The correct location of lexical stress is a main concern for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners whose first language has a different stress system. Therefore, in light of the fact that pronunciation errors in English are often the result of the Farsi language sound system transfer, the present study examined the impact of phonetic…

The goals of this research were twofold. First, to measure changes in cultural awareness levels between two groups of students in their third semester of a Spanish class. The trained group formed by university students from the USA collaborated with another group of university students from Colombia using Skype. The second aim was to identify…

The present study sought to evaluate the pragmatic competence of heritage learners of Spanish in regard to compliment sequences and the impact that pragmatic lessons would have on these students. To this end, pre and post tests to assess pragmatic recognition in regard to Spanish compliments were designed by the researchers and completed by the…

Although adventure video games have been identified as effective tools for education, few studies have examined the usefulness of such games for language learning. The present classroom-based investigation, therefore, examined the possibility of exploiting commercial adventure video games for improving vocabulary recall of second language learners…

This dissertation examined the effects of the inferencing reading strategy using a emotionally charged instruction for students from countries who do not speak English as their first language. A quasi-experimental study applying quantitative research methods to collect data from the two sections of Level four Reading classes during a ten week…

This study aimed at applying English reading and writing strategies' training to improve the low English proficiency students' competence of English reading and writing. It was a quasi-experiment design. In total, 70 non-English major undergraduates at a private university in China participated in the research, 35 students in the experimental…

There is a strong belief among language teachers that intensive exposure to language alone can lead to acquisition. The present study is a qualitative- quantitative research design that used a quasi-experimental design to compare between the effectiveness of intensive exposure to language versus phonological awareness explicit instruction on adult…

This contribution was an attempt to study the impact of critical discourse-based instruction on Iranian English major language learners' in-depth reading. To this target, Fairclough's three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis [CDA], with an emphasis on the 10-question model was used. To this end, all undergraduate foreign language…

Text length is considered as one of the factors that cause listening task difficulty along with others such as speech rate, clarity of voice, accents, text genre and topic. Despite all these factors, teachers sometimes consider text length as the single reason for a listening activity's difficulty. Not many studies have focused on the length as a…

Previous research on reference tracking has revealed a tendency towards over-explicitness in second language (L2) learners. Only limited evidence exists that this trend extends to situations where the learner's first and second languages do not share a sensory-motor modality. Using a story-telling paradigm, this study examined how hearing novice…

This study aimed at examining the effectiveness of demonstration technique to improve vocabulary and grammar element in teaching speaking at EFL learners. This research applied true-experimental design. The respondents of the study were 32 students (class IIA) as experimental group and 32 students (class IIB) as control group from the second…

This article explores the acquisition of Japanese vowel and consonant quantity contrasts by Cantonese learners. Our goal is to examine whether transfer from first language (L1) is possible when L1 experience is phonemic but restricted to a small set of sounds (short vs. long vowels) and when the experience is non-phonemic, derived only at morpheme…

In the present study, we examine sentence reading in low-proficiency Spanish learners using an eye-tracking methodology. This method reveals the real-time, uninterrupted process of reading comprehension, and can therefore shed light on L2 learners' functional proficiency. We created sentence pairs that were identical except for one word. The…

With the integration of new technologies in the foreign language classroom, the practice of collaborative writing has gained renewed attention, although some questions still remain unanswered regarding the extent to which these tools help learners in their writing when compared to more traditional learning contexts (Elola & Oskoz, 2010). In…

The proponents of frequent quizzes claim that they stimulate students and have a positive effect on their learning, while the opponents argue that too frequent quizzes might frustrate students and hinder their learning. This study examined the effect of frequent quizzes on Iranian undergraduate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners'…