This study aimed at investigating the effect of the graphic organizer strategy on vocabulary building and vocabulary incremental growth of Jordanian university EFL students. One hundred and two students participated in the study which lasted for one academic semester of four months. Each student enrolled in one of two intact and equally-sized…

This study investigated the effect of the interaction between test takers' background knowledge and language proficiency on their performance on the "TOEFL iBT"® reading section. Test takers with the target content background knowledge (the focal groups) and those without (the reference groups) were identified for each of the 5 selected…

The present study explores the relationship between controlled productive knowledge of collocations and L2 proficiency, the role of frequency in controlled productive knowledge of collocations, and the quantifiability of controlled productive collocational knowledge growth alongside L2 proficiency and word frequency levels. A proficiency measure…

This study aimed to determine the relationship between creativity on one hand and lexical reception and production knowledge of Iranian EFL students on the other hand. The data were collected using three tests: a creativity test (Torrance, 1990), the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001), and the Productive Version of the…

The present study investigated comprehension, immediate and delayed vocabulary retention under incidental and intentional learning conditions via computer mediated hypertext gloss. One hundred and eighty four (N = 184) intermediate students of English as a foreign language at an English school participated in the study. They were randomly assigned…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of age on learning English in Saudi Arabia. It aims at encouraging the learning of English as a foreign language at an early age in KSA. The populations of the study are English language teachers and Saudi students in elementary schools compared with intermediate school students in Dawadmi…

The development of critical thinking (CT) skills has become a key goal for educators in first and second language contexts. There is evidence that the use of such activities has still not become widespread in a number of ELT situations. One reason for this may be lack of awareness about how levels of thinking can be conceptualized in ELT…

Collocation is one of the most problematic areas in second language learning and it seems that if one wants to improve his or her communication in another language should improve his or her collocation competence. This study attempts to determine the effect of applying three different kinds of collocation on collocation learning and retention of…

Within the input and interaction research paradigm, how learners' individual differences play a role in using learning opportunities during interaction has become one of the main areas of investigation. Recasts have also received much attention in interaction research. This paper explores the extent to which individual differences in grammatical…

This article examines the issue of cognates in frequency-based vocabulary size testing. Data from a pilot study for a cognate-controlled English vocabulary size test was used to assess whether a group of Japanese university English learners (n = 60) were more successful at responding to cognate items than noncognate ones in three 1000 word…

Among the academic challenges faced by students from low socio-economic (SES) homes is the loss of academic skills during the summer months. Unfortunately, the public schools are often unable to provide summer learning opportunities because limited space, funding, and teacher availability. Established community organizations frequently provide…

This inquiry analyzed the relationships between individual differences and gains made in oral proficiency of adult, second language learners of Spanish during one semester studying abroad. Oral proficiency was measured using a pre/post-SA Computerized Oral Proficiency Instrument (COPI, CAL, 2009). Gain scores were correlated with two cognitive…

The No Child Left Behind Act emphasized the responsibility of states to improve student academic performance. In one state, students are required to take subject-area tests and master each test to graduate; however, in some schools, many students are failing the English II test administered during students' sophomore year. Two districts have…

In this article we are presenting the results of the research "The Connection between the Results in the National Assessment of Knowledge and the Pupils' Socio-cultural Environment, Instruction and Homework," taking place at the National Education Institute, Slovenia, in the years 2008/2009. In the introduction we are writing the…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education commissioned this paper to explore several questions about students who are English language learners (ELL) in Massachusetts: (1) For how many years is a typical ELL student in Massachusetts classified as limited English proficient (LEP)?; (2) How much variation is there in a the…