Teachers in the early years of primary school play an important role in supporting students' oral language skills; however, there is evidence to suggest many Australian teachers are not adequately prepared to provide systematic, evidence-based instruction in oral language and early literacy. The aim of this study was to describe the observed and…

After graduation, many Saudi EFL graduates find themselves losing their oral communicative competence, which could be attributed to the period of their English non-use. To explore such a pressing issue, the following study investigates the effect of English non-use on a surveyed sample of Saudi EFL graduates, and how such disuse correlates with…

"Viva voce" exams are used in many disciplines as a test of students' knowledge and skills. Whilst acknowledged as a useful form of assessment, vivas commonly lead to a great deal of anxiety for students. This anxiety is also apparent for vivas in phonetics, where the students must produce and recognise sounds drawn from across the…

For this essay, the authors provide an "introspective retrospective." A senior scholar of basic writing provides his views on the development of basic writing as one who began graduate school in rhetoric and composition two years after Mina Shaughnessy's 1977 Errors and Expectations. That perspective carries us through the discussions…

A substantial number of studies have been conducted in various second language teacher education settings. Yet, evidence about the effectiveness of teacher preparation continues to be debated and research findings about the efficacy of preparing language teachers are still somewhat inconclusive. As a further complication, even though pronunciation…

The selection and ordering of response units (phonemes, letters, keystrokes) represents a transversal issue across different modalities of language production. Here, the issue of serial order was investigated with respect to typewriting. Following seminal investigations in the spoken modality, we conducted an experiment where participants typed as…

Second language pragmatics are not easily acquired by second language learners for a variety of reasons including negative first language transfer, insufficient grammatical competence, and inadequate instruction. For adult learners living in the second language environment, adequate pragmatic knowledge is essential even for beginning level…

In the assessment of speaking, a psycholinguistically based speaking construct has predominated. In this paper, we argue for the integration of the construct of interactional competence (IC) in speaking assessments to broaden the range of defensible inferences from speaking tests. IC emphasizes the co-constructed nature of interaction and enables…

The papers in this special issue provide support for continued scrutiny of interactional competence (IC) as an important component of the speaking construct. The contributions underscore the complex nature of IC and remind us of the multiple factors that affect any construct definition. At the same time, each study offers insights into those…

People prefer words with inward directed consonantal patterns (e.g., MENIKA) compared to outward patterns (KENIMA), because inward (outward) articulation movements resemble positive (negative) mouth actions such as swallowing (spitting). This effect might rely on covert articulation simulations, or subvocalizations, since it occurs also under…

Students receive little guidance on how to give the oral presentations that increasingly feature in third level modules. It has been observed that several communication tools employed effectively in conversation--in particular stories--are not used in presentations. The aim of this study was to demonstrate this effect and explore possible reasons…

Background: Language disorder and associated vocabulary difficulties can persist into adolescence, and can impact on long-term life outcomes. Previous reviews have shown that a variety of intervention techniques can successfully enhance students' vocabulary skills; however, none has investigated vocabulary intervention specifically for adolescents…

This study explored the relations between reading comprehension and two memory capacities, short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM), for adults who read between the third and eighth grade levels. With a sample of 407 adults from two countries, we computed correlations among measures and conducted hierarchical regression and commonality…

Home and English language learning is essential for young DLLs with disabilities. Early educators as well as parents and other caregivers can implement promising strategies to support home and second language development for young children who are DLLs. This article reviews the importance of adult (e.g., teacher, parent) feedback and language…

Early auditory/language experience plays an important role in language development. In this study, we examined the effects of severe-to-profound hearing loss and subsequent cochlear implantation on the development of attention to speech in children with cochlear implants (CIs). In addition, we investigated the extent to which attention to speech…