This study aimed at comparing two types of IELTS writing task 1 namely, bar charts and tables of Iranian test takers in terms of four IELTS writing assessment criteria including task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammar range and accuracy. The study also sought to identify test takers' strengths and weaknesses in the…

Each year the National Reference Test (NRT) reports the proportions of students achieving at or above three key GCSE grades in English and mathematics. The NRT is therefore uniquely placed as a Key Stage 4 assessment which compares performance directly at ability level, to contribute to the evidence on the impact of disruption to education due to…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. This fact sheet uses data from the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS) and applies specific definitions. An "English learner" student: (1) is ages 5 to 18; (2) attends…

Growing body of studies has stressed the role of research in teacher education since conducting research informs both teachers and students, and contributes to professional skills. Therefore, this study aimed to find out and compare the perspectives of pre-service and in-service English teachers in an EFL context with regard to finding sufficient…

In order to reach far in the work for sustainable development, communication in foreign languages prior to strategic decisions is required from international partners. In this communication English has become the lingua franca. Even though the use of EFL (English as a foreign language) is widely spread, it is clear that in some geographical…

This study investigated contemporary Japanese college students' attitudes towards Japan English (JE) and American English (AE) through a verbal guise test (VGT) as well as a questionnaire. Forty-four Japanese college students listened to four Japanese and four North Americans reading a text in English, rated them in terms of solidarity-related…

This study examined the cognitive levels of questions used by Iranian EFL teachers in advanced reading comprehension tests. Twenty teachers participated in this study and generated 215 questions which were then categorized according to Bloom's taxonomy. This taxonomy consists of six major categories which starts from the simplest behavior to the…

In a surprise announcement in December 1996 in a speech at the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs, the late Nigerian Head of State, General Sani Abacha said "Nigeria is resolutely launching a programme of national language training that will in a short order, permit our country to become thoroughly bilingual". General Abacha's…

This article presents a survey and analysis of Examiners' Reports on French written papers, looking specifically at difficulties in using verbs appropriately. It draws on evidence from second-language acquisition research to determine the nature of the problem and hypothesizes links between the decline in written accuracy and the rise in oral…

A reliable index of lexical diversity (LD) has remained stubbornly elusive for over 60 years. Meanwhile, researchers in fields as varied as "stylistics," "neuropathology," "language acquisition," and even "forensics" continue to use flawed LD indices--often ignorant that their results are questionable and in…

Investigates the processes involved in the learning of Arabic subject-verb agreement by Australians. It is hypothesized that the amount and direction of information encoding motivated by certain semantic categories as well as the availability of discourse cues would influence the learners' performance in subject-verb agreement tasks. (27…

Presents the results of a study that examined the characteristics and motivation for studying of language students who attended a summer program. The article provides new evidence on the specific reasons students chose to study an intensive short course and their general motivation for studying a foreign language. (16 references) (CK)

Highlights the unifying role of metacognition in all levels of learner training. The article argues that one of the premises of any self-directed program should be that of enhancing students' metacognition to prepare them for their own learning autonomy. This paper describes an application of this principle including two examples of its use by…

This bilingual book considers recent developments in French attitudes towards language purism, borrowing, and the incursion of English. The book begins with an essay by French sociolinguist Henriette Walter, and most of the following essays are direct responses to her ideas. All chapters are provided in French and English. Chapter titles include…

Part of the Eleventh Annual Report to the Ontario Ministry of Education, this report describes the grade and program location of students who entered kindergarten in Ottawa and Carleton, Ontario in 1974, known as the K-74 cohort. The first section of the report deals with the K-74 cohort; later sections deal with students who joined either early…