The importance of phonological awareness (PA) for the acquisition of literacy skills has been widely recognized. Across languages, PA is commonly examined using the Oddity test, however, for Chinese-speaking children, Pinyin invented spelling is recommended as being a more powerful tool to assess PA. However, it is still unclear whether this holds…

The area of individual differences (ID) in second language (L2) has been a point of interest for many researchers; however, the impact of ID on the writing performance of L2 learners has not been explored exhaustively. Only a limited number of studies have examined the role of language aptitude, vocabulary size, and working memory (WM) on L2…

This study examined whether the linguistic distance between the first (L1) and second (L2) language is a significant determinant of L2 writing skills of 292 adult immigrants from 39 different source countries, who were beginner learners of Spanish L2. Gender, age, length of residence in Spain, education level as a proxy for literacy skills in L1,…

Purpose: The present study has three objectives: (1) to explore whether there are statistically significant relationships between Extramural English (EE) engagement, second/additional language (L2) anxiety and communication apprehension, (2) to investigate whether EE engagement predicts these two constructs, and (3) to reveal possible predictive…

Writing helps one to connect and remember. It makes individual reflections and thinking clear and meaningful to survive in the world of symbols. The present study adds to the existing body of knowledge on determining the interplay of writing anxiety, writing strategies and writing achievement of Saudi EFL learners. It further explored the use of…

This research aimed to study the theories and principles for improving Chinese reading and writing skills based on second language acquisition theory and investigated the factors affecting Chinese major students' reading and writing skills for university students in northeast of Thailand. The sample groups were 386 Chinese language major students…

One of the important components in second language (L2) development is to produce clause-level units of form-meaning pairings or argument structure constructions. Based on the usage-based constructionist approach that language development entails an ability to use more diverse, more complex, and less frequent constructions, this study tested…

This study examines the predictive effects of motivational beliefs and self-efficacy on multiple dimensions of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing. Undergraduate students (n = 389) were recruited voluntarily from four universities in mainland China. They were invited to complete a set of…

This empirical study explores metacognition and its relationship with writing performance. Through multivariate analyses, the study investigates the role of metacognitive knowledge and regulation in mediating writing performance. Participants were 882 students from eight universities in China who were learning English as a foreign language (EFL).…

Based on the quantitative analysis of L2 English texts from Korean undergraduates, the present paper demonstrates the possibility of distinguishing L2 speaking proficiency with differing measures of syntactic complexity in English writing. To this end, 14 measures of complexity were gauged using an L2 Syntactic Analyzer (Lu, 2010) in 89 EFL essays…

This study examined the writing skills of first-grade students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) or Native English Speakers (NESs). We examined the roles of transcription and oral language skills on contextualized spelling, writing fluency, and writing quality outcomes for ELL and NES students. Thirty-four ELLs (Mean age (A) = 78.03 months,…

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of preschool experience on academic achievement, with specific reference to English language learning outcomes of Grades 1, 2 and 3 students in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Data from a representative sample of 402 students covering all three grades, from Bahrain public elementary schools were…

Language learning is context-dependent and requires learners to employ different sets of language skills to fulfill various tasks. Yet standardized English as a foreign language assessments tend to conceptualize English proficiency as a unidimensional construct. In order to distinguish English proficiency as separate context-driven constructs, I…

This paper reports on empirical research that endeavors to investigate the role of vocabulary knowledge in the writing and speaking performance of 54 B2 level Turkish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The measured aspects of vocabulary knowledge (productive vocabulary size, receptive vocabulary size, and depth of vocabulary…

Being able to read and write in English as a second language (L2) in the globalized world has been increasingly considered important to gain greater personal, academic, and business achievement. This study investigates English (L2) reading and writing abilities in relation to first language (L1) reading and writing abilities, L2 vocabulary…