This research investigates cross-linguistic influence in the comprehension of L3 French past tense. A close examination was made on the L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English) transfer patterns among 20 English majors in their early acquisition of L3 French passé compose (PC). Data were collected through introspective think-aloud protocol in a comprehension…

We explored the usefulness of 1st and 2nd grade reading measures and responsiveness criteria collected within a Response-to-Intervention (RtI) framework for predicting Reading Disability (RD) in 3rd grade. We used existing data from 387 linguistically diverse students who had participated in a longitudinal RtI study. Model-based predictors of RD…

This article reviews published experimental studies from 2000 to 2012 that evaluated the effects of providing reading interventions to English learners who were at risk for experiencing academic difficulties, including students with learning disabilities. Criteria included: (a) the study was published in a peer-referred journal, (b) the study was…

The purpose of this study was to understand the learning trajectories of the growing numbers of English learner students in Arizona, especially those who struggle to pass state English language arts and math content tests. This study followed three cohorts of English learner students in Arizona (kindergarten, grade 3, and grade 6) over six school…

This study aims to investigate the applicability of C-test in vocabulary assessment. Doing so four C-tests, two different in terms of their lexical richness (measured through P_Lex) and the other two different in terms of their lexical variation (measured through type/token ratio), were developed and the performance of 74 and 77 Iranian TEFL MA…

This study presents a systematic investigation concerning the performance of different rating scales used in the English section of a university entrance examination to assess 1,287 Japanese test takers' ability to write a third-person introduction speech. Although the rating scales did not conform to all of the expectations of the Rasch model,…

Girls typically have higher grades than boys in school and recent research suggests that part of this gender difference may be due to discrimination of boys in grading. We rigorously test this in a field experiment where a random sample of the same tests in the Swedish language is subject to blind and non-blind grading. The non-blind test score is…

English language proficiency tests designed to assess the high-level listening skills required for academic purposes have a surprisingly long history, but recent developments in English language testing indicate a resurgence of interest in assessing academic literacy and aural/oral skills, including the listening skills needed in an academic…

Purpose: The Preschool Language Scale, Fourth Edition (PLS-4; Zimmerman, Steiner, & Pond, 2002) was used to examine syntactic and semantic language skills in preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to determine its suitability for use with this population. We expected that PLS-4 performance would be better in more…

Listeners rapidly adapt to many forms of degraded speech. What level of information drives this adaptation, however, remains unresolved. The current study exposed listeners to sinewave-vocoded speech in one of three languages, which manipulated the type of information shared between the training languages (German, Mandarin, or English) and the…

The study examines the effect of explicit form focus instruction and specifically metalinguistic information feedback on the development of both implicit and explicit knowledge of adult English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. Ninety-one subjects at the lower intermediate level were carefully selected through placement test at one of the…

This study examines an extra-curricular English course that gives a chance for the low-proficient seniors who have not yet met the graduation qualification to graduate upon completion of 90 hours of English program. The subjects were 14 seniors who failed to obtain the minimum requirement scores and had to complete the course in summer of 2014. A…

This study is aimed at ensuring the validity of the Practical English Certification Test (PECT) of the Chung-nam Office of Education (COE) in Korea. Motivated by the demand for a developing localized English test to empower English learning in public education, the COE conducted the PECT for 38,544 students of elementary, middle and high schools…

Purpose: The authors created a database of expository oral language samples with the aims of describing the nature of students' expository discourse and providing benchmark data for typically developing preteen and teenage students. Method: Using a favorite game or sport protocol, language samples were collected from 235 typically developing…

This study concerns the effect of letter position on the retention of words by EFL learners. Given the fact that everyone has a mental lexicon, we would suggest that words are possibly organized in alphabetical order, then it would be likely for the learners to retain the words easily when exposed to the first letters of given words. The study…