Under the constraint of classroom time, English as foreign language (EFL) learners usually do not have adequate opportunity to practice oral English in class nor receive individualized feedback from the instructor. After-class practice constitutes an essential component of foreign language learning. This study investigated the effect of utilizing…

Whereas there has been some research on the role of bottom-up and top-down processing in the learning of a second or foreign language, very little attention has been given to bottom-up and top-down instructional approaches to language teaching. The research reported here used a quasi-experimental design to assess the relative effectiveness of two…

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) refers to the use of English as a contact language between people who have different first languages, including native English speakers (Jenkins, 2014). "ELF is simultaneously the consequence and the principal language medium of globalizing processes" (Jenkins, Cogo, & Dewey, 2011, p. 303). In…

This is the 2014-2015 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The purpose of the report is to: (1) Describe the demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL); (2) Compare and contrast the academic achievement of students in the English for…

Language education curricula and programs worldwide have begun emphasizing foreign language instruction for learners as young as 5-6 years, particularly in English. Yet, while studies have argued for the benefits of early language instruction, the results of this trend in terms of actual achievement are not clear. For this reason, the researchers…

One of the most influential models of working memory (WM) is the one developed by Baddeley (1986, 2000, 2003) which views WM comprising several components--a central executive, an episodic buffer, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the phonological loop. The phonological loop or phonological memory (PM) deals with the temporary storage of verbal and…

The name "SAT" has become synonymous with college admissions testing; it has been dubbed "the gold standard." Numerous studies on its reliability and predictive validity show that the SAT predicts college performance beyond high school grade point average. Surprisingly, studies of the factorial structure of the current version…

This study examines how three captioning types (i.e., on-screen text in the same language as the video) can assist L2 learners in the incidental acquisition of target vocabulary words and in the comprehension of L2 video. A sample of 133 Flemish undergraduate students watched three French clips twice. The control group (n = 32) watched the clips…

We examined the nature of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism in relation to the motivation and achievement of 306 Korean 7th graders. We also tested the mediating role of domain-specific academic self-efficacy and achievement goals in the relationships between perfectionism and achievement-related outcomes across math and English.…

Background: Text reading prosody has been associated with reading comprehension. However, text reading prosody is a reading-dependent measure that relies heavily on decoding skills. Investigation of the contribution of speech prosody--which is independent from reading skills--in addition to text reading prosody, to reading comprehension could…

This study aimed at designing a program based on the Pragmatic theory to develop grammatical structure comprehension skills for foreign learners of Arabic and examining its effectiveness. Hence, the problem of the study has been summarized in the weakness of grammatical structure comprehension skills for foreign learners of Arabic and in the need…

Research has revealed that second language learners often seem passive and reticent in language classrooms. In the age of globalization, however, there is an urgent need for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to enhance their reticent students' confidence to help them take part more actively in classroom oral activities. In line with…

This study investigated the perceived use of conversation maintenance strategies during synchronous computer-mediated communication with native English speakers. I also correlated the relationships of the strategies used with students' speaking ability and comprehensive proficiency level. The research questions were: (1) how were the learners'…

Many contemporary textbooks for English as a foreign language (EFL) and books for vocabulary study contain exercises with a focus on collocations, with verb-noun collocations (e.g. "make a mistake") being particularly popular as targets for collocation learning. Common exercise formats used in textbooks and other pedagogic materials…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of a small-group intervention based on the naturalistic approach on 220 children from 3-5 years of age. All kindergarten children received weekly sessions delivered by a SLP in collaboration with the kindergarten teacher. These sessions included various book related activities. Two…