The current research takes place at the English language department at Taibah University, Saudi Arabia, where all students are enrolled in undergraduate studies and must study English language course as a core module in their first year. One of the most challenging tests faced by Saudi students in their studies, is the summative speaking test. The…

In the beginning, humans had a tongue ("gjuhën," "Shqip"). Then, they could or couldn't let go of the tongue ("len…gjuhën," Shqip). Albanian natural tongue (Shqip) implies the use of the tongue in the mouth for articulating ("shqiptoj," Shqip) words. The eternity of Shqip (Speech) is in its words that are…

This article explores the available research literature on language development and language interventions among deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) children. This literature is divided into two broad categories: Research on natural languages (specifically American Sign Language and spoken English) and research on communication systems (specifically…

This study elicited Arabic students' perceptions regarding their language-learning strategy preferences (LLSPs). A sample of 120 undergraduate Arabic students participated. Data were collected through a questionnaire and interviews. The findings reveal that students tend to adopt a holistic view of the learning task and relate it to real-life,…

This study examines language attitudes towards different varieties of English through listener judgments of speaker and speech traits; in addition, the study explores the relationship of these judgments to the intelligibility, as well as the perceived accentedness and comprehensibility, of varieties of Asian English and General American English.…

Purpose: This study reexamines the claim that difficulty forming memories of words comprising uncommon sound sequences (i.e., low phonological neighborhood density words) is a determinant of delayed expressive vocabulary development (e.g., Stokes, 2014). Method: We modeled communicative development inventory data from (N = 442) 18-month-old…

The Discontinuity Model (DM) described in this article proposes that adults can learn part of L2 morphosyntax twice, in two different ways. The same item can be learned as the product of generation by a rule or as a modification of a template already stored in memory. These learning modalities, which are often seen as opposed in language theory,…

Relationships among task characteristics, L2 performance, and interlanguage development are of interest both for SLA research and the design of syllabuses and language teaching materials. Complexity has been identified as a promising, but methodologically problematic, task design feature. A study was conducted of the effects of progressive…

Purpose: Child phonologists have long been interested in how tightly speech input constrains the speech production capacities of young children, and the question acquires clinical significance when children with hearing loss are considered. Children with sensorineural hearing loss often show differences in the spectral and temporal structures of…

Purpose: Age-related sensorineural hearing loss can dramatically affect speech recognition performance due to reduced audibility and suprathreshold distortion of spectrotemporal information. Normal aging produces changes within the central auditory system that impose further distortions. The goal of this study was to characterize the effects of…

This paper gives a brief summary of Halliday's theory of how children learn to talk, illustrating the development of children's language from the microfunctions through the macrofunctions and into the metafunctions of adult language. The paper points to a possible source of the misinterpretation of Halliday's theory in the work of Frank Smith…

Background: A strong interest in researching World Englishes (WE) in relation to language assessment has become an emerging theme in language assessment studies over the past two decades. While research on WE has highlighted the status, function, and legitimacy of varieties of English language, it remains unclear how raters respond to the results…

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting on English speech of undergraduate students at the SMIU, Karachi. The study prospects two aspects as outcomes of the study, one to discover what are the major issues and hindrances and another one to find their solutions for developing techniques and skills to gain confidence while speaking…

Language is a complex phenomenon whether it counts in speaking or writing. Teaching and learning English language is much demanded in today's globalization era. The increasing need of English language learning has demanded English language teaching around the globe. Therefore, the demand for language learning needs a tremendous quality in language…

Studies of interaction in speaking assessment have highlighted problems regarding the unequal distribution of interaction patterns in interviews versus paired formats (Van Lier, 1989; Young & He, 1998). These studies, however, only looked at verbal interaction features, and no attempts in these studies were made to investigate both verbal and…