Many English language proficiency (ELP) tests used for university admissions and placement now include integrated writing tasks that require examinees to use external sources when writing. Integrated writing tasks improve test authenticity and impact, but they raise several validity questions, such as what academic language skills they engage and…

In Assembly Bill (AB) 705, assessment and placement practices in California Community Colleges (CCC) should maximize the probability that students who enter credit-bearing English as a second language (ESL) course sequences complete degree and transfer requirements in English within three years. The three-year timeframe begins when a student…

There has recently been much criticism, at government level, of the role of universities on the training of teachers in the UK. This paper investigates the effects of an initial teacher education programme (ITE) at a higher education institution (HEI) on trainee modern foreign language teachers. Seven modern foreign language trainees teachers were…

Research on form focused instruction has provided support for the use of collaborative tasks in which learners focus their attention on formal aspects of language and consciously reflect on their own language use (i.e. produce language-related episodes or LREs). A strand of research on LREs in different educational contexts examines the effect of…

This dissertation looks at the effects of the flipped classroom model on foreign language learners at the introductory level. Specifically, the project examined students' learning outcomes in reading, writing, speaking, and listening when exposed to the flipped classroom format for one or two semesters of introductory German classes at the college…

Detailed research concerning the issue fluency, specifically relating to pauses, mean length runs, and fluency rates in Japanese EFL learners, is limited. Furthermore, the issue of tracking fluency gains has often been ignored, misunderstood or minimized in EFL educational research. The present study, which is based on six monologues conducted…