This project explores how the variation in language experiences and attitudes that Mexican American Spanish heritage speaker bilinguals in the United States have affects their speech perception in both their languages. Heritage language bilinguals speak as a first language a minority language that they have cultural ties to (e.g., Spanish in the…

This paper provides an experimental study of interlanguage phonological characteristics of Chinese students learning Thai as a foreign language and the accentedness perceived by native Thai speakers. Both production and perception experiments were designed to see how Chinese students acoustically produced Thai final nasal consonants and how Thai…

The present study aims to examine the Executive Function (EF) skills of preschool-aged children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH), and explore the variables related to their EF skills. Thirty preschoolers who were DHH and an additional 35 preschoolers with typical hearing were recruited. All DHH use spoken language as their communication…

The goal of the current study was to ascertain pre-service English language teachers' impressions of the impact of thematic speaking tasks on the development of their intercultural competence in an online Spoken English course. Moreover, the effect of certain demographic variables on pre-service teachers' cultural intelligence (CQ) was also…

Infants are adept at learning statistical regularities in artificial language materials, suggesting that the ability to learn statistical structure may support language development. Indeed, infants who perform better on statistical learning tasks tend to be more advanced in parental reports of infants' language skills. Work with adults suggests…

Individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) occupy complex sociocultural and sociolinguistic territories. They are immersed in spoken language communities but to participate as speakers in conversational interactions, they may rely on atypical communication modes, including systems for generating speech that set them apart…

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to derive spatial release from masking (SRM) performance-azimuth functions for bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users to provide a thorough description of SRM as a function of target/distracter spatial configuration. The secondary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the microphone…

An individual who has the ability to speak from birth continues the development of this skill in education and training environments after the family. In this regard, teachers have great responsibilities for the speaking skills to be acquired in educational environments. Teachers are expected to know about the development of children's speaking…

This study represents the inaugural attempt at assessing the authenticity of the tasks encompassed in the IELTS Speaking Module. The evaluation is conducted from the vantage points of applied linguistics and general education, and serves to enhance comprehension of authenticity and authentic assessment. In order to achieve this objective, an…

This article reports the results of an explorative, quantitative study designed to investigate the pedagogical potential of Flip (formerly Flipgrid) as a connectivist and transmedia tool for developing English language learners' productive skills to provide a basis for their continued improvement. The study suggests that the connectivist practice…

Proficiency in speaking is essential for effective communication; however, anxiety serves as a significant barrier that negatively impacts oral performance, particularly in EFL contexts. This study addresses this issue by investigating speaking anxiety among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in Afghanistan, where limited research exists…

This action research report explores the effect of a "flipped learning" strategy on adult EFL students' speaking skills. Flipped learning, or inverted learning, reverses the traditional educational model where students learn in class and practice out of it; flipped learning promotes the students' learning of concepts and theories out of…

Students studying in beginning level foreign language classrooms often lack the opportunity to speak spontaneously (Kogan, 2023). Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a pedagogical approach to language instruction that advocates for the use of tasks to develop learners' second/foreign language (L2) abilities. Games can act as tasks that prepare…

English is undoubtedly an important language for educational and socio-economic mobility in numerous countries including Malaysia. Regardless of its importance, studies to document English language acquisition among Malaysian children acquiring English in the local context remain scarce. This normative data is imperative for syllabus-designers,…

Purpose: This study investigated whether maximum speech performance, more specifically, the ability to rapidly alternate between similar syllables during speech production, is associated with executive control abilities in a nonclinical young adult population. Method: Seventy-eight young adult participants completed two speech tasks, both…