This study examined the semantic features of the simulated mini-lectures in the listening sections of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) based on automatized semantic analysis to explore the content validity of the two tests. Two study corpora were utilized, the IELTS…

This study examined Cambodian university students' self-perceived metacognitive strategies for planning, controlling, and improving their reading comprehension when engaging with school-related materials in English. It also explored the potential correlation between these metacognitive strategies and English reading proficiency. Ninety-one juniors…

Researchers have explored a host of individual differences factors that may be critical to language development. However, evidence on the impact of sociocultural and demographic factors such as gender and socioeconomic status (SES) on early language development among bilingual children has been limited. This study aimed to understand the role of…

One year after the COVID-19 quarantine, we conducted an eight-week pilot study with third graders (n = 246), who took a repeating knowledge, attitude, and behavior pretest and a reading comprehension posttest from the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© curriculum. Our research questions were: 1) Will the knowledge, attitude, and behaviors of third…

Focusing on English picture books, this study comparatively examined the effects of dialogic reading with empathetic questioning and standard dialogic reading on the reading outcomes of elementary school students. It evaluated eye movement metrics and measured reading comprehension among 54 fifth-grade elementary school students in China. By…

As students' emotional self-regulation impacts their engagement in learning, as well as their mental health, researchers have called for schools to implement systems of emotional support. However, because school resources are limited, and the demands on teachers' time continue to grow, identifying emotional self-regulation interventions that…

To achieve efficient reading comprehension, Chinese as a second language (L2) learners adopt various component skills and knowledge, including the aspects of vocabulary, grammar, and coherence. However, there is no consensus regarding the relative predictive powers of these three areas in L2 reading comprehension. Instead of employing direct…

Improving students' reading comprehension remains a persistent challenge in EFL classrooms, particularly where learners exhibit low motivation and limited engagement. This study investigated the effectiveness of the Think-Pair-Share (TPS) cooperative learning strategy in an Indonesian secondary EFL classroom. Using a Classroom Action Research…

Using data collected during a qualitative study of a book group in an after-school programme at a public, urban elementary school, in this article, I analyse how immigrant- and refugee-background students discursively distanced themselves from the portrayal of refugees in the text "Outcasts United." The teacher chose this book because…

Background/purpose: Academic reading presents significant challenges for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners, especially when processing structurally dense expository texts in STEM disciplines. This study aims to assess the impact of text-structure-aligned goals on students' reading comprehension and written summarization, while exploring…

This study examined direct and indirect relationships between main idea summarization and multiple document comprehension when university students read four conflicting documents on the controversial socio-scientific issue of sun exposure and health. Main idea summarization was measured by having participants summarize the main idea of each…

This study investigated the contribution of word recognition from speech (WRS), syntactic knowledge, metacognitive awareness, self-efficacy to L2 listening comprehension among 92 students in English department, UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang Indonesia. This study applied Multiple Regression. The instruments consisted of tests and questionnaires.…

Executive function (EF) is related to reading. However, there is a lack of clarity around (a) the relative contribution of different components of EF to different reading components (word reading, fluency, comprehension), and (b) how EF operates in the context of known strong language predictors (e.g., components of the simple view of reading or…

We investigated the contributions of multiple strands of factors--individual characteristics (struggling reader status, working memory, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, knowledge-based inference, theory of mind, comprehension monitoring), a text feature (narrative vs. expository genre), and question types (literal and inferential)--to one's…

Test-taker characteristics (TTCs), or individual difference variables, are known to be a systematic source of variance in language test performance. Although previous research has documented the impact of a range of TTCs on second language (L2) learners' test performance, few of these studies have involved young learners. Given that young L2…