In this review article, we discuss the construct of second language (L2) comprehensibility, which refers to listeners' judgments of ease or difficulty in understanding L2 speech. We first briefly describe intelligibility and comprehensibility, two measures that capture listener understanding of L2 speech. We then present evidence that supports the…

Background: Studies indicate that difficulties English second language (ESL) learners experience in the classroom may not be attributed to only listening comprehension of the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). ESL learners' performance-related difficulties may increase when linguistic complexity is added to auditory comprehension tasks.…

In this project, 54 Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners (16 to 21 years) participated in 15 sessions in which they were asked to read and study books from a structured series of L2 reading materials. Half the students studied with relatively easy materials ('i - 1'), that is, materials rated as being below their competency level. The others…

Multiple-choice questions (MCQ) are commonly used on histology examinations. There are many guidelines for how to properly write MCQ and many of them recommend avoiding negatively worded stems. The current study aims to investigate differences between positively and negatively worded stems in a medical histology course by comparing the item…

Acquiring scientific knowledge about physical activity is necessary for students to become physically literate for life, and cognitive engagement and cognitive levels of tasks are two components that often determine the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition. This study sought to determine the extent to which students' cognitive engagement in…

Objective: Little is known about cognition's effect on jump-landing movement patterns. Design: Participants completed three baseline cognitive tasks. Then, participants performed three jump-landing trials per condition (dual-task trials (DT)): Stroop Color Word test (SCWT), Symbol Digits Modalities test (SDMT), Brooks Visuospatial task (BVT), and…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to introduce a method of eliciting conversational behavior with many aspects of realism, which may be used to study the impacts of hearing impairment and noise on verbal communication; to describe the characteristics of speech and language participants produced during the task; and to assess participants'…

This paper sets out to explain the Deakin University-Teach For Australia (DU-TFA) program for preparing teachers Australia-wide, with a focus on Western Australia (WA), and to offer insight into how the DU-TFA beginning teachers, known as Associates, 'dealt with' the demands of the program. It is not an evaluation of the DU-TFA program; rather,…

Based on cognitive load theory, this paper reports on two experiments investigating the variability effect that occurs when learners' exposure to highly variable tasks results in superior test performance. It was hypothesised that the effect was more likely to occur using high rather than low levels of guidance and testing more knowledgeable than…

For proper assessment selection understanding the statistical similarities amongst assessments that measure the same, or very similar, topics is imperative. This study seeks to extend the comparative analysis between the brief electricity and magnetism assessment (BEMA) and the conceptual survey of electricity and magnetism (CSEM) presented by…

A 2 (learning strategies: diagram vs. summary) × 2 (levels of expertise: low vs. high) experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of using diagrams to writing summaries for students given biological information to learn and who possessed different levels of expertise in that topic area. A main effect of learning strategy used on number…

Functions form a central part of the U.S. mathematics curriculum. A large body of research shows that students at all levels, including preservice secondary mathematics teachers, have difficulties with defining function as a correspondence between two sets with a univalence condition. Those difficulties include privileging algebraic…

One crucial skill to master by university students related to academic writing activity is paraphrasing skill. However, in Indonesian context, the university students still find paraphrasing challenging. Therefore, this study is intended to explore the use of read, reread, list, compose (RRLC) strategy to enhace the students' paraphrasing skill in…

Mastery goal structures, which communicate value for developing deeper understanding, are an important classroom support for student motivation and engagement, especially in the context of science learning aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Prior research has identified key dimensions of goal structures, but a more nuanced…

The onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic affected higher education in a myriad of ways. One of the most notable effects however was the rapid and sudden transition of nearly all courses at most institutions to an online environment. And while there are a growing number of courses offered online already, this transition to nearly 100% remote…