Orienting biases for speech may provide a foundation for language development. Although human infants show a bias for listening to speech from birth, the relation of a speech bias to later language development has not been established. Here, we examine whether infants' attention to speech directly predicts expressive vocabulary. Infants…

This article provides validity evidence for a measure of listening goals by showing theoretically consistent relationships with an existing communication preference questionnaire. Participants (N = 257) were administered trait measures for listening goals and communicator preferences. The four listening goals--relational, task-oriented,…

This study addressed a need to examine and improve current assessments of listening comprehension (LC) of university EFL learners. These assessments adopted a traditional approach where test-takers listened to an audio recording of a spoken interaction and then independently responded to a set of questions. This static approach to assessment is at…

John Smyth's remarkable body of writing, research and scholarship has spanned four decades, and the urgency of our times makes it imperative to look in some depth at the breadth of his research and its trajectory, in order to see how we can connect, extend, build and enrich our understandings from it. Possibly the single most unique aspect to…

Fatigue is a common phenomenon in our society, and it can have a major impact on an individual's performance and wellbeing. Parents and teachers have long believed that children with hearing loss (CHL) are at increased risk for fatigue. One could easily speculate that toward the end of a school day, CHL may be "physically and mentally…

Drawing on sociocultural theory, and a large number of empirical studies conducted on the effectiveness of scaffolding on second or foreign language learning, the authors investigated the application of different forms of scaffolding to improve listening comprehension of the Iranian intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. To…

This study aims to unfold the framework of empowerment pedagogy by describing an approach of listening to the children, supporting their rights, and enhancing participation through the lens of a learning community. The authors draw from the literature that acknowledges children as active agents and supports them in participating in their daily…

Combining data from a series of three planned consecutive randomized controlled trials, the present study investigates two literacy interventions for preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. For the first cohort, children were randomized to interactive book reading (IBR; treatment) or business as usual (BAU; control); in Cohort 2,…

This study examines the application of the Simple View of Reading (SVR), a reading comprehension theory focusing on word recognition and linguistic comprehension, to English Language Learners' (ELLs') English reading development. This study examines the concurrent and predictive validity of two components of the SVR, oral language and word-level…

This pre-test post-test quasi-experimental study was grounded in a mixed method embedded design to delve into the quality and efficiency of flipped classroom model in enhancing university prep students' overall academic performance in EFL and that in its sub-skills in addition to the durability of that performance. The study has also pioneered to…

This exercise is designed to illustrate how challenging it is to listen. Although listening is an activity that people use more than speaking, reading, or writing, it is typically not afforded the same level of instruction and focus (Adler & Rodman, 2011). In addition, humans are subject to such continual and diverse stimuli; most do not even…

Leading a school today takes courage, energy and lots of knowledge. Today's principals certainly manage the site and keep all aspects key to running a school smoothly at their fingertips. In addition, leaders today also must have curricular knowledge, model instructional leadership and build community among the constituents. Sometimes, new leaders…

Listening to, analyzing, and describing music, is perhaps the most difficult standard to present effectively in allotted classroom time. The purpose of this literature review is to better understand what constitutes effective listening instruction by examining students' listening practices, receptiveness, attentiveness, and activities that lead to…

Previous research has shown that usage preferences (non-categorical constraints on the distribution of syntactic structures) shape many grammatical alternations. In the present study, we show that usage preferences also influence which alternate listeners report hearing when presented with acoustically degraded input. We investigated the English…

The present study examined listeners' identification and rating of words in passages as stuttered when the duration and frequency of occurrence of sound prolongations were manipulated. Thirty-six participants listened to a 219-word passage containing voiceless fricatives digitally increased from their normal durations to 200, 300, and 420 ms.…