This dissertation provides an automated scoring method of speech fluency for second language learners of English (L2 learners) based that uses speech recognition technology. Non-standard pronunciation, frequent disfluencies, faulty grammar, and inappropriate lexical choices are crucial characteristics of L2 learners' speech. Due to the ease of…

This study investigates English as a second language (ESL) teachers' beliefs in grammar teaching. A 32-item questionnaire was administered to 11 ESL teachers in a language school in California. The results show that the participants generally believe that the formal study of grammar is essential to the eventual mastery of a foreign or second…

Many composition teachers use the writing conference to provide feedback to their students; however, the existing literature on the subject indicates that teachers may unintentionally harm their weaker students by using this strategy. To better understand the effect of the writing conference on developmental writing students, the researcher…

This article reports on the findings obtained from an exploratory study on the effectiveness of feedback in a computer-based learning environment. The main aim of the study was to gain insight into learning outcomes and student perceptions in relation to different types of feedback. This aim was operationalised in terms of an investigation amongst…

Two hundred and ninety-six English majors at universities in Poland, Austria and Hong Kong were given a 50-item questionnaire designed to evaluate their knowledge of grammatical terminology. The main aim was to identify whether the three populations were subject to differing "terminological cultures". This was found to be substantially…

When natural language input contains grammatical forms that are used probabilistically and inconsistently, learners will sometimes reproduce the inconsistencies; but sometimes they will instead regularize the use of these forms, introducing consistency in the language that was not present in the input. In this paper we ask what produces such…

This article reports on a study that examined the effects of integrating corpus and contextualized lexicogrammar in foreign and second language teaching. The study was conducted in English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) courses at 1 Chinese university and 2 U.S. universities, involving 244 participants (236…

The article summarizes results from two experimental studies on reactivity. In the first experiment, 24 college-age participants received a computerized treatment that delivered a grammar lesson, practice, and feedback on assignment of semantic functions in Latin. Verbalizations did not induce reactivity on accuracy, but they slowed down posttest…

Multiculturalism becomes the buzzword in educational fields. The implication of multiculturalism is critically examined to appreciate its relevance to English language teaching. Critical multiculturalism is advocated whereby L2 learners need to examine how social and historical discourses construct their identities and have a critical reflection…

There is a surprising degree of overlapping structure evident across the languages of the world. One factor leading to cross-linguistic similarities may be constraints on human learning abilities. Linguistic structures that are easier for infants to learn should predominate in human languages. If correct, then (a) human infants should more readily…

Childhood experience with a language seems to help adult learners speak it with a more native-like accent. Can analogous benefits be found beyond phonology? This study focused on adult learners of Spanish who had spoken Spanish as their native language before age 7 and only minimally, if at all, thereafter until they began to re-learn Spanish…

This paper examines the role of age, working memory span and phonological ability in the mastery of ten different grammatical constructions. Six- through eleven-year-old children (n = 68) and adults (n = 19) performed a grammaticality judgment task as well as tests of working memory capacity and receptive phonological ability. Children showed…

Fikkert (1994) analyzed a large corpus of Dutch children's early language production, and found that they often add targetless syllables to their words in order to create bisyllabic feet. In this note we point out a methodological problem with that analysis: in an important number of cases, epenthetic vowels occur at places where grammatical…

It has been a matter of debate whether the specifically human capacity to process syntactic information draws on attentional resources or is automatic. To address this issue, we recorded neurophysiological indicators of syntactic processing to spoken sentences while subjects were distracted to different degrees from language processing. Subjects…

This article illustrates how faculty and students can use the ACS Journals Search to examine assumptions about writing in chemistry. We examined common writing practices in chemistry including (i) the use of nominalizations, active and passive voice, and personal pronouns, (ii) words to avoid (e.g., researcher, very), (iii) words to use (e.g.,…