Although many researchers have worked on the role of feedback in immersion programs on second language learners' production, still little is known about the role of different types of immediate feedback on the grammatical accuracy of learners' production. When, where and with who different types of immediate feedback such as prompts and recasts…

This presentation explains and illustrates how computer-based innovative test tasks are designed in a multi-semiotic environment to effectively and comprehensibly convey meaning to students, especially English language learners (ELLs), students with learning disabilities (LDs), selected other students with disabilities, and non-identified native…

Seventeen percent of adults in the United States suffer from some degree of hearing loss, and this impairment can pose considerable personal, professional, social, and psychological challenges, often, to people reluctant to seek help (Hearing Loss Association, 2011). Post-secondary faculty members with hearing loss are among us, and most of them…

The aim of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the Bilingual Aphasia Test as a measure of language impairment in a Greek-speaking Broca's aphasic population and to investigate relationships with the same aphasic group's performance on the Greek version of the short form of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination battery, mainly…

This study examines the development of interactional competence (Hall, 1993, 1995) by English-speaking learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) in a study abroad setting, as indexed by their use of the interactionally significant particle "ne." The analysis is based on a comparison of (a) 6 sets of conversations between JFL learners and…

Previous research indicates that multiple levels of linguistic information play a role in the perception and discrimination of non-native phonemes. This study examines the interaction of phonetic, phonemic and phonological factors in the discrimination of non-native phonotactic contrasts. Listeners of Catalan, English, and Russian are presented…

Purpose: The present study examined associations of 5 endophenotypes (i.e., measurable skills that are closely associated with speech sound disorders and are useful in detecting genetic influences on speech sound production), oral motor skills, phonological memory, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and speeded naming, with 3 clinical criteria…

This pilot study investigates whether requiring participation in community-based learning can motivate intermediate level Spanish learners to engage in more frequent interaction in Spanish outside of the classroom and course requirements. Using the theoretical framework of willingness to communicate in a second language, this study combines both…

Parent-child conversations are a potential source of children's developing understanding of the biological domain. We investigated patterns in parent-child conversations that may inform children about biological domain boundaries. At a marine science center exhibit, we compared parent-child talk about typical sea animals with faces (fish) with…

This is a study of word decoding in adolescents with Down syndrome and in adolescents with Intellectual Deficits of unknown etiology. It was designed as a replication of studies of word decoding in English speaking and in Hebrew speaking adolescents with Williams syndrome ([0230] and [0235]). Participants' IQ was matched to IQ in the groups with…

Motor theories of speech perception have been re-vitalized as a consequence of the discovery of mirror neurons. Some authors have even promoted a strong version of the motor theory, arguing that the motor speech system is critical for perception. Part of the evidence that is cited in favor of this claim is the observation from the early 1980s that…

This study used eye-tracking methodology to assess audiovisual speech perception in 26 children ranging in age from 5 to 15 years, half with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and half with typical development. Given the characteristic reduction in gaze to the faces of others in children with ASD, it was hypothesized that they would show reduced…

Rating scale design and development for testing speaking is generally conducted using one of two approaches: the measurement-driven approach or the performance data-driven approach. The measurement-driven approach prioritizes the ordering of descriptors onto a single scale. Meaning is derived from the scaling methodology and the agreement of…

This study examines the nature of small-group discussion and explores how it fosters oral academic discourse socialization in a TESOL postgraduate course. The participants included four native-English speaking and six non-native English Speaking postgraduate students at a state university in the U.S. The findings revealed that small-group…

Should an intelligent software tutor be polite, in an effort to motivate and cajole students to learn, or should it use more direct language? If it should be polite, under what conditions? In a series of studies in different contexts (e.g., lab versus classroom) with a variety of students (e.g., low prior knowledge versus high prior knowledge),…