The current study investigates how second language (L2) listening comprehension is associated with three dimensions of L2 vocabulary knowledge: size, depth, and fluency. Vocabulary knowledge tests administered to 290 participants measured L2 auditory vocabulary size, depth, and fluency. Afterward, participants took an International English…

We examined the cognitive, language, and instructional factors associated with reading ability in Williams syndrome (WS). Seventy 9-year-olds with WS completed standardized measures of real-word reading, pseudoword decoding, reading comprehension, phonological skills, listening comprehension, nonverbal reasoning, visual-spatial ability, verbal…

Perceived competence is considered an essential predictor of learner´s performance in language learning. It is therefore important to identify strategies that favor its development. This study aims to analyze whether the perceived linguistic competence of English as a L2 of pre-service teachers improves after implementing Dialogic Pedagogical…

This longitudinal study investigates the effect of mode of reading on the incidental learning of collocations and factors that affect learning. One hundred Vietnamese pre-intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were assigned to either an experimental group or a control group (no treatment). In 9 weeks, the experimental group…

This study explores the differential effects of captions and subtitles on extensive TV viewing comprehension by adolescent beginner foreign language learners, and how their comprehension is affected by factors related to the learner, preteaching of target vocabulary, the lexical coverage of the episodes, and the testing instruments. Four classes…

This study sought to investigate the link between preferred learning styles, performance, and cognitive load. After determining learning styles (visual or auditory), undergraduate students were assigned to three instructional formats, namely: Listen Only, Read Only, and Read + Listen. A pretest was administered to assess students' prior knowledge…

Using a modified system of least prompts, two classroom teachers taught three participants with moderate intellectual disability to generate questions about United States history. After reading brief portions of the text aloud to the participants, the teachers taught participants to identify if the answer to the question was in the book or not in…

Mobile devices have become a significant part of students' lives. The average number of hours that college students reported using their smartphones each day was nine hours--more than half of their daily waking hours (Roberts, Yaya, & Manolis, 2014). Although software developers and teachers have started to develop and incorporate various…

Research Findings: Multitiered instructional frameworks are becoming a recommended approach for enhancing prevention and intervention efforts targeting early literacy and language skills. However, few studies to date have studied the feasibility of tiered oral language interventions before kindergarten; therefore, this pilot study explored the…

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, this study was conducted to compare English communicative competency achievement between two different models of instruction. Adult English language learners (AELLs) participated in either the communicative task-based (CTB) or in a more traditional (MT) language instructional approach. The goal of the…

A study investigated whether preassessments of general and specific knowledge can predict children's listening comprehension. Topical knowledge, assessed by multiple-choice questions, did predict story comprehension; topical interest, however, did not correlate either with topical knowledge or comprehension. (Authors/PP)

Examines whether more attention needs to be paid to listening as a necessary skill in the diagnosing and preparation of foreign language students and whether listening skill is a good predictor of language achievement. (GLR)

Describes a study which examined the relationship between age and achievement of adults in an instructional setting. Older (25 to 41) and younger (17 to 24) French-speaking students were compared with respect to short-term development in aural comprehension. Results suggest that achievement rate decreases with increasing age. (SED)

Understanding spontaneous speech is a very difficult task for many foreign students. They must be taught to use all the ethnographic cues available to enable them to predict the likely content of a text. They must predict not only the factual content of spoken language but also the interactional structuring. (Author/CFM)