A number of English language proficiency exams target grades K-12 English language learners (ELLs) because of the rising need to identify their needs and provide appropriate support in language learning. A good example is the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs (hereafter ACCESS), designed to measure the English language proficiency of students identified as…

Objectives: It has long been speculated that effortful listening places children with hearing loss at risk for fatigue. School-age children with hearing loss experiencing cumulative stress and listening fatigue on a daily basis might undergo dysregulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity resulting in elevated or flattened…

Recent research has demonstrated that L2 learners and heritage speakers might have two different profiles in terms of their syntactic, morpho-syntactic, and lexical-semantic knowledge of a target language (Montrul, 2004, 2006, 2010; Montrul, Foote, & Perpinan, 2008). However, the most influential of the major studies have been limited to…

The aim of this study is to evaluate a state high school EFL Program through CIPP (context, input, process and product) model. The participants of the study include 504 students. The source of data has been obtained through a 46-itemed questionnaire and an interview for the students. In the study, the data has been analysed using statistical…

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a group of states working together to develop a set of assessments that measure whether students are on track to be successful in college and their careers. These high-quality, computer-based K-12 assessments in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA/L)…

The purpose of this study was to provide an insight into how former English learners' educational experiences allowed them to attain English language proficiency and meet grade level standards in English Language Arts. This study was informed by the theoretical frameworks of Albert Bandura's social learning theory, and Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural…

The aim of this descriptive statewide study is to decipher reclassification practices in California -- the state that educates 20% of the nation's English language learners (ELL) and enrolls more language-minority students than any other state in the union. In the course of our investigation, we examined reclassification criteria from a…

The underlying methodological approach of the CEFR is defined as being "action-oriented" and task-based (Council of Europe. 2001. "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment." Cambridge University Press: 9), although it explicitly leaves room for a variety of approaches, since the CEFR…

This paper examines the language planning situation in the Sultanate of Oman with emphasis on the planning of Arabic, English, French and German, and their choice and spread in serving different interests and purposes. The paper explores the historical, social, political, and ideological processes and complexities of the language policy and…

The aim of this experimental study is to examine the development of gender assignment and gender agreement in bilingual Albanian-Greek and English-Greek children as well as the exploitation of gender cues on the noun ending in real and pseudo-nouns. Four gender tasks were designed, two targeting gender assignment (determiner + noun production) and…

Writing anxiety is one of the most essential factors influencing language learning. The current study is to explore the effect of sentence-making practice on reducing writing anxiety of two classes of adult EFL learners, one in low-intermediate level (LI learners), the other in high-intermediate level (HI learners). Two classes received two-week…

The purpose of this cluster randomized group study was to investigate the effect of multitiered, dual-language instruction on children's oral language skills, including vocabulary, narrative retell, receptive and expressive language, and listening comprehension. The participants were 3- to 5-year-old children (n = 81) who were learning English and…

Business, like many other fields in higher education, continues to rely largely on conventional testing methods for assessing student learning. In the current article, another evaluation approach--the oral exam--is examined as a means for building and evaluating the professional communication and oral dialogue skills needed and utilized by…

Background: Language impairment (LI) in the preschool years is known to vary over time. Stability in the diagnosis of LI may be influenced by children's individual variability, the measurement error of commonly used assessment instruments and the cut-points used to define impairment. Aims: To investigate the agreement between two different…

The overall study from which findings are presented gave stem-equivalent short answer and multiple choice tests of English structure and reading to students at Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. A comparison of scores, facility, discrimination, reliability and validity from 3-, 4- and 5-option versions of the multiple choice test found little…