The present quasi-experimental study aimed at investigating the impact of trained and untrained peer feedback on students' written comment types and writing quality. Significant differences were found in terms of comment types provided: trained students provided a significantly higher number of comments focused on organization and content (global…

With increasing arguments and evidence suggesting its benefits, First Language (L1) use (including translation exercise) is experiencing a resurrection in Second Language or Foreign Language (SL/FL) classrooms. One form of L1 use is composing comparable and parallel texts, which can be an important pedagogical resource but which has received…

Literature from education, educational psychology and second language acquisition has consistently found that self-efficacy is a key factor leading to increased language learning success. Students with more self-efficacy are claimed to have higher motivation and to expend more effort in the learning process. On the other hand, those with less…

Clickers as electronic response systems allow students to respond instantly to questions. The aim of this study is to compare the effects of using clickers on student participation during different periods of EFL courses. The intervention was implemented in question-response sessions of an EFL course at a secondary school. A quasi-experimental…

The quality of education has long been intriguing the researchers in recent years, and almost all countries in the world are on the lookout for new methods in order to continuously develop the quality. No matter how carefully they have developed their new curriculum, effective teaching depends on teachers' knowledge, skills and professional…

Recent research in English language is descriptive, evaluative and analytical. It is quantitative and qualitative in nature, which aims at investigating theme development methods/techniques employed by Palestinian tertiary level EFL learners in performing written discourse. The study is an attempt to analyze the written product of 120 Palestinian…

Previous studies have shown that study abroad has a positive effect on second language (L2) learning outcomes for students who spend at least a semester abroad. It is unclear, however, whether a short-term experience also has a measurable impact on L2 development. The present study examines the relationship between speaking proficiency gains made…

Two factors were investigated that are thought to contribute to consistency in rater scoring judgments: rater training and experience in scoring. Also considered were the relative effects of scoring rubrics and exemplars on rater performance. Experienced teachers of English (N = 20) scored recorded responses from the TOEFL iBT speaking test prior…

This study investigated the effect of first language (L1) on the reading of modifier-head case agreement in second language (L2) Finnish by native Russian and Chinese speakers. Russian is similar to Finnish in that both languages use case endings to mark grammatical roles, whereas such markings are absent in Chinese. The critical nouns were…

This study investigates the level and sources of foreign language learning anxiety experienced by Saudi students studying at King Khalid University (KKU). It also aims to examine the differences between the level of language anxiety and the students' study level. For this purpose, 97 English majored students from different levels were purposively…

Lieberman, Borovsky, Hatrak, and Mayberry (2015) used a modified version of the visual-world paradigm to examine the real-time processing of signs in American Sign Language. They examined the activation of phonological and semantic competitors in native signers and late-learning signers and concluded that their results provide evidence that the…

This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs), as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2) research. The present study discusses the…

The pronunciation of regular past tense verbs seems to be difficult for most L2 learners, especially in L2 learners whose first language phonological system is different from the English one. It is predicted that Thai EFL students could encounter difficulties perceiving English coda clusters like the '-ed' ending sounds. For this reason, this…

Students at universities are still frequently found to have low independency in learning. Besides, lecturers also still have tendency to treat students as if they were young learners, or in other words, the lecturers still use pedagogically oriented teaching methods (POTM); although they claimed themselves to have applied methods of teaching…

Student ratings of instruction can be a valuable indicator of teaching because the quality measurement of instruction identifies areas where improvement is needed. Student ratings of instruction are expected to evaluate and enhance the teaching strategies. Evaluation of teaching effectiveness has been officially implemented in Taiwanese higher…