Reading achievement gaps are prominent in U.S. schools, most notably when comparing the performance of African American and Latino/Hispanic children to their White peers. Among the many reasons offered to explain and address these achievement gaps, language differences and language proficiency are primary considerations because many African…

This study seeks to further the research on online language learning by examining the level at which intermediate ESL students understand and process sociopragmatic information in their second language (L2) in globally networked environments like Twitter. In this semester-long study, L2 English learners from a variety of first languages (Chinese,…

Applying a mixed-methods design, this study aims to generate knowledge regarding decreasing study abroad involvement amongst Japanese students. Based on data collected from a group of first-year Japanese university students, the authors propose six qualities of a predominantly willing, or self-selecting, group of study abroad participants,…

Since the 15th century, when the Turkish language initiated its adventure as a taught foreign language, we have come a long way. In a parallel way, with the increasing demand of Turkish as a Foreign Language (TFL), Turkish language pedagogy has been continuing to improve adjusting to the new trends in language teaching in the world. The ultimate…

Vocabulary learning has always been a great concern and has attracted the attention of many researchers. Among the vocabulary learning hypotheses, "involvement load hypothesis" and "technique feature analysis" have been proposed which attempt to bring some concepts like noticing, motivation, and generation into focus. In the…

This paper examines the intonation of English statements and questions produced by Vietnamese speakers at two differing levels of proficiency. The goal of the study is three-fold: (1) analysing the final tunes and the prosodic structure observed in information-seeking questions, namely Yes-No question, Or-question, Tag-question and Wh-question,…

Educators have reported that incorporating the arts into the classroom can support foreign language (FL) learning. However, there is very little empirical evidence from the classroom to support this claim. This exploratory, quasi-experimental arts intervention study was conducted with native English speakers aged 12-13 years old as part of their…

Most of the more serious mistakes we make in our second or third languages are not linked to grammar, but to pragmatics (Félix-Brasdefer, 2008; Kasper & Rose, 1999; Olshtain & Blum-Kulka, 1985; Rose & Kasper, 2001). While language textbooks are often focused on grammar content distributed throughout a communicative syllabus (Lázaro…

The purpose of this study is to find out if there is a correlation between the anxiety of a foreign language in nursing students and their performance in an oral examination, and if it exists, how strong is that correlation. It also aims to examine the effect that different levels of anxiety have on students' oral test scores and how students feel…

For academically bound international students, university-based intensive English programs (IEPs) frequently function as an avenue to American undergraduate or graduate degree programs. This qualitative study examined how one university-based IEP was preparing its academically bound international students and facilitating their transitions to…

Substantial progress has been made toward applying technology enhanced conversation-based assessments (CBAs) to measure the English-language proficiency of English learners (ELs). CBAs are conversation-based systems that use conversations among computer-animated agents and a test taker. We expanded the design and capability of prior…

Undergraduate students fail to objectively self-assess grammar skills of English as a second language but mastering English grammar autonomously can assist. The article aims to describe and assess the Moodle plugin that offers undergraduate students individual learning paths in studying English grammar. An experiment with 3953 students was…

This study examined responses from a questionnaire administered to 98 second- and third-generation Rohingya refugees living in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Questions concerned participants' self-reported language proficiency levels in the Rohingya heritage language and Arabic and patterns of language use in various domains. Findings demonstrate that the…

With universities and other academic institutions now creating policies regarding the use of pronouns and the rights of individuals to use the pronouns they prefer, use of the singular they pronoun in academic discourse is a relatively new phenomenon and not one that is typically studied by English as a second language (ESL) students before their…

The study focused on the attitudes of Turkish and foreign students' attitudes towards English language, and their English speaking anxiety. The study adopted case study research design based on quantitative data. The participants were 140 High School Students (70 Turkish, 70 foreign) at Turkish International Schools in Saudi Arabia, and were all…