The present study investigated the feasibility of applying the Silent Way in teaching Japanese to Taiwanese university students. A total of 168 (96 female and 72 male) students in a university in central Taiwan were the subjects of this study. They were studying Japanese as a general course, and were grouped in five classes ranging from freshmen…

This quasi-experimental study aims to determine EFL learners' speaking self-efficacy levels and to examine the changes in oral performances after receiving feedback in three module courses. The relationship between speaking self-efficacy and oral performances after receiving feedback was also studied. Quantitative method was applied in this study.…

The present study was executed with the purpose of validating ELT Certificate Lesson Observation and Report Task (ELTC-LORT), which was developed by China Language Assessment to certify China's EFL teachers by performance-based testing. The ELT Certificate has high-stakes considering its impacts on candidates' recruitment, ELT in China and quality…

Each infant is born with music potential, and early exposure to music and social music interactions may positively affect music development. Researchers have found that infants perceive music, attend to music, respond to music, and engage in social music interactions. Caregivers may enhance their music practices by deepening their infant music…

Assessment is a major part of the United States schooling system. Legal requirements make assessment a large part of practitioner responsibilities. The significance of assessment is, even more, the case for special populations such as bilingual hearing and Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, groups that are often the target of concern for English…

We investigated the extent to which home literacy activities during the preschool year would predict the development of children's language and literacy skills in primary school, in a highly transparent Finnish language. Also, the correlates of maternal literacy activities during preschool were examined. Literacy and language skills of 1,880…

Previous research has shown that explaining is an effective activity to enhance learning. In prior studies, students were instructed to explain the contents after completing an entire learning phase. Explaining at the end of a learning phase, however, may be less apt to support comprehension monitoring and subsequent regulation activities. In 2…

The "bouba-kiki effect" refers to the correspondence between arbitrary visual and auditory stimuli. Previous studies have demonstrated that neurodevelopmental conditions and sensory impairment affect subjects' performance on the bouba-kiki task. This study examined the bouba-kiki effect in participants with severe-to-profound hearing…

Influence is a critical competency for success in the workplace. Past research has shown that two oral communication skills (listening and oral expression) are associated with interpersonal influence. This exploratory study examines the effectiveness of two pedagogies (leaderless group discussion [LGD] and oral presentation with a question and…

English language teachers play a major role in enhancing the development of students' speaking skills. However, only if teachers are proficient in speaking English, may they support their students in improving their oral proficiency. This qualitative case study aims at unearthing pre-service English as a foreign language teachers' (henceforth…

The authors examined the complexity of the simple view of reading, focusing on morphological decoding fluency in fourth-grade readers of English in Singapore. The participants were three groups of students who all learned to become bilingual and biliterate in the English language (EL) and their respective ethnic language in school but differed in…

The authors describe Monster, PI, which is an app-based, gamified assessment that measures language skills (knowledge of morphology, vocabulary, and syntax) of students in grades 5-8 and provides teachers with interpretable score reports to drive instruction that improves vocabulary, reading, and writing ability. Specifically, the authors describe…

Many of the foreign language teachers and professors I have encountered throughout my EFL teaching career say that speaking is the most difficult skill to teach in a foreign language class. Classes usually focus on teaching points (e.g. grammar or listening related lessons) that can satisfy larger classroom situations. Speaking requires adequate…

Experimental work has shown that spatial experiences influence spatiotemporal metaphor use. In these studies, participants are asked a question that yields different responses depending on the metaphor participants use. It has been claimed that English speakers are equally likely to respond with either variant in the absence of priming. Related…

Purpose: Infant vocal durations have been studied from a variety of perspectives, including medical, social, and linguistic. The resultant developmental profile across the first 6 months of life, however, is still far from clear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the durational properties of infant vocalizations from the unique perspective…