Formulaic language, such as lexical phrases as hot as hell or pass the buck, in English is common in daily usage. Although formulaic language is common, the lexical phrases are often excluded from word lists. Second language learners of English need to use formulaic language to enhance their proficiency level. Beyond incorporating lexical phrases…

Cooking is a universal task of humanity and is intimately linked with culture and language. This article explains the advantages of using real-world cooking as a basis for task-based and technology-assisted language learning. It outlines how the latest digital technology can be used by learners over the Internet to learn aspects of languages and…

It is essential for foreign language learners to have adequate opportunities for speaking in order to enhance the acquisition of oral communicative competence. Although research over the last few years has dealt with the potential of podcasting for the development of oral competencies, little has been done towards its application in the…

Ensuring that test-score use brings about socially positive consequences for test-takers is an important aspect of test validation. While many studies use an inductive approach to evaluate test consequences, few studies have implemented Appraisal analysis. To that end, this case study investigated the test consequences of an English reading…

Children with low socioeconomic status and language-minority backgrounds generally have weak precursory skills (language and emergent literacy) for learning written language. These skills can be stimulated through interactive reading sessions. Our innovative study for French-speaking Belgium aimed to evaluate the effects of an interactive reading…

Although the findings of second language (L2) studies conducted to date have provided evidence for the positive effect of written corrective feedback (hereafter feedback) on improving L2 learners' writing grammatical accuracy, there is no conclusive evidence regarding which kind of feedback is more beneficial for enhancing L2 writing. This study…

Hem Borker performed field-based research in madrasa "Jamiatul Mominat," a residential girls' madrasa in Delhi, exploring the everyday lives of young girls studying in the madrasa. She interacted with a number of students and teachers in this madrasa. But there were few with whom she developed a bond during her journey from being a…

The present study investigated the potential of podcasting and vodcasting technology in promoting extensive listening and improving overall L2 listening skills. Forty-nine college-level EFL students took part in this yearlong study. Data, coming from listening log assignments, listening progress tests, proficiency tests and a listening log…

In the second language acquisition domain, researchers have devoted tremendous efforts to studying the relationship between L2 learning and some socio-affective factors, such as anxiety, motivation, etc. However, little research has been done to examine whether and how perfectionism, a psychological trait, affects L2 learning and L2 performance.…

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with other cultures to negotiate meaning. A high level of ICC is required for a successful communication across numerous cultures. Since English has recently been accepted as the main intercultural communication language among different…

This article discusses the features, reasons, and values of the mushrooming Chinese English neologisms (CENs). Generally speaking, CENs are a variety of English words, namely Chinese English words, some of which have entered Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Based on data from Web Corp Live, the author finds that: (1) CENs take on the grammatical…

This study aims to analyze the way one EFL teacher maintains and promotes extended student talk in an EFL Listening and Speaking Course at tertiary level via conversation analytic perspective. Promoting extended student turns is one of the main goals of meaning and fluency contexts in language classroom discourse (Seedhouse, 2004), thus, it is of…

One of the major issues in SLA is developing language tests that could produce good measures of implicit knowledge. This study examines the validity of an English Elicited Imitation (EI) test as a measure of L2 implicit grammatical knowledge. Forty freshman university students in Turkey took a set of language tests: an EI test, two storytelling…

In this article I report on how conscious knowledge could be connected with subconscious advice through career construction counselling to resolve the career choice indecision of a postgraduate psychology student. The participant was purposively selected from a number of people attending a course in narrative career counselling. An explanatory,…

Previous surveys of university academic reading generally employed questionnaires and fell short of an in-depth analysis of students' skill needs and difficulties. Taking a qualitative approach, the current study interviewed 22 undergraduates and 7 language teachers from a New Zealand university. Together the participants highlighted a number of…