This study examined second language (L2) learning difficulty of 13 Chinese grammatical constructions on the basis of teachers' perceptions and associated the L2 learning difficulty of Chinese grammatical constructions with teacher-perceived learner grammatical competence and with the instructional levels. A total of 77 experienced teachers were…

This study examines the impact of authentic versus modified text on L2 Turkish learners' reading comprehension. A total of 230 B1-level Turkish language learners were randomly divided into two groups: one reading a modified text (n = 115) and the other an authentic text (n = 115). Both groups completed a surface-level reading comprehension test.…

Some learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) face difficulties learning Chinese characters (hanzi), particularly if they are from alphabetic language backgrounds such as English. Many CFL students need to develop the ability to self-regulate their learning to cope with the learning of hundreds of characters in the beginner and intermediate…

Recent studies have shown that the frequency effect, although long used as a guide to word difficulty, fails to explain all variance in learner word knowledge. As such, a "more than frequency" conclusion has been offered to explain how lexical sophistication accounts for word difficulty. This study presents a multiple regression model of…

Recent research focusing on the sources of listening anxiety identified individual and external factors (IEF), listeners' control over input (LC), and perceived level of task difficulty (PTD) as the main causes of anxiety among L2 listeners. This correlational study aims to explore whether the sources of anxiety in L2 listening have a causal…

This study reviews the effect of comprehension and perceived text difficulty in promoting reading enjoyment and interest to read more among novice learners practicing extensive and pleasure reading. Sixty-seven college students in their first semester of Spanish were asked to read a children-like story picture book in Spanish and were then given…

This study explored the communication strategies of college students majoring in one of five modern foreign languages (i.e., English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish) and their relation to communication confidence. It also explored the association between their strategy use and the difficulty regarding the speaking components, and students'…

Within the context of Chinese university education, effective communication in the field of second language writing heavily relies on lexical complexity, yet the role of writing feedback perception in relation to lexical complexity remains elusive. This study introduces a comprehensive writing feedback perception model encompassing perceptions of…

This study aims to examine whether differences exist in the factors influencing the difficulty of scoring English summaries and determining scores based on the raters' attributes, and to collect candid opinions, considerations, and tentative suggestions for future improvements to the analytic rubric of summary writing for English learners. In this…

Writing is closely related to contextual experiences about the topics. However, in traditional EFL writing classes, learners' lack of in-depth experience in learning contexts may be the leading cause rendering students' poor writing performance. To address this problem, a quasi-experimental study was conducted to investigate the impacts of a…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, mixed-methods study was to address the gap in understanding regarding second language (L2) comprehension of stories by using a taxonomical approach based on Anderson and Krathwohl's (2001) revised taxonomy that includes multiple levels of cognitive processing to provide insight into L2 learners' depth of…

Reading ability in English is decisive in determining the academic achievement of university students who study the English language, or any other subject in English. Extensive research has been conducted to explore whether ESL/EFL reading problems are language-specific or general reading problems. In this regard, previous research on the…

Previous studies have explored the roles of metacognitive instruction and collaborative writing, separately, in English writing. Little attention has been paid to students' writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). The present study aims to bridge this gap through investigating integrated writing performances based on the linguistic…

The idea that reading model essays facilitates better writing is generally accepted in second language writing literature. As such, anthologies of model essays are often selected for inclusion in writing centre self-access library shelves. When selecting these texts, readability is often considered via the application of quantitative readability…

Individuals differ in their ability to perceive and learn unfamiliar speech sounds, but we lack a comprehensive theoretical account that predicts individual differences in this skill. Predominant theories largely attribute difficulties of non-native speech perception to the relationships between non-native speech sounds/contrasts and…