Critical thinking (CT) is widely viewed as an essential skill for college students. Nevertheless, the use of CT skills in the classroom often varies across disciplines. This article summarizes perceptions of CT, including various definitions and constructs as well as barriers to its implementation in higher education. Faculty members from various…

Recent literature in the field of L2 vocabulary assessment has advocated for the development of written receptive vocabulary tests such as Vocabulary Levels Tests (VLTs) that use: (a) meaning-recall item formats, (b) a minimum of 40 item counts per 1,000-frequency band to improve level estimates, and (c) lemmas (not word-families) as the lexical…

The present study investigated the effects of text-based and audio-based dynamic glosses on L2 vocabulary learning within a sociocultural approach. Dynamic glosses were operationalised as a set of incrementally ordered prompts, provided during text-based and audio-based interactions that guided the participants to identify the meaning of unknown…

Since it was first published by the Council of Europe in 2001, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has become one of the most widely referenced documents in language education, particularly in English language teaching and assessment (Savski, in press). The recently released CEFR Companion Volume (2020), with its new…

The current assessment in language classrooms prevailingly utilizes the criteria provided by instructors, regarding learners as passive recipients of assessment. The current study drew upon sustainable assessment and the community of practice to highlight the importance of involving learners in co-constructing the assessment criteria and argued…

Student learning outcomes (SLO) assessment is often perceived as a burdensome, top-down process driven by institutional requirements. Recent research has thus called for discipline-specific models of SLO assessment to more deeply engage postsecondary faculty in determining what constitutes student learning within their programs. In response, this…

This literature review attempts to survey representative studies within the context of L2 speaking assessment that have contributed to the conceptualization of rater cognition. Two types of studies are looked at: 1) studies that examine "how" raters differ (and sometimes agree) in their cognitive processes and rating behaviors, in terms…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether English language learners (ELLs) would increase their vocabulary scores in the areas of word recognition, word meaning, and word application when iPads were used during vocabulary instruction. Five third-grade ELLs, at risk of being diagnosed as having learning disabilities, participated in the…

This paper, fundamentally a procedural paper, outlines pedagogical practices which others may want to adapt for their own purposes. We demonstrate how a strong form of task-based language learning and teaching (TBLT), classroom implementation of the CEFR, cyclical learning, and assessment fulfilling roles, such as informing the next learning…

The translation into Italian of the "CercleS" European Language Portfolio (ELP) was undertaken by AICLU (Associazione Italiana Centri Linguistici Universitari) and based on the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" (CEFR; Council of Europe 2001), translated into Italian for La Nuova Italia Edizioni, and the…

Projects related to the European Language Portfolio (ELP) carried out at the Language Centre of the University of Trieste are concerned to examine whether and to what extent "can do" descriptors can be extended to courses in Languages for Specific Purposes. The project reported in this article had two aims. The first was to explore what…

Individuals need communicative competence for personal fulfillment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment. Aim of the research is to work out English for Academic Purposes activity organization model and its introducing sequence for promoting communicative competence. Content: the search for English for Academic…

Could corpus analysis be used to solve some of the problems surrounding non-native speakers' understanding of seemingly synonymous words? This research is needed because there is no single universal unified lexical theory that can be applied to the study of semantics or of language as a whole. Instead, there are a variety of views than can be…

This handbook presents the perspectives of more than 60 leading authorities on the study and practice of adult and continuing education. The following are among the papers included: "A Selective History of Adult Education Handbooks" (A.L. Wilson, E.R. Hayes); "The Concept of Critically Reflective Practice" (Stephen D.…