The purpose of this article is twofold: to describe a prototype for a computer-assisted task-based language instruction (CATBI) tool designed and developed for Turkish as a Foreign Language, and to report on the effectiveness of the CATBI tool. More specifically, this work discusses an experimental study that examined the role of teaching approach…

In this article, the author describes an art lesson that was inspired by Andy Warhol's mass-produced portraits. Warhol began his career as a graphic artist and illustrator. His artwork was a response to the redundancy of the advertising images put in front of the American public. Celebrities and famous people in magazines and newspapers were seen…

Following one of the new challenges suggested by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, a treatment was developed to enhance pragmatic competence, since this competence is not easy to acquire by non-native speakers. Within this context, we focused on pragmatic awareness in the workplace, an area of expertise in growing demand…

Chinese EFL learners may have difficulty in speaking fluent and accurate English, for their speaking competence are likely to be influenced by cognitive, linguistic and affective factors. With the aim to enhance those learners' oral proficiency, this paper first discusses three effective models of teaching English speaking, and then proposes a…

This paper reports an investigation into how the prompt may influence the discourse of group oral tests. The group oral test, in which three or four participants are rated on their ability to discuss a prompt, is a format for assessing the spoken ability of language learners. In this study, 141 Japanese university students were videoed in 41 group…

Ellsworth's article entitled "Why doesn't this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy" raises issues about the complex dynamics of implementing critical pedagogy in real classrooms, and the difficulties and paradoxes of putting the empowerment rhetoric into practice. This article analyses the…

This study used quantitative analyses complemented by the retrospective data obtained through a stimulated recall procedure to address three interrelated issues: (a) whether second language learners use online planning opportunities to carefully plan their speech to enhance the quality of the language they produce, (b) what kinds of self-repair…

Nearly 25 percent of the students attending California's K-12 public schools are English Learners (ELs). Their EL designation is intended to last only as long as they need supplemental language support to succeed in school. Because outcomes for students reclassified as English proficient are much better than for students who remain ELs,…

Much research has examined how different patterns of social interaction shape language learners' interactional roles (e.g., collaborative, dominant, passive) in peer-to-peer conversations. However, little or no research has investigated the co-construction of such roles in multiparty, online task-based dialogues within the framework of discursive…

Bilinguals who are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) and English often produce "code-blends"--simultaneously articulating a sign and a word while conversing with other ASL-English bilinguals. To investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying code-blend processing, we compared picture-naming times (Experiment 1) and semantic categorization…

The present study builds upon research in the CAF (complexity, accuracy, fluency) framework for examining learner performance to compare the lexical and syntactic complexity of learner output in spoken discourse and synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) during completion of narrative tasks. Data were generated from transcripts and…

Previous research has shown that the degree of structure in a task affects the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of L2 oral production (Foster & Skehan 1999). The acquisition of pragmatic markers may be related to the development of second language fluency, but there is limited research on their use by second language learners on different…

Test takers should have a voice in testing practices (Mathew, 2004). However, when incorporating their input, systematic processes to ensure the validity of testing practices must be followed. Such processes allow for test development to be a more democratic process (Shohamy, 2001), without sacrificing the value of the resulting inferences made…

The purpose of this study is to report the history of communication strategy and highlight the importance of strategic competence. It provides the histories and characterizations of communication strategy. Besides, it presents from which perspectives these definitions of communication strategies were developed. Various earlier and latter…

The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between access to the mental lexicon, working memory and knowledge of English (L2) vocabulary. Analyses were undertaken amongst monolingual speakers of Polish (26 with dyslexia, 24 without) who studied English as a second language as part of their compulsory educational programme at school. We…