This correlational study examined the relationship among some English teachers' characteristics and their students' foreign language learning. Eighty-two Iranian high school teachers who taught English completed a battery of questionnaires. The scores of the teachers' students on their final exam were collected as indicators of their English…

Thinking skills play a critical role in determining language performance. Recent advancement in cognitive diagnostic modelling (CDM) provides a powerful tool for obtaining fine-grained information regarding these thinking skills during reading. Studies are scant, however, exploring the relations between thinking skills and language performance,…

Though the empirical findings of the past studies in the literature have offered strong support to the significant role of language knowledge and background knowledge in reading comprehension, this issue has not been explored with regard to specific purposes tests in the Iranian higher education context. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring…

As an intimidating school subject for students globally, writing requires a high level of motivation, especially for second language (L2) learners. Despite abundant research on motivation in both first language (L1) writing and L2 learning, L2 writing motivation warrants more attention. To bridge the gap, the study intends to present an overall…

In recent years, the importance of listening when becoming communicatively competent in a new language has been increasingly recognized, and authors such as Richards (2002; 2005) have responded to this awareness by producing material specifically designed to meet this need. In order to develop listening proficiency, other authors (e.g.…

The recent results of the Education First English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) showed that the country placed seven spots lower compared to the past ranking. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of competence of students in grammar and academic writing and to find out if a significant relationship existed between the variables. This…

As borders and political systems change, members of some nations become minorities, resulting in multifaceted changes to those communities. This paper draws on Otherness and intersectionality in problematizing the interplay of gender, ethnicity, and language within Serbian academia for ethnic minority female students. I examine the narratives of…

We used delayed sentence-picture verification tasks to investigate multilingual perceptual representations. In experiment 1, participants listened to sentences with implied shapes. After a 10-min interval, they judged whether pictures had been mentioned in the preceding sentences or not. Results in experiment 1 showed significant match effect in…

Academic achievement is one of the most important indicators for assessing students' performance and educational attainment. Family socioeconomic status (SES) is the main factor influencing academic achievement, but the relation between SES and academic achievement may vary across different sociocultural contexts. China is the most populous…

Digital tools can guide and support teachers in professional development programmes. The aim of this study was four-fold: (1) to explore changes introduced in classroom methodology by secondary school teachers during their participation in a professional development programme, using the digital tool EVALOE-DSS, based on conversational methodology;…

English proficiency amongst Malaysian is debatably on a decline. Possible causes of this phenomenon are extensively argued. Thus, renewed interest towards English language anxiety, an internal factor of learners' level of intensity in listening and speaking skills, can sometimes be overlooked. An investigation was conducted on selected secondary…

This study investigates the relationship between learner perception, ideology, discourse, and identity in computer-mediated communication (CMC) interactions between an advanced L2 Japanese learner and native Japanese speakers. Study findings show that, despite an invested identity as a proficient user of Japanese, the learner struggled to enact…

Language learning strategies (LLS) research began in the mid-1970s with the main idea of individual differences in learning a foreign language focusing primarily on the characteristics of a good language learner. In the literature review, the use of LLS has been reported to have a positive influence on proficiency. The goal of this research is to…

This study investigates the links between the second-generation Chinese Australians' heritage language proficiency and perceptions of Chinese identity. Thirty 10--11-year-old children of Chinese immigrants took a Chinese proficiency test and participated in semi-structured interviews. The test revealed a wide range of performance levels in all the…

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between a number of cognitive abilities (auditory/visual attention, processing speed, and fluid intelligence) and listening comprehension. A total of 97 undergraduate EFL students participated in the study. Tests of auditory and visual attention, processing speed, verbal and nonverbal fluid…