaning recall test format was used to measure knowledge of 81 single-word and 81 PV target items (with equivalent frequencies of occurrence)…