A body of previous work in second- and foreign language pronunciation instruction (e.g., Lord, 2005; Miller, 2012) has shown that explicit phonetic and pronunciation instruction is beneficial. However, Olson (2014) noted that just a few minutes per week of instruction are devoted to pronunciation in most classrooms. What is the effect of such…

This study investigated common spelling errors among first language English speakers who study Arabic at the college level. A sample of 63 students (45 males and 18 females) was asked to write texts about a variety of topics and then to answer survey questions regarding their perceptions and strategies. Their writing produced 457 spelling errors,…

This study investigated how English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' types of language for thinking and types of oral elicitation tasks influence their lexical collocational errors in speech. Data were collected from 42 English majors in Taiwan using two instruments: (1) 3 oral elicitation tasks and (2) an inner speech questionnaire. The…

This study explores the effectiveness of instructor-written corrective feedback for the improvement of writing accuracy by beginning college-level learners of German. The researcher investigated changes in error rates in six error categories in essay writing in correlation with three different corrective feedback types administered consistently…

This research describes a method applied at a U.S. university in a third-year Russian language course designed to facilitate Advanced and Superior second language writing proficiency through the forum of argumentation and debate. Participants had extensive informal language experience living in a Russian-speaking country but comparatively little…

Identifies and discusses ten factors that contribute to the difficulties that language learners may have in dealing with false cognates. Provides suggestions for minimizing confusion. (Author/VWL)

Examined reactions of anxious and nonanxious foreign language learners to their own errors. Native Spanish speaking students were videotaped as they took part in an English conversation with the researcher and as they watched themselves in the taped interview. Analysis of participants' English interactions and responses to their performances…

Reviews research on the language learner and immersion-type bilingual education programs. It is noted that formal foreign language teaching may be needed in these programs for primary school children. It is suggested that research is needed and that a combination of functional and formal approaches be used. (Author/AMH)

Uses item analysis techniques to compare two multiple-choice test formats for assessing second language students' competence in English structure in terms of mean scores, item difficulty, and item discrimination. Findings reveal that difficulty and discrimination aspects are item-specific rather than format-dependent and items with moderate…