This methodological review highlights the trends in empirical studies where a methodological construct (i.e. verbal reports) intersects with content (i.e. literacy research). Specifically, we synthesise research on language learners' reading in which verbal reports were deployed as a methodological tool. Questioning the long-standing assumption…

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…

This study explores the verbal engagement strategies that EFL instructors adopt when teaching English over Instagram. These instructors create videos where they teach English and share them on Instagram. Twenty-five highly engaging English teaching videos on Instagram were used as the data of this study. To discover the engagement strategies that…

Becoming a professional worker involves a wide range of cognitive, social, and cultural processes that have received extensive attention over the past decades amongst various disciplines. It is also not external to language use and communication. Novices in any occupation have to learn technical terms and are expected to master specific discourse…

Despite calls for engaging assessments targeting young language learners (YLLs) between 8 and 13 years old, what makes assessment tasks engaging and how such task characteristics affect measurement quality have not been well studied empirically. Furthermore, there has been a dearth of validity research about technology-enhanced speaking tests for…

We describe research results and lessons learned from a laboratory/classroom collaboration with a school system offering both traditional English-only education and a dual-language track (Spanish/English). Through this collaboration, we addressed basic research questions informing malleable factors that impact cognitive development. In a…

The present study is intended to critically examine metadiscourse markers in 24 master thesis abstracts. Twelve of them are written by non-native Iraqi female students and the rest by native American female students. To do so, the researchers have set two aims: examining the types and subtypes of metadiscourse markers in terms of nativity and…

The Pinyin Tutor has been used the past few years at over thirty institutions around the world to teach students to transcribe spoken Chinese phrases into Pinyin. Large amounts of data have been collected from this program on the types of errors students make on this task. We analyze these data to discover what makes this task difficult and use…

There is currently an explosion in the number and range of new devices coming onto the technology market that use digital sensor technology to track aspects of human behaviour. In this article, we present and exemplify a three-stage model for the application of digital sensor technology in applied linguistics that we have developed, namely,…

This paper describes tasks based on real-life scenarios, which triggered reflective thinking, verbalization, and writing, leading to the creation of natural dialogues rather than artificial, dull monologues. One of the main aims of this approach is to engage students in a dynamic process of both learning about multicultural participants and…

Examines trends in second language (L2) communication strategy (CS) research. A comprehensive review is included of the relevant literature from the last two decades, with particular reference to the different ways in which CSs have been defined and to the corresponding influences on the organization of strategy taxonomies. (92 references)…

Reviews Faerch and Kasper's model (1983) of communication strategies and demonstrates that it is too rigid to have a sound psychological foundation. The article argues for more emphasis on studying learners' strategies from a discourse analyst's perspective and touches on the interrelation between language, culture, and personality in verbal…

Presents strategies for reading visual images. Illustrates how visual systems inform the process of listening for the meaning of foreign language words and phrases. Suggestions are provided on how these strategies apply to a larger curricular program that integrates media into its overall learning objectives. (35 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates relationships among measures of second-language proficiency (SLP), foreign-language aptitude, verbal intelligence and reasoning in 160 Japanese college students studying English. The factor analysis of several different SLP test scores was examined, and the relationship between a general SLP factor and a hypothetical general cognitive…