A second language can be learned inside and outside the classroom. In this study we investigated the English and French vocabulary knowledge of 110 Dutch-speaking children (age 10-12), who received 100 hours of instruction in French, whereas their contact with English came from out-of-school exposure only. We examined the role of individual…

This article reports a study about how the discourse of standard English exercises disciplinary power in five international scholarships programs. This research interest arises from problematizing the discourse of standard English present in the requisite of proficiency certification through so-called valid tests. Adapting Fairclough's critical…

The ability of international graduates to grasp a foreign language has become increasingly important as the demand for English-speaking workers has grown worldwide. To this end, several strategies for encouraging the use of English in academic settings have been implemented. International students' academic success may suffer if colleges refuse to…

In open and higher education, digital technologies are increasingly used to enable flexible learning pathways and unbundle programs into separate courses. Whereas technologies have been praised for enhancing the flexibility of curricula, the implications of going digital have yet to be fully explored in curriculum studies. This article aims to…

This study aimed to scrutinize the measurement of ICC and then investigate the relationship between Iranian L2 learners and their L2 learning motivation, and achievement on the one hand, and the difference between ICC and motivation of EFL learners, on the other. To do this, the participants included 60 B.A. Translation and 60 B.A. non-Translation…

High stakes testing, such as IELTS, is designed to select individuals for decision-making purposes (Fulcher, 2013b). Hence, there is a slow-growing stream of research investigating the subskills of IELTS listening and, in feedback terms, its effects on individuals and educational programs. Here, cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) performs it…

From the perspective of complexity theory and based on Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis and the Triadic Componential Framework, this paper investigated the effect of manipulating task complexity along resource-dispersing dimension on L2 written performance. The results showed that: 1) Significant interactive effects were found between the two…

Many children on the autism spectrum have difficulty developing reading comprehension skills. This multiple phase single case design pilot study examined the impact of a computer-assisted reading tool, Reading Eggspress™, with or without teacher directed instruction on the reading comprehension skills of four children on the autism spectrum (mean…

In Saudi Arabia, high school education has always been blamed for students' weaknesses in the English language. Teachers have been accused of overestimating students' scores in English language courses, resulting in evaluations that do not reflect the students' real levels. Consequently, students believe that they are good enough at English and…

The present study investigated the speaking module of TOEFL iBT with an emphasis on the dichotomy of independent and integrated tasks. The potential differences between the two speaking conditions were intended to be explored based on the oral performance elicited from a group of Iranian test takers. To collect the required data, a simulated…

Technology is of great importance in the specification of methods, techniques and tools to be used in or out of the classrooms. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the shutdown of schools and forced the education to be maintained online which makes the research on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools, to be used in learning…

In language performance tests, raters are important as their scoring decisions determine which aspects of performance the scores represent; however, raters are considered as one of the potential sources contributing to unwanted variability in scores (Davis, 2012). Although a great number of studies have been conducted to unpack how rater…

This study investigated how the corpus-based teaching approach could enhance L2 acquisition of English infinitive and gerund complements among low English proficiency young Thai learners of English. The students were divided into two groups of 32. One group learned English verbal complements through the corpus approach while the other did through…

Pragmatic markers perform important communicative functions, but they can be difficult to learn in a second language because of their multifunctionality and lack of salience during communicative events. This study has two goals: (1) to describe the communicative functions of the pragmatic marker "I mean" in academic discourse; and (2) to…

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to determine whether English learners who participated in transitional kindergarten perform equally or better than English learners who did not participate in transitional kindergarten in the areas of oral language, written language, and overall language as measured by the…