In this paper, we explore the extent to which a stay abroad in a Danish university in which English is a frequent medium of instruction can be a very suitable context for students to increase their language proficiency and to develop both awareness of their communicative skills and their confidence in them. The data analysed come from (i) a pre-…

This study examines the development of oral fluency in a Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) environment that uses a "shouting" digital game as a pedagogical tool: Spaceteam ESL4. Spaceteam ESL is a game for mobile devices that involves time-sensitive aural exchanges among players (English learners), with great potential to promote…

The present study examined various aspects of the development of learners' fluency in Japanese using a large set of speech samples collected over a long period, using an online speaking practice/assessment system called "Speak Everywhere." The purpose of the present study was to examine: (1) how the fluency related measures changed over…

Working within a task-based approach to the teaching of speaking, two interactive whiteboard-based pre-task activities focusing on different phases of the speech production process (Levelt, 1989) were developed and compared with an activity based on the speaking activities currently offered in English as a foreign language course books. The first…

Using English as a global communicating tool makes Taiwanese people have to speak in English in diverse international situations. However, consonants and vowels in English are not all effortless for them to articulate. This phonological reduction study explores concepts about phonological (articulating system) approximation. From Taiwanese folks'…

This report describes a research study designed to adopt a predominantly quantitative approach to investigating three related aspects of oral fluency: fluency improvement, correlation between subjective judgments and objective counts, and variation of fluency in different speech interactions. Subjects were 15 English as a foreign language (EFL)…

The determinants and labor market consequences for immigrants of proficiency in speaking the dominant language (English in the United States and English of French in Canada) are explored, with focus on adult men using self-reported data from the 1980 and 1981 censuses of the United States and Canada, respectively. It is shown that the determinants…