The major European testing agencies have calibrated their exams to the levels of language proficiency described in the Common European Framework (CEFR). In Italy, where the Framework has been enthusiastically embraced, external exams are now frequently used within the state education system as they are believed to provide reliable, widely…

The student response system (SRS) is marketed as a reliable tool for improving students' academic attainment. However, findings to the question of whether or not the SRS does improve the learning outcomes of ESL [English as a Second Language] learners in primary education are not well documented in the research literature. Despite the wide use of…

This paper reports a project in which researchers at universities in Japan explored the use of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) practices by developing a learning module intended to help improve students' scores on the TOEIC Listening and Reading Tests. MALL practices are currently being developed at universities in Japan because almost…

Current approaches to assessing agrammatism use data from restricted contexts, such as picture description and story telling tasks. There is evidence in the conversation analysis literature to suggest that conversational grammar may differ markedly from the grammar of such elicited language samples. The disparity between conversational and test…

This study introduces a new method of evaluating human comprehension in the context of machine translation using a language translation program known as the FALCon (Forward Area Language Converter). The participants include 48 freshmen from the United States Military Academy enrolled in the General Psychology course, PL100. Results of this study…

CB[subscript 1] receptor-compromised animals show profound deficits in extinguishing learned behavior from aversive conditioning tasks, but display normal extinction learning in appetitive operant tasks. However, it is difficult to discern whether the differential involvement of the endogenous cannabinoid system on extinction results from the…

This study investigated the relationship between receptive and productive vocabulary size. The experimental design expanded upon earlier methodologies by using equivalent receptive and productive test formats with different receptive and productive target words to provide more accurate results. Translation tests were scored at two levels of…

Researchers have suggested that interactional feedback is associated with foreign/second language learning because it prompts learners to notice foreign/second language forms. Using Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and Long's interaction hypothesis as conceptual frameworks, this study explores the use of systematic explicit feedback to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using flashcards to develop automaticity (rapid word recognition) with key vocabulary words and phrases in order to improve fluency and reading comprehension skills for participants with and without diagnosed learning disabilities enrolled in a high school Spanish course. Eighty-seven…

This paper presents the results of writing processing among 260 high school senior students, their degree of satisfaction using the new trial version of the Computer Based University Entrance Examination in Spain and their degree of motivation towards written online test tasks. Currently, this is one of the closing studies to verify whether…

The principal aims of this study, a conceptual replication of an earlier investigation of the TOEFL[R] computer-based test, or TOEFL CBT, in Buenos Aires, Cairo, and Frankfurt, were to assess test takers' reported acceptance of the TOEFL Internet-based test, or TOEFL iBT[TM], and its associations with possible determinants of this acceptance and…

Rhetorical structure refers to a complex network of relationships and the way the underlying ideas are organized within a text. This study was conducted to see whether explicit instruction of descriptive and causative text organization positively affected L3 reading recall. 240 Turkish students of EFL who had Persian as their second language were…

Drawing on data from eleven preschools in four European countries (Germany, Belgium, Sweden, and the UK), this edited volume explores the progress of preschool children learning English over a period of two years. In the first volume, children's lexical and grammatical comprehension, the quality of L2 input, the effect of immersion on L1…

The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the productive discourse devices and markers noted in 50 spoken narratives elicited from Telugu native speakers. Since most of them are college students and residents of Hyderabad, they are also exposed to English as well as Hindi-Urdu (Dakkhini). After presenting certain salient features of Telugu…

Cognitive load theory has been utilized by second language acquisition (SLA) researchers to account for differences in learner performance with regards to different learning tasks. Certain instructional designs were shown to have an impact on cognitive load and working memory, and this impact was found to be accentuated in a multimedia environment…