A growing number of studies have focused on uncovering linguistic and cognitive skills predictive of reading comprehension. Vocabulary knowledge (VK) and morphological awareness (MA) are two important linguistic variables for reading comprehension. In contrast, working memory (WM) is an essential cognitive variable for reading comprehension. The…

This study quantifies second language (L2) knowledge of aural single words and aural phrasal verbs (PVs) and investigates their relationship with L2 listening comprehension. An aural first language (L1) meaning recall test format was used to measure knowledge of 81 single-word and 81 PV target items (with equivalent frequencies of occurrence)…

This study investigated to what extent the scores of two English tests are correlated to each other, namely, the English test of the "Common Test for University Admissions" (Common Test, henceforth) in Japan and the "TOEIC Bridge", a commercially available English test developed by "Educational Testing Service" (ETS)…

This article outlines the development of a 16-item instrument for measuring language learner's foreign language self-efficacy (SE) concerning their speaking and listening skills through repeated administrations to groups of Japanese tertiary students. Responses were analysed through the Rasch model, which allows researchers to investigate…

L2 learners, when reading in L2 have access to their L1 literacy as a repertoire of reading strategy in L1. The main purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent awareness of reading strategies in L1 (strategy) and general proficiency in L2 (proficiency) contribute to reading comprehension ability in L2 (reading) and how it would differ…

Various research studies in the field of psychology have shown that the phenomenon of stereotype threat is real and has a consistent and measurable negative effect on individuals' performance on cognitively demanding tasks in a variety of areas. Currently, the relationship between stereotype threat and second language acquisition has not been…

In recent years, there has been increasing debate and research regarding which modality of vocabulary knowledge has the strongest correlation to reading, with particular focus on distinctions between testing L2 form and L2 meaning, and between recall of answers from memory and recognition of answers from fixed options. However, relatively little…

Many universities in Korea have implemented teaching TOEIC based courses in their core curriculums as a result of the increased popularity of the TOEIC test. With the assumption that reading and listening scores are inter-related with each other, a focus of this study is to find the distribution patterns of the reading comprehension (RC) and the…

This study examined the relationships between reading assistant (RA) software usage, reading comprehension ability, and post-TOEIC reading scores among Thai EFL university students. Seventy-six students from a private international university in central Thailand participated. Data were collected from students' pre- and post-TOEIC reading scores…

There has been much debate in assessment research about the inclusion of Global English accents in high-stakes listening tests. This study explored test-takers' attitudes toward the inclusion of different English accents in the Duolingo English Test (DET) 2021 test version and their associations with listening test scores. One hundred sixty…

As digital technology is becoming an increasingly critical component of education, learners' socioeconomic status (SES) and technology use are becoming more important in their learning. In the context of English learning, the present study modeled how learners' SES and their perception of technology use for language learning are linked to their…

The redesigned four-skills "TOEIC Bridge"® tests were designed to measure the listening, reading, speaking, and writing proficiency of beginning to low--intermediate English learners in the context of everyday life. In this paper, I describe two studies that were conducted to investigate claims about the meaningfulness of redesigned…

The capacity to perceive and meaningfully process foreign or second language (L2) words from the aural modality is a fundamentally important aspect of successful L2 listening. Despite this, the relationships between L2 listening and learners' capacity to process aural input at the lexical level has received relatively little research focus. This…

This research sought to investigate EFL nursing students' use of vocabulary learning strategies to learn medical terminology and further assess strategies used in relation to learning outcomes measured by two types of vocabulary knowledge: meaning recall (passive recall) and meaning recognition (passive recognition). The participants, 138 EFL…

This study investigated the relationship between a metaphor-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and involvement of the brain's right hemisphere. Specifically, it examined learners' understanding of three levels of sureness associated with different expressions in English -- those that are "certain,"…