Scores of different language tests intended for similar purposes (e.g., admission to higher education) are used to determine candidates' language proficiency and readiness for a chosen domain. To be fair to all students irrespective of the test they took, score requirements should be comparable. Score concordance tables provide an empirical basis…

Academic buoyancy has been a hot topic in positive psychology and foreign language learning. Previous research has shown a strong connection between academic buoyancy and academic achievement. However, little is known about how academic buoyancy affects EFL (English as a Foreign Language) reading through academic engagement. Adopting a…

Several high-stakes English proficiency tests including but not limited to IELTS, PTE Academic, and TOEFL iBT recommend a 2-year time limit on validity for score usage. Although this timeframe provides a useful rule-of-thumb for the recency of testing, it can have far-reaching consequences. In response to stakeholder queries around IELTS validity…

Critical thinking (CT) is essential for survival in the modern knowledge-driven world, and the Thinker's Guide is considered an effective technique to enhance such potential. The investigation of CT potential to enhance the reading comprehension of EFL learners has not received adequate attention in the literature. Accordingly, this study aimed to…

This study considers language proficiency test scores achieved by ESL students who subsequently entered a New Zealand university at the undergraduate level. Scores from IELTS and the university's in-house English Proficiency Test are analysed to determine the predictive ability of overall scores on these two tests and scores for each of the four…

Considering the undeniable importance of examining the role of domain- and skill-specific individual difference factors in second-language (L2) writing research, this study examined the possible roles of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' ideal L2 writing self and growth L2 writing mindset in their L2 writing grit, which may in turn…

This study attempts to empirically examine the predictive power of learner anxiety and motivation and their causality in explaining proficiency in English as a foreign language (EFL) and other interrelated affective variables, including attitudes, self-confidence, and grit via a treatment-based causal model. To achieve this, the study carried out…

This paper explores what the measures of utterance fluency typically employed in Automatic Speech Evaluation (ASE), i.e. automated speaking assessments, tell us about oral proficiency. 60 Chinese learners of English completed the second part of the speaking section of IELTS and six tasks designed to measure the linguistic knowledge and processing…

Digital game-based vocabulary learning (DGBVL) integrates key game elements such as Challenges, Rewards, Human-Computer Interactions (HCI), Multimedia, and Fantasy. Although the overall effectiveness of digital games in enhancing English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) vocabulary knowledge development is well-established, the specific roles of…

The current study investigates whether vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and vocabulary fluency contribute differentially to L2 reading and listening comprehension. One hundred and thirty-eight EFL learners first took three vocabulary knowledge tests that measured vocabulary fluency, vocabulary breadth, and vocabulary depth. Subsequently, they…

With the large increase in online English language learners, there is a need to explore how those learners practise self-regulated writing in such an autonomous learning context. This article reports on an exploratory study of self-regulated learning strategies used by two writing-proficiency groups (low and high) of Saudi English majors within an…

English-medium universities often accept scores from various English language proficiency (ELP) tests as evidence of ELP from non-English background students. This practice raises the question of how these tests compare in terms of their ability to predict academic achievement. This longitudinal study addresses this question by examining the…

Applicants must often demonstrate adequate English proficiency when applying to postsecondary institutions by taking an English language proficiency test, such as the TOEFL iBT, IELTS Academic, or Duolingo English Test (DET). Concordance tables aim to provide equivalent scores across multiple assessments, helping admissions officers to make fair…

Despite extensive research on assessing collocational knowledge, valid measures of academic collocations remain elusive. With the present study, we employ an argument-based approach to validate two Academic Collocation Tests (ACTs) that assess the ability to recognize and produce academic collocations (i.e., two-word units such as "key…

This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM), semantic-encoding (SE) ability, and reading comprehension (RC) within the domain of second language acquisition (L2). 120 L1-Persian EFL learners were placed in three proficiency groups (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) based on their scores on the IELTS test. The…