Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 2nd language proficiency and linguistic uncertainty on performance and listening effort in mixed language contexts. Method: Thirteen native speakers of Dutch with varying degrees of fluency in English listened to and repeated sentences produced in both Dutch and English and…

The objectives of this study are to investigate and compare the total and individual metacognitive strategies used by professional tour guides in four English for Domestic Tourism lessons, and to explore the relationships between the use of metacognitive strategies in these lessons and characteristics of professional tour guide trainees. A total…

Lexical inferencing from text is a powerful tool for vocabulary and reading comprehension enhancement. Lexical inferencing relies on the pre-requisite skills of reading and existing vocabulary, and is also linked to non-verbal inferencing abilities and reading comprehension. In this study, we examined whether Fifth-grade Russian-speaking language…

Ability grouping, organizing classes homogeneously by L2 proficiency, has been commonly used in Taiwanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. This quasi-experimental (within-subjects design) study examined proficiency gains of 785 Taiwanese university students over three years enrolled in a general English (GE) program that employed…

Background: Although teachers of English are required to assess students' speaking proficiency in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), their ability to rate is seldom evaluated. The application of descriptors in the assessment of English speaking on CEFR in the context of English as a foreign language has not often been…

One commonly used measure of lexical sophistication is the Advanced Guiraud (AG; [9]), whose formula requires frequency band counts (e.g., COCA; [13]). However, the accuracy of this measure is affected by the particular 2000-word frequency list selected as the basis for its calculations [27]. For example, possible issues arise when frequency lists…

Studies with U.S. secondary second language (L2) learners have revealed individual differences (IDs) in first language (L1) skills and L2 aptitude and shown that these IDs are related to L2 achievement and proficiency. In this study, U.S. students were administered measures of L1 achievement, L1 cognitive processing, and L2 aptitude; followed…

Although CLIL (content and language integrated learning) programmes are now globally expanding, the number of studies that have examined their impact on both multiple language learning (students' L1, L2 and English as a foreign language) and content learning are scarce. This study investigates the effects of a CLIL programme implemented in a rural…

Despite the wide implementation of English graduation benchmark policy in Vietnam, students' voices on this one-size-fits-all policy have still been under-researched and under-represented. The purpose of this research, therefore, is twofold. The first is to examine whether any differences actually exist among Northern, Central and Southern…

This non-experimental study gauged the English lexical preferences of 545 native Japanese university students. Specifically, this univariate design collated the frequency of English loanword selection in preference to non-borrowed lexical items. A major focus of the study design was instrument validity, addressing the flaws of two previous studies…

It has been noted that Chinese shows both satellite- and verb-framed properties (Beavers, Levin, & Tham, 2010; Slobin, 2004), a fact that offers the opportunity to explore the typological influence of learners' dominant language because they can choose either option to describe the same motion events and be grammatically correct. This study…

While there is ample evidence that study abroad (SA) enhances oral fluency in a foreign language, the effects of different types of learning context on other aspects of oral skills, such as vocabulary use, have not received much attention in academic research and are less clear. The present study tries to fill this void by investigating lexical…

The purpose of this study is to identify the effectiveness of the task-based approach to teaching business vocabulary to master's degree students while studying business English. The discipline of business English aims to develop students' ability to analyse and solve problems of the business environment, improve their foreign language competence…

This study elucidated how humanistic teaching as manifested in teachers' error correction influences EFL learners' engagement, motivation, and language achievement. the present study was carried out in a language Institute in Mashhad, Iran. The population comprised 42 advanced female learners. To investigate how error treatment will affect EFL…

This paper presents an approach to standard setting that combines the prototype group method (PGM; Eckes, 2012) with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The combined PGM-ROC approach is applied to setting cut scores on a placement test of English as a foreign language (EFL). To implement the PGM, experts first named learners whom…