The current electronic text format is inherent to the problem of text integration, or, alternatively, cohesion deficit, which greatly affects reading comprehension. The question remains as to whether well structured hypertext would enable L2 readers, particularly ESL readers, to overcome potential difficulties in integrating information and…

Language teachers know that even the best technology cannot provide the high degree of interaction required to acquire meaningful proficiency in a foreign language. Even the most polished packages available today cannot evaluate learner input and provide subtle shades of context-based feedback, except in the narrowest of circumstances. In this…

In this article, we extend Firth and Wagner's (1997) call for an ontological perspective that (re)unites the individual and the social by proposing some fundamental implications that this call has for second language (L2) classroom praxis and teacher education. We propose that the (re)unification of language and culture (re)establishes the unity…

In an example of the redundancy effect, learning is inhibited when written and spoken text containing the same information is presented simultaneously rather than in written or spoken form alone. The current research was designed to investigate whether the redundancy effect applied to reading comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL) by…

Purpose: The sharp increase in the number of international adoptions in the United States has prompted a heightened interest in the language development of internationally adopted children. Although recent studies have investigated the early language development of adoptees, little is known about the school-age language and literacy skills of…

Students enter higher education with multiple identities that reflect their social, ethnic and cultural origins. Students from minority ethnic groups (as opposed to "new immigrant" or international students) straddle more than one cultural and language setting. This paper reports a Scottish study which suggests that, as university…

The Secondary Level English Proficiency (SLEP) test is a measure of ability in understanding spoken and written English. It is designed for use with students entering grades 7 through 12 whose native language is other than English. Previously offered on a limited basis at test centers established by the Educational Testing Service, the SLEP is now…

This paper is the fourth in a series of studies focusing on the problems that Israeli students encounter in reading technical texts in English. This study deals with non-native students' understanding of what they read and on how their understanding compares with that of natives. Also being tested is a method for investigating students'…

This article describes a course in listening comprehension methodology in a College of Education in Holland. The main concern of the article is to examine the teacher-trainer's organization of the students' learning process. The course is divided into three sections: (1) group discussion of the concept of listening comprehension; (2) discussion of…

The present study utilizes traditional silent reading and a think-aloud procedure to investigate the role of lexical cues to meaning in the incidental acquisition of the Spanish future tense. A total of 161 beginning-level university students of Spanish participated in the study. Two versions of a reading passage that contained 13 target items…

Providing information to test takers and test score users about the abilities of test takers at different score levels has been a persistent problem in educational and psychological measurement (Carroll, 1993). Since the 1990s Educational Testing Service has been investigating solutions to this problem through the development of proficiency…

This longitudinal investigation examined word decoding and reading comprehension measures from first grade through sixth grade for a sample of Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs). The sample included 261 children (average age of 7.2 years; 120 boys; 141 girls) at the initial data collection in first grade. The ELLs' word decoding and…

Foreign language learners typically experience considerable anxiety about taking listening tests. This study investigated how four forms of listening support (pre-teaching of content and vocabulary, question preview, and repeated input) affect the anxiety levels of college students in Taiwan taking a multiple-choice achievement test, which counts…

This study explored the extent to which the reading-to-write construct is the sum of one's reading and writing abilities or an independent construct. The investigation included an analysis of (a) test tasks, (b) the relationship of test task scores and scores on reading and writing measures, and (c) the effects of proficiency level and educational…

Preliminary efforts to operationalize more fully the concept of the instructional conversation (IC) approach for second language learning are reported, and an observational tool, the IC Rating Scale, is described in an examination of classroom-based reading comprehension lessons. Preliminary data on the reliability and validity of the IC scale are…