Situated within an increasing trend of globalization and internationalization, many universities pride themselves on the number of international students they recruit. At Canadian universities, there are more international students from China than any other country. However, Chinese international students tend to demonstrate lower spoken English…

Idioms play an indispensable role in communication. Knowledge of idioms is considered an indicator of proficiency. This study is aimed at investigating English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' knowledge of frequently used idioms and the effect of learner-related factors. The participants were 218 female EFL college students at the College of…

This study delves into the analysis of theories of language acquisition and teaching methods. A qualitative approach was used to analyze three language acquisition theories and five teaching methods to help and provide teachers with methods that are relevant and applicable in developing and enhancing the speaking skills of the students. Findings…

Since the emergence of models and frameworks for college and university internationalization in the early 1990s, post-secondary world language education has remained a core dimension of internationalization in theory (American Council on Education, no date; Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007; Hudzik, 2011; Rudzki, 1995;…

From the perspective of newcomers to Canada, using English as an additional language (EAL), this study explores how newcomers' interlocutors might impede workplace communication. Six participants speaking EAL and with a variety of language backgrounds shared their workplace experiences. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured…

Research comparing the reading strategy use of native and second language (L2) readers has often relied on self-report measures and has, at times, been conducted without measures of reading proficiency. In the present study, we used regression and Bayes' factors to explore how L2 reader status and reading proficiency relate to self-report reading…

In this research study, it is aimed to explore the causes of anxiety, specific situations that causes anxiety and the strategies which might be used by students of University College of Ratmalana, Colombo, Sri Lanka to overcome anxiety in speaking English as a second language. When analyzing this context, different educational scenarios may…

Foreign-accented speech is generally harder to understand than native-accented speech. This difficulty is reduced for non-native listeners who share their first language with the non-native speaker. It is currently unclear, however, how non-native listeners deal with foreign-accented speech produced by speakers of a different language. We show…

Whereas the Interagency Language Roundtable Language Skill Level Descriptions broke new ground for assessing proficiency in foreign languages, the need for user-oriented (rather than assessment-oriented) proficiency scales has led, especially in Europe, to the creation of scales consisting of positively formulated "can-do" statements,…

This study profiled Intermediate-level learners in terms of their linguistic characteristics and performance on different proficiency tasks. A stratified random sample of 300 Korean learners of English with holistic ratings of Intermediate Low (IL), Intermediate Mid (IM), and Intermediate High (IH) on Oral Proficiency Interviews-computerized…

This study employed the Test of English Proficiency for Teachers-Process Skills Test (TEPT-PST) results of Grades 7-10 Science and Math public high school teachers in the Philippines. Qualitative and quantitative designs were applied, along with secondary data, to analyze the subtests in the teacher assessment consisting of Structure, Written…

The number of multicultural families has been increasing in Korea recently, and it is reported that students from multicultural family experience multiple struggles in English learning. With an awareness of mothers' role in child's education, this study aims to investigate multicultural family mothers' perception of English education and the…

This study investigated the influence of L1 allophonic rule, L1 segment articulation, and gender in Korean learners' production of English /s/ in two different contexts (i.e., before a high front vowel vs. elsewhere) and at three different proficiency levels in English (i.e., low vs. intermediate vs. high). The influence of the Korean allophonic…

The purpose of this case study is twofold: it (1) explores multilingual raters' judgements regarding the accentedness and comprehensibility of second language speech and (2) examines how the raters' language backgrounds influence their judgements. In this study, six multilingual Singaporean raters judged the accentedness and comprehensibility of…

The present study analyzes the effects of two variables on the proficiency development of 907 university students of Spanish and French: years of high school experience; and level of initial placement into university language study. A 3-year grant-funded project administered ACTFL proficiency tests in reading, listening, and speaking to students…