Background: Literacy development in learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differs from that of neurotypical peers. Many individuals with ASD, particularly those with complex communication needs, enter adulthood without literacy skills, which affects employment opportunities. Teachers' perceptions of their learners' literacy abilities…

Background/purpose: Despite its informal setting, it is astonishing that the members of online English-speaking club (ESC) are adept at speaking. Employing a mixed-methods approach, more specifically a descriptive case study, this study aimed to evaluate the ESC contribution to its members' speaking competence development, to examine their…

This longitudinal study tested the notion of a hierarchy of maths skill development by examining whether the development of later acquired arithmetic skills rely on development of earlier acquired arithmetic skills. The scores of 307 children on single-digit arithmetic, multi-digit calculation, arithmetic word problem-solving, and reading…

Purpose: Using a longitudinal design, the present study evaluated the utility of the picture sequences in the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) for assessing Mandarin-speaking children's narrative skills from kindergarten through Grade 2 in Taiwan. Method: Participants were 27 children with typical language (TL) and 22 with…

This study investigates the growing interest in ChatGPT's role in education, with a particular focus on its effects on postgraduate students' English-speaking proficiency--an area predominantly explored through theoretical perspectives with limited empirical evidence. The research aims to address this gap by examining the experiences and…

Children's academic skills, particularly in the early stages of life, are significantly shaped by the support and resources available in their home learning environments. However, the underlying mechanisms by which the home learning environment influences children's academic skills are not fully understood. To address this gap, the present study…

The link between working memory and academic achievement has been demonstrated across many research studies, with children who have lower working memory capacity typically also having lower levels of achievement in both literacy and numeracy. However, much of this research has been conducted in Western, educated, industrialized, rich and…

A basic question about bilingual development is how the acquisition of one language affects the acquisition of the other. Previous findings are few and mixed. The present study addressed this question with longitudinal data on the dual-language vocabulary growth of 149 US-born children from Spanish-speaking immigrant families, who were followed…

The goal of this case study was to explore students' experiences in a study abroad program of the basic communication course. Thirty-six students enrolled in a study abroad program in the summer of 2023 participated in focus groups tasked to understand more about students' challenges and learning outcomes. Results from our study suggest students'…

This study investigated the effectiveness of artificial intelligence- (AI) powered speaking practice tools in improving English proficiency and engagement among Vietnamese university students using a 16-week quasi-experimental design with 240 participants across four diverse higher education institutions. Multi-level modelling revealed…

Caregiver education and home stimulation have shown positive associations with children's developmental outcomes in early childhood in high-income "Minority World" countries, and these processes also predict children's long-term health and well-being. However, relatively little is known about these processes in low- and middle-income…

This study examines the relationship between structural and pragmatic language skills, emotion regulation, and social relationships in children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The sample comprised 40 participants (mean age = 9 years; SD = 3.6). Language and social-emotional skills were measured using parent-reported…

This paper examines discourses that place refugee students in an inequitable position in school. Focussing on decontextualisation -- a depoliticising way of seeing education that overlooks contexts -- the paper is based on semi-structured interviews with teachers (n = 15) and open questions of a survey data (n = 267) collected from teachers,…

Establishing dependencies during language comprehension requires access to previously encoded information. In the current study, we investigate the speed and accuracy of processing dependencies containing subject-verb agreement. Three speed-accuracy tradeoff experiments investigate the accessibility of number information across different amounts…

Some children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate unusual islets of abilities or "splinter skills" that represent relative strengths in their development. In this paper we present a clinical case of an 11-year-old Russian boy with ASD who spontaneously acquired the English language. While the child demonstrated language…