Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of hearing aid technology level on listener outcome measures. In addition, we aimed to determine if individual characteristics such as noise acceptance and the demands of the listening environment impacted performance and preference. Method: A repeated-measures, single-blinded research…

This study investigated the relative effects of four forms of task preparation on L2 speech production. One hundred forty-four Japanese speakers of English completed an oral opinion task after 10 minutes of preparation. The same task repetition condition involved four iterations of the same pedagogic task (same procedures, same content), the…

Purpose: The challenges associated with cochlear implant (CI)--mediated listening are well documented; however, they can be mitigated through the provision of aided acoustic hearing in the contralateral ear--a configuration termed "bimodal hearing." This study extends previous literature to examine the effect of acoustic bandwidth in the…

Seminal studies on negation revealed that negative sentences are difficult to process, as they require an extra mental step. Similarly, at the discourse level, concession has been repeatedly shown to be more complex than other relations such as result because it implies the denial of an inference. The affinity between negation and concession…

Background: Despite the public health implications of language difficulties associated with social disadvantage, there is a dearth of effectiveness studies investigating the effects of targeted speech and language programmes in this area. Aims: To determine the effects of a targeted selective community-based child language intervention programme…

Speech is extremely variable along many different dimensions. One source of variability listeners often encounter is accented speech, in which phonological units can systematically differ from the listener's native categories. This dissertation presents five experiments testing how listeners adapt to accent-based phonological variability,…

The field of study abroad for language learning has drawn extensively on related fields such as applied linguistics and psychology to conceptualize learners' experiences, which then informs how practitioners go about designing programs for those learners. Research has encouraged practitioners to increase learners' access to the target language…

Background: Speech is the most common method of communication. Video-based clinical communication evaluation is a requirement for children with speech-language impairments living in rural areas, and those who have limited mobility. Aims: To determine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Viking Speech Scale (VSS-T) via live…

This paper focuses on the influence of task types, namely divergent and convergent tasks, on the interactional space of learners and the amount of collaboration in EFL adult learners' interactions naturally emerging from performing each type of task. To define interactional space, behavioural engagement measurement was adopted, and the total…

Purpose: This cross-sectional observational pilot study investigated egocentric social networks for 10 paired sex- and age-matched adults with and without multiple sclerosis (MS). This study also investigated the relationship between social network measures and various disease factors associated with MS. The relationship between social network…

Education is central to creating well-informed citizens capable of participating in social and political life. However, civic education in some liberal democratic societies has often focused on teaching students the mechanics and structure of party politics, overlooking many of the public virtues that help to sustain democratic life. In this…

Integrating assessment into speaking instruction has been a challenge for English language instructors. The Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA), proposed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) (Adair-Hauck et al., 2015), is an assessment protocol featuring three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal,…

The purpose of this literature review was to identify scholarship pertaining to teachers' vocal health and to discuss implications for music teachers. The review includes studies where researchers have addressed vocal health issues for K-12 teachers of all subjects as well as issues unique to music teachers. Risk factors, measurement, and…

Although statistical learning (SL) has been studied extensively in developmental dyslexia (DD), less attention has been paid to other fundamental challenges in language acquisition, such as cross-situational word learning. Such investigation is important for determining whether and how SL processes are affected in DD at the word level. In this…

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of explicit formal instruction (EFI) on speaking and pronunciation skills among a Kurdish university's first-year EFL students. The researcher was teaching a communications unit, where the focus was on speaking skills and pronunciation: speech rate (words per minute), fluency (number of pauses and…