For many purposes, it is useful to collect a corpus of texts all produced to the same stimulus, whether to measure performance (as on a test) or to test hypotheses about population differences. This paper examines several methods for measuring similarities in phrasing and content and demonstrates that these methods can be used to identify…

The present study illuminates the causes of the learners in identifying and discriminating syllables and syllabic words in English. It displays the ways for eliminating syllables and syllabic words in English by using self-motivated learning gadget. Single group experimental method was adopted for the study. Fifty students studying in standard Vi…

The BRIGHT program was designed to improve the educational outcomes of children in Burkina Faso. It focused on girls in particular and was implemented in 132 rural villages throughout the 10 provinces of the country in which girls' enrollment rates were lowest. It consisted of constructing primary schools with three classrooms and implementing a…

The development and application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the field of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) have had a considerable impact on the teaching methodologies in China. With an increasing emphasis on strengthening students' learning initiative and adopting a "student-centred" teaching concept in FLT,…

This study investigated the efficacy of Reading Recovery[R] (RR) with first grade English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools by examining the literacy outcomes of ELLs compared with their native English-speaking (NES) peers, who were also enrolled in RR. We also explored how ELLs' fall oral English proficiency levels were related to their…

This paper analyzes the use of a special type of unspecific noun, called "shell nouns" [Hunston, S., & Francis, G. (1999). "Pattern grammar". Amsterdam: Benjamins; Schmid, H. (2000). "English abstract nouns as conceptual shells: From corpus to cognition". Berlin: Walter de Gruyter], which are frequently used as cohesive devices, in the written…

Over many decades, the efforts of researchers to understand key issues in the reading performance of those children most at risk for developing later reading problems has been relentless. This article presents the author's commentary to three studies: (1) Vanderwood, Linklater, and Healy (2008); (2) Edl, Jones, and Estell (2008); and (3) Baker et…

Many programs designed to compute the readability of texts are narrowly based on surface-level linguistic features and take too little account of the processes which a reader brings to the text. This study is an exploratory examination of the use of Coh-Metrix, a computational tool that measures cohesion and text difficulty at various levels of…

This study tests the claim that word learning and retention in a second language are contingent upon a task's involvement load (i.e. the amount of need, search, and evaluation it imposes), as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001). Seventy-nine beginning learners of Spanish completed one of three vocabulary learning tasks that varied in the amount…

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 paper concerns the divisibility of comprehension subskills measured in L2 listening and reading tests. Motivated by the administration of the new Web-based English as a Second Language Placement Exam (WB-ESLPE) at UCLA, this study addresses the following research questions: first, to what extent do the WB-ESLPE listening and reading items…

Teacher educators may have different views on what constitutes knowledge base for teacher education. Most of them, however, would agree that field experiences are indispensable for shaping and maintaining high-quality teachers. Unlike teacher training courses in the UK and US, fieldwork components are not always an option in Taiwan. This study,…

This study investigated some issues regarding the validity of the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) Subject Test: Korean with Listening. The SAT Korean has been administered just once a year since its inception in 1997. As of March 2006, it had been administered nine times. However, SAT foreign language tests are not as rigorously researched as…

We present a model allowing the measurement of the returns to plurilingual competences in a small open economy, considered as a reduced model of an open European labour market where different nationalities work together and therefore need to communicate either in one or in multiple languages. Our results suggest that high plurilingual competences…

Eight subjects who had used "study packs" in their learning of French and Italian were interviewed by colleagues of the teachers who wrote them. This article presents an analysis of attempts at an ethnographic interviewing strategy, entailing an open-ended approach and adoption of an 'outsider' role. A coding system designed to measure…