Theories of how language works have shifted from rule-like competence accounts to more skill-like incremental learning accounts. Under these, people acquire language incrementally, through practice, and may even lose it incrementally as they acquire competing mappings. Incremental learning implies that (1) a bilingual's abilities in their…

Accurate placement within levels of an ESL program is crucial for optimal teaching and learning. Commercially available tests are commonly used for placement, but their effectiveness has been found to vary. This study uses data from the Ohio Program of Intensive English (OPIE) at Ohio University to examine the value of two commercially available…

The primary objective of this research paper is to examine the relationship between students' English language proficiency skills and academic performance across unrelated subjects from a sample population totalling 2,026 students at a private university in the surrounding areas of Bangkok. Participants in this research study comprised first,…

Many children learn language, in part, from the speech of non-native speakers who vary in their language proficiency. To investigate the influence of speaker proficiency on the quality of child-directed speech, 29 mothers who were native English speakers and 31 mothers who were native speakers of Spanish and who reported speaking English to their…

Using data from the 2018 National Survey of Latinos that was conducted by The Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation, the researcher in the present study reports on the perceptions of Latinos on English and their educational degrees as well as their language preferences. This non-experimental quantitative study is considered one of the first…

Multiple-meaning words may pose acute challenges to young learners, especially those who speak a home language other than English. The goal of this study was to investigate Emergent Bilinguals' (EBs) knowledge about words that convey both specific mathematical meanings as well as everyday meanings (e.g., the "volume" of a triangular…

This paper explores the relationship between English language skills and earnings among workers in urban China using micro-data from the 2015 China General Social Survey. Using OLS and 2SLS regressions, we find that there are positive economic returns to English language skills (both listening and speaking) among workers in urban China. We also…

Linguistic research on bilinguals has sometimes focused on either first vs. second acquired language or dominant vs. non-dominant language despite situations in which the dominant and first language are no longer the same. Many bilinguals in the U.S. and other countries experience a change in language dominance from a home language to a majority…

Language testing has witnessed three major trends in the 1990s: theoretical, methodological, and analytical. Theoretically, emphasis has been placed on the further understanding of the construct of language proficiency. Methodologically, there has been an outburst of interest in language performance testing and the promotion of the professional…

As the number of international students continues to rise at Canadian universities, both university instructors and international students have to learn to adapt and change if they are both to be successful. The changes are greatest in terms of expectations and day-to-day reality. Instructors expect certain things from their students such as…

Spanish-speaking students constitute the largest subgroup of emergent bilingual (EB) students in the United States. Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative sample of Spanish-English EBs, we explore profiles of English reading trajectories and how early individual differences (i.e., early Spanish reading and English oral proficiency)…

Several language dichotomies -- particularly the pervasive idea that "academic" language distinctly contrasts with "social" language -- have dominated teachers' thinking and discourse about language-related instructional practices in recent decades. Many researchers now question ramifications that binary thinking about language…

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of interactive learning module technology (ILMT) in teaching Kazakh as a second language in secondary schools in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This research was carried out at Russian-medium secondary schools during the academic year 2021-2022. There were two groups in the sample: the experimental…

Nonverbal behavior can impact language proficiency scores in speaking tests, but there is little empirical information of the size or consistency of its effects or whether language proficiency may be a moderating variable. In this study, 100 novice raters watched and scored 30 recordings of test takers taking an international, high stakes…

California's K-12 funding and instructional policies for English learners (ELs) have changed significantly over the past 2 decades, including new requirements for instructional materials specific to ELs statewide and a new school funding system that funds ELs at a higher rate. These major policy shifts held the potential to change student learning…