This paper reports on an exploratory study that investigated the effect of extensive speaking practice on the development of L2 speaking complexity, accuracy, and fluency in voice blogging. The participants were 30 college EFL (English as a foreign language) learners in Taiwan. As a supplement to the insufficient speaking practice in class, each…

This study employs longitudinal Conversation Analysis (CA) to examine one TA's follow-up contributions in a series of EFL group discussion tests. By tracking the TA's interactional practices across 18 groups, we observe how she adapts her turn design by increasingly aligning towards that of the novice English speakers. The TA initially attempts to…

Using a single case design, a parent-mediated spoken-language intervention was delivered to three mothers and their school-aged sons with fragile X syndrome, the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability. The intervention was embedded in the context of shared storytelling using wordless picture books and targeted three empirically derived…

In bilinguals and second language learners, the native (L1) and nonnative (L2) languages coexist and interact. The L1 influences L2 production via forward transfer, as is seen with foreign accents. However, language transfer is bidirectional: even brief experience with an L2 can affect L1 production, via backward transfer. Here, we review the…

The goal of this study was to provide a preliminary evaluation of a social skills and facilitated play early intervention programme to promote social interaction, prosocial behaviours and socio-communicative skills among young extremely shy children in China. Participants were a sample of n = 16 extremely shy young children attending kindergarten…

This paper proposes a discourse-based approach to the language documentation of local ecological knowledge (LEK). The knowledge, skills, beliefs, cultural worldviews, and ideologies that shape the way a community interacts with its environment can be examined through the discourse in which LEK emerges. 'Discourse-based' refers to two components:…

This study investigated whether task complexity may affect L2 speaking performance as predicted by the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), and whether the effect of task complexity may interact with individual differences in working memory capacity. A total of twenty Korean advanced-level EFL learners performed two separate picture description…

This study investigates whether a natural order exists for non-native acquisition in the production of English syllable coda obstruents by Korean and Chinese adult native speakers. We recorded L2 English monosyllabic words produced by 66 Chinese and 51 Korean native speakers. The recorded speech was then evaluated by 11 native-speaker listeners of…

The present trend in developing and using semi-direct speaking tests has been supported by test developers and researchers' claim of their increased practicality, higher reliability and concurrent validity with test scores in direct oral proficiency interviews. However, it is universally agreed within the language testing and assessment community…

This paper analyses the cultural practices that were introduced in a radio improv class on the first day of Youth Radio Arts for immigrant students, and how these practices served as resources to mediate students' understanding of, and realisation of 'voice' over time. The theory-method combines insights from interactional ethnography and…

The aim of the study is to reveal how multicultural based learning can increase the multicultural students' level of tolerance. The research is qualitative descriptive which the source of data is obtained from observation of the implementation of multicultural based learning in Speaking II class as well as interviews of students and lecturer. The…

A number of studies have demonstrated strong links between students' language features (as found in spoken and written production) and their math performance. However, no studies have examined links between the students' language features and measures of their Math Identity. This project extends prior studies that use natural language processing…

This dissertation is a mixed-methods ethnographic study of students in the introductory class in the Engineering & Computer Science (ECS) department at University of California, Davis (UC Davis). I collected audio-recorded natural speech and questionnaire data from students attending this course during two academic quarters, Fall 2016 and…

This book is relevant for language testers, listening researchers, and oral proficiency teachers, in that it explores four broad themes related to the assessment of L2 listening ability: the use of authentic, real-world spoken texts; the effects of different speech varieties of listening inputs; the use of audio-visual texts; and assessing…

The aim of this study is to present three contributing factors to kinesthetic learning. This study employed advanced recognition technologies, pedagogical mechanisms, and interesting activity design. First, kinesthetic learning with a speaking accuracy measuring function to facilitate English as foreign language (EFL) learning is proposed. Namely,…