Before the end of the first year of life, infants begin to lose the ability to perceive distinctions between sounds that are not phonemic in their native language. It is typically assumed that this developmental change reflects the construction of language-specific phoneme categories, but how these categories are learned largely remains a mystery.…

Number words are generally used to refer to the exact cardinal value of a set, but cognitive scientists disagree about their meanings. Although most psychological analyses presuppose that numbers have exact semantics ("two" means exactly two), many linguistic accounts propose that numbers have lower-bounded semantics (at least two), and…

Understanding how people learn the phonological patterns of their language is a major challenge facing the field of phonology. In this dissertation, I approach the issue of phonological learning by focusing on "saltatory" alternations, which occur when two alternating sounds "leap over" an intermediate, invariant sound (e.g.,…

Research on joint attention and language learning has focused primarily on cues requiring visual access. However, this narrow focus cannot account for the emergence of language among some congenitally blind children who develop language on the same developmental timescale as their sighted peers. Findings from this longitudinal, retrospective study…

This study investigated the effects of explicit, rich vocabulary instruction on the word acquisition and reading comprehension of high school students. The quasi-experimental study employed a two-group pretest-posttest design, using students from two intact sophomore English classes. The treatment group received daily, explicit, rich vocabulary…

As the use of flipped learning spreads throughout educational disciplines, TESOL educators need to consider its potential for our field. This article, based on a computer-aided language learning (CALL) interest session at TESOL 2015, first looks at how best to describe and define flipped learning and examines the factors needed to make it…

The pressures inherent in trying to be perfect can undermine learning and exacerbate anxiety in certain students. In the current article, we review existing research and theory on the role of perfectionism in language learning anxiety and performance deficits. Our analysis highlights the complexities inherent in the perfectionism construct,…

Infants have remarkable abilities to learn several languages. However, phonological acquisition in bilingual infants appears to vary depending on the phonetic similarities or differences of their two native languages. Many studies suggest that learning contrasts with different realizations in the two languages (e.g., the /p/, /t/, /k/ stops have…

Positively influence comprehension, vocabulary, syntax, and oral language development with read-aloud strategies. The author shares tips for making read-alouds successful.

Considering the fact that starting from January 1, 2015 the complex exam is introduced for the first time in the Russian Federation for the foreign citizens, who apply for obtaining the employment and residence permits, this article reveals the educational policy strategy on this category of foreigners. This policy is considered within the…

This review examines the doctoral research in Turkey completed between 2010 and 2014 in the area of English language teaching and learning. All of the dissertations (N = 137) indexed in the National Theses Database have been included in order to analyze dissertations' subject areas, research paradigms/techniques, and research contexts as well as…

Recent findings (see, for example, Muñoz and Singleton, 2011) indicate that age of onset is not a strong determinant of instructed foreign language (FL) learners' achievement and that age is intricately connected with social and psychological factors shaping the learner's overall FL experience. The present study, accordingly, takes a…

Family-centered early intervention for children with hearing loss is intended to strengthen families' interactions with their children to support children's language development, and should include providing parents with information they can use as part of their everyday routines. However, little is known about the information received by families…

The study group consisted of 30 children with cochlear implants (CI) and 30 children with normal hearing (NH), whose ages were 4 years and 7 years 11 months. Turkish Test of Early Language Development (TEDIL) was used to assess the language skills of the children. Language samples were gathered by using Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument (ENNI).…

In 1992, the Ministry of Education and Culture in Namibia created a new language policy for schools that presented the possibility of using English as the sole medium of instruction for students starting in Grade 1. The resulting increase in schools that offer only English instruction has been detrimental to education. In order to improve the…