The following question has yet to be answered by researchers: when does anxiety have a systematic downward bias on foreign language (FL) reading test scores? The results of the correlation and regression analyses conducted in this study indicate that, at least in the case of university-level English learners in Japan, anxiety-induced bias occurs…

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…

The present study was aimed at examining whether grammatical accuracy and gender were significant predictors of the use of request strategy (direct or indirect). Participants were 39 seventh semester students (29 males and 10 females) majoring in an International Business Management program at a public higher education institution in Bali. Their…

Despite federal and state laws and regulations that require states and local districts to provide English language learners (ELLs) with support services, prior research has indicated that ELLs are, in general, lagging behind non-ELLs in academic achievement. An unanswered question is whether the initial designation of students as ELL influences…

This quantitative study used regression analysis to investigate the correlation of limited language proficiency and the performance of English Language Learner (ELL) students on two commonly used math assessments, namely the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP). Scores were analyzed for eighth…

Few studies have provided an examination of the academic component of acculturation. This study sought to extend the work in this area by examining factors impacting academic adjustment of international students in the US and compare results to factors of psychological adjustment. Predictors of academic adjustment were investigated with a sample…

This article examined student literacy assessments in light of students' levels of English language proficiency. The study supported the hypotheses that a student's level of language proficiency positively predicted their DIBELS Composite score at the beginning, middle, and end of kindergarten by utilizing a simple linear regression. An ANOVA…

This study tested the effect of Spanish-accented speech on sentence comprehension in children with different degrees of Spanish experience. The hypothesis was that earlier acquisition of Spanish would be associated with enhanced comprehension of Spanish-accented speech. Three groups of 5-6-year-old children were tested: monolingual…

This study used a family-centered ecological lens to examine predictive relations among fathers' and mothers' language acculturation, parenting practices, and academic readiness in a large sample of Mexican American children in preschool (N = 880). In line with prior early childhood research, parent language acculturation was operationalized as…

The research reported in this article investigates differential item functioning (DIF) in a listening comprehension test. The study explores the relationship between test-taker age and the items' language domains across multiple test forms. The data comprise test-taker responses (N = 2,861) to a total of 133 unique items, 46 items of which were…

We examined the relationship between second language anxiety and international nursing student stress after taking into account the demographic, cognitive, and acculturative factors. International nursing students (N = 152) completed an online questionnaire battery. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that spoken second language anxiety and…

This experimental study explored the impact of representation + glossary label visuals on science outcomes in a sample of 174 Grade 7 English learners (ELs). Analysis of covariance results indicated that, regardless of English proficiency, ELs in both treatment and control conditions performed similarly on reading comprehension (p = 0.26) and…

The purpose of this paper is to determine potential identifiers of students' academic success in foundation mathematics course from the data logs of the intelligent tutor Assessment for Learning using Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS). A cross-sectional study design was used. A sample of 152 records, which accounts to approximately 60% of the population,…

This paper takes advantage of the Taiwan Assessment of Student Achievement data set to empirically evaluate whether the test score differentials between pupils with immigrant and native mothers are substantial across subjects, grades and years. Our results show that there exist test score differentials between the two groups after controlling for…

A longitudinal study was conducted to assess changes in and contributing factors of learner belief for a sample of 70 Chinese foreign language learners. Foreign language proficiency and learner factors such as learner belief and learning strategy were measured four times at approximately fifty-day intervals. The results show that there were…